 | The poems (1969) |  |
31 [Lines on the Music of the Grecian Theatre]
555
Recitative Accompanied
When glorious Ptolemy, by merit raised,
Successive sat on Egypt's radiant throne,
Bright Ptolemy, on whom while Athens gazed,
She almost wished the monarch once her own:
Then virtue owned one royal heart,
For, loathing war, humanely wise,
For all the sacred sons of art,
He bade the dome of science rise.
The Muses knew the festal day
And, called by power, obsequant came
With all their lyres and chaplets gay:
They gave the fabric its immortal name.
556
The monarch sat and, at his side,
His favourite bards, his Grecian choir,
Who, while the roofs responsive rung,
To many a fife and many a tinkling lyre,
Amid the shouting tribes in sweet succession sung.
| The poems (1969) | |