Page:The Progress of Poetry - Madan (1783).djvu/10
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Who can, unmov'd, the warm description read,
Where the wing'd shaft repels the bounding steed;
Where the torn spoils of the rapacious war,
With shocking pomp, adorn the victor's car?
When, from some hostile arm dismiss'd, the reed
On the mark'd foe directs its thirsty speed,
Such strength, such action, strikes our eager sight,
We view, and shudder at its fatal flight!
We hear the straighten'd yew, recoiling, start,
And see thro' air glide swift the whizzing dart !
When higher themes a bolder strain demand,
Life waits the Poet's animating hand:
There, where majestie to the sanguin'd field,
Stern Ajax stalks behind his seven-fold shield,
Or where, in polish'd arms severely bright,
Pelides dreadful rouses to the fight
Where the wing'd shaft repels the bounding steed;
Where the torn spoils of the rapacious war,
With shocking pomp, adorn the victor's car?
When, from some hostile arm dismiss'd, the reed
On the mark'd foe directs its thirsty speed,
Such strength, such action, strikes our eager sight,
We view, and shudder at its fatal flight!
We hear the straighten'd yew, recoiling, start,
And see thro' air glide swift the whizzing dart !
When higher themes a bolder strain demand,
Life waits the Poet's animating hand:
There, where majestie to the sanguin'd field,
Stern Ajax stalks behind his seven-fold shield,
Or where, in polish'd arms severely bright,
Pelides dreadful rouses to the fight
With