[3]
Go--fly to haunts of sordid men,
But come not near the bard again.
Thy glitter in the Muse's shade,
Scares from her bower the tuneful maid;
And not for worlds would I forego
That moment of poetic glow,
When my full soul, in Fancy's stream,
Pours o'er the lyre, its swelling theme.
Away, away! to worldlings hence,
Who feel not this diviner sense;
Give gold to those who love that pest,--
But leave the poet poor and blest.
[1] There is a kind of pun in these words, as Madame Dacier has already
remarked; for Chrysos, which signifies gold, was also a frequent name for
a slave. In one of Lucian's dialogues, there is, I think, a similar play
upon the word, where the followers of Chrysippus are called golden fishes.
The puns of the ancients are, in general, even more vapid than our own;
some of the best are those recorded of Diogenes.
[2] This grace of iteration has already been taken notice of. Though
sometimes merely a playful beauty, it is peculiarly expressive of
impassioned sentiment, and we may easily believe that it was one of the
many sources of that energetic sensibility which breathed through the
style of Sappho.
[3] Horace has _Desiderique temperare poculum_, not figuratively, however,
like Anacreon, but importng the love-philtres of the witches.
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