University of Virginia Library


248

IV. THE DEITIES.

Each god has left his heavenly seat,
Olympus, for a while;
And animates a mortal shape
In Britain's favoured isle:
Ye Deities, no thin disguise
Conceals ye from a poet's eyes!
Jove thunders as Britannia's King,
And Bacchus is his son;
And Byron strikes Apollo's lyre;
And Mars is Wellington.
Like Neptune, Exmouth rules the sea,—
But lovely Venus smiles in thee.
Yet not alone does Venus smile;
For there are joined in thee
The Muses' verse, Minerva's sense,
And Juno's majesty:
The Graces o'er thy figure rove,
And every feature beams with Love.
1817.