 | The Conversion of Winckelmann and Other Poems |  |
“But let none think
The nimble spirit's sportiveness is numbed
By Art's solemnity. On festal nights,
Hither my splendid Cardinal convenes
All the renown and jewelled grace of Rome
To glisten through his Villa. Nymph and Faun,
Persistent types, in modern modes disguised,
Consort with their progenitors embalmed
In unvoluptuous marble cold and calm.
They dance before our gravity, and wit
Sparkles like alabaster. Clement's self
Hath with his presence sanctified the scene,
Retiring scandalised, or seeming so
To save his holiness, nor stayed to hear
Battoni's lovely daughters, voice with voice,
Like two waves wantoning to be one, awhile
Eluding each the other, near, apart,
Till merged at length in one smooth melody.
The nimble spirit's sportiveness is numbed
33
Hither my splendid Cardinal convenes
All the renown and jewelled grace of Rome
To glisten through his Villa. Nymph and Faun,
Persistent types, in modern modes disguised,
Consort with their progenitors embalmed
In unvoluptuous marble cold and calm.
They dance before our gravity, and wit
Sparkles like alabaster. Clement's self
Hath with his presence sanctified the scene,
Retiring scandalised, or seeming so
To save his holiness, nor stayed to hear
Battoni's lovely daughters, voice with voice,
Like two waves wantoning to be one, awhile
Eluding each the other, near, apart,
Till merged at length in one smooth melody.
| The Conversion of Winckelmann and Other Poems | |