Art of Poetry an Epistle to the Pisos | Page 7

our
tongue with many thousands more,
And gave to objects names
unknown before?
No! it ne'er was, ne'er shall be, deem'd a crime,

To stamp on words the coinage of the time.
As woods endure a
constant change of leaves,
Our language too a change of words
receives:
Year after year drop off the ancient race,
While young
ones bud and flourish in their place.
Nor we, nor all we do, can death
withstand;
Whether the Sea, imprison'd in the land,
A work imperial!
takes a harbour's form,
Where navies ride secure, and mock the storm;

Whether the Marsh, within whose horrid shore
Barrenness dwelt,
and boatmen plied the oar,
Now furrow'd by the plough, a laughing
plain,
Feeds all the cities round with fertile grain;
Or if the River,
by a prudent force,
The corn once flooding, learns a better course.

Nedum sermonum stet honos, et gratia vivax.
Multa renascentur,
quae jam cecidêre; cadentque
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si
volet usus,
Quem penés arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi.
Res gestae regumque ducumque et tristia bella,
Quo scribi possent
numero, monstravit Homerus.
Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primúm,
Pòst etiam inclusa est
voti sententia compos.

Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor,

Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est.
Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo.
Hunc socci cepêre pedem,
grandesque cothurni,
Alternis aptum sermonibus, et populares


Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis.
The works of mortal
man shall all decay;
And words are grac'd and honour'd but a day:

Many shall rise again, that now are dead;
Many shall fall, that now
hold high the head:
Custom alone their rank and date can teach,

Custom, the sov'reign, law, and rule of speech.
For deeds of kings and chiefs, and battles fought,
What numbers are
most fitting, Homer taught:
Couplets unequal were at first confin'd
To speak in broken verse the
mourner's mind.
Prosperity at length, and free content,
In the same
numbers gave their raptures vent;
But who first fram'd the Elegy's
small song,
Grammarians squabble, and will squabble long.
Archilochus, 'gainst vice, a noble rage
Arm'd with his own Iambicks
to engage:
With these the humble Sock, and Buskin proud
Shap'd
dialogue; and still'd the noisy croud;
Musa dedit fidibus divos,
puerosque deorum,
Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primum,

Et juvenum curas, et libera vina referre.
Descriptas servare vices, operumque colores,
Cur ego, si nequeo
ignoroque, poëta salutor?
Cur nescire, pudens pravè, quàm discere
malo?
Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult;
Indignatur item privatis
ac prope socco
Dignis carminibus narrari coena Thyestae.
Singula
quaeque locum teneant sortita decenter.
Embrac'd the measure, prov'd
its ease and force,
And found it apt for business or discourse.
Gods, and the sons of Gods, in Odes to sing,
The Muse attunes her
Lyre, and strikes the string;
Victorious Boxers, Racers, mark the line,

The cares of youthful love, and joys of wine.
The various outline of each work to fill,
If nature gives no power, and
art no skill;
If, marking nicer shades, I miss my aim,
Why am I

greeted with a Poet's name?
Or if, thro' ignorance, I can't discern,

Why, from false modesty, forbear to learn!
A comick incident loaths tragick strains:
Thy feast, Thyestes, lowly
verse disdains;
Familiar diction scorns, as base and mean,
Touching
too nearly on the comick scene.
Each stile allotted to its proper place,

Let each appear with its peculiar grace!
Interdum tamen et vocem
comoedia tollit;
Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore;
Et tragicus
plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.
Telephus aut Peleus, cum pauper
et exul uterque,
Projicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba,
Si curat
cor spectantis tetigisse querelâ.
Non satis est pulchra esse poëmata; dulcia sunto,
Et quocunque
volent, animum auditoris agunto.
Ut ridentibus arrident, ita flentibus
adflent
Humani vultus; si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi
tibi: tunc tua me infortunia laedent.
Telephe, vel Peleu, male si
mandata loqueris,
Aut dormitabo, aut ridebo: tristia moestum

Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum;
Yet Comedy at times
exalts her strain,
And angry Chremes storms in swelling vein:
The
tragick hero, plung'd in deep distress,
Sinks with his fate, and makes
his language less.
Peleus and Telephus, poor, banish'd! each
Drop
their big six-foot words, and sounding speech;
Or else, what bosom in
their grief takes part,
Which cracks the ear, but cannot touch the
heart?
'Tis not enough that Plays are polish'd, chaste,
Or trickt in all the
harlotry of taste,
They must have passion too; beyond controul

Transporting where they please the hearer's soul.
With those that
smile, our face in smiles appears;
With those that weep, our cheeks
are bath'd in tears:
To make me_ grieve, be first _your anguish shown,

And I shall feel your sorrows like my own.
Peleus, and Telephus!
unless your stile

Suit with your circumstance, I'll sleep, or smile.

Features of sorrow mournful words require;
Anger in menace speaks,
and words of fire:
Ludentem, lasciva; severum, seria dictu.
Format

enim Natura prius nos intus ad omnem
Fortunarum habitum; juvat,
aut impellit ad iram,
Aut ad humum moerore gravi deducit, et angit:

Post effert animi motus interprete linguâ.
Si dicentis erunt fortunis
absona dicta,
Romani tollent equitesque patresque chachinnum.
Intererit multum, Divusne loquatur, an heros;
Maturusne senex, an
adhuc florente juventâ
Fervidus; an matrona potens, an sedula nutrix;

Mercatorne vagus, cultorne virentis agelli;
Colchus, an Assyrius;
Thebis nutritus, an Argis.
The playful prattle in a frolick vein,
And
the severe affect a serious strain:
For Nature first, to every varying