 | Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious |  |
19
VIRGIL.
“Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.”
Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.”
“Sunt lacrymæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt”
Virgil.
Virgil.
“Happy were he who could attain to know
Causes of things, and underneath his feet
Set fear and fate, and the unreturning flow
Of all-devouring Acheron.” Oh! unmeet
Such tearless Stoic calm for thee, the sweet
Half-Christian poet of the Pagan age,
Whom later times esteemed a wizard sage
And Dante as his guide rejoiced to greet;
Tender as woman, and as childhood pure!
Not thoughts like those shall in his mind endure
Who learns aright the lore thy genius brings;
But human sympathy for human woe;
And words of thine which tell that “tears must flow,
And hearts of men are touched by mortal things.”
| Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious | |