Justum
et tenacem propositi virum.
HOR.
‘Odes’, iii. 3. I.
1.
The man of firm and noble
soul
No factious clamours can controul;
No threat’ning tyrant’s
darkling brow
Can swerve him
from his just intent:
Gales the warring waves which
plough,
By Auster on the
billows spent,
To curb the Adriatic main,
Would awe his fix’d determined mind in vain.
2.
Aye, and the red right arm
of Jove,
Hurtling his lightnings from
above,
With all his terrors there
unfurl’d,
He would, unmov’d,
unaw’d, behold;
The flames of an expiring
world,
Again in crashing
chaos roll’d,
In vast promiscuous ruin hurl’d,
Might light his glorious funeral
pile:
Still dauntless ’midst the wreck of earth he’d
smile.
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