The child’s inspired:  the gods were there.” 
     Your grace, sweet Muses, shields me still
       On Sabine heights, or lets me range
     Where cool Praeneste, Tibur’s hill,
       Or liquid Baiae proffers change. 
     Me to your springs, your dances true,
       Philippi bore not to the ground,
     Nor the doom’d tree in falling slew,
       Nor billowy Palinurus drown’d. 
     Grant me your presence, blithe and fain
       Mad Bosporus shall my bark explore;
     My foot shall tread the sandy plain
       That glows beside Assyria’s shore;
     ’Mid Briton tribes, the stranger’s foe,
       And Spaniards, drunk with horses’ blood,
     And quiver’d Scythians, will I go
       Unharm’d, and look on Tanais’ flood. 
     When Caesar’s self in peaceful town
       The weary veteran’s home has made,
     You bid him lay his helmet down
       And rest in your Pierian shade. 
     Mild thoughts you plant, and joy to see
       Mild thoughts take root.  The nations know
     How with descending thunder He
       The impious Titans hurl’d below,
     Who rules dull earth and stormy seas,
       And towns of men, and realms of pain,
     And gods, and mortal companies,
       Alone, impartial in his reign. 
     Yet Jove had fear’d the giant rush,
       Their upraised arms, their port of pride,
     And the twin brethren bent to push
       Huge Pelion up Olympus’ side. 
     But Typhon, Mimas, what could these,
       Or what Porphyrion’s stalwart scorn,
     Rhoetus, or he whose spears were trees,
       Enceladus, from earth uptorn,
     As on they rush’d in mad career
       ‘Gainst Pallas’ shield?  Here met the foe
     Fierce Vulcan, queenly Juno here,
       And he who ne’er shall quit his bow,
     Who laves in clear Castalian flood
       His locks, and loves the leafy growth
     Of Lycia next his native wood,
       The Delian and the Pataran both. 
     Strength, mindless, falls by its own weight;
       Strength, mix’d with mind, is made more strong
     By the just gods, who surely hate
       The strength whose thoughts are set on wrong. 
     Let hundred-handed Gyas bear
       His witness, and Orion known
     Tempter of Dian, chaste and fair,
       By Dian’s maiden dart o’erthrown. 
     Hurl’d on the monstrous shapes she bred,
       Earth groans, and mourns her children thrust
     To Orcus; Aetna’s weight of lead
       Keeps down the fire that breaks its crust;
     Still sits the bird on Tityos’ breast,
       The warder of unlawful love;
     Still suffers lewd Pirithous, prest
       By massive chains no hand may move.

V.

CAELO TONANTEM.