Odes 4.6 (Creech): Dive, Quem Proles

GReat God, whom Niobe's Race did know
A sharp revenger of a haughty Tongue,
Whom Lustful Titus wrong
Provokt to draw his fatal Bow;
And stout Achilles found too great a Foe.

Tho fierce in Arms, tho Thetis Son,
Tho Death did wait upon his Sword, and Fear,
Attended on his Spear;
Tho wretched Troy almost or'e thrown
Confest his force, He bow'd to Thee alone.

Like Oaks which biting Axes wound,
Or Cypress tall which furious Storms divide
He spread his ruin wide:
He felt the fatal Dart, He groan'd
And hid his noble Head in Trojan ground:

Not He in great Minerva's Horse
Had cheated Troy, and Priam's heedless Court
Dissolv'd in Wine and Sport;
But hot, and deaf to all remorse
Had fiercely storm'd our Walls with open force:

And when strong Fates had Troy or'come
Too savage He, ah! ah! with Grecian Flames
Had burnt the breeding Dames,
And in their Mothers burning Womb,
Poor harmless Infants found a hated Tomb:

But your kind Prayers, and Venus Face
Prevail'd on Fate, made angry Juno kind,
And bent Jove's mighty mind
To grant a more auspicious place
To raise a Town for great Aeneas Race:

Fain'd Artist on the Muses Lyre,
That bath'st thy yellow Locks in Zanthus Flood,
Sweet, smooth-fac't charming God,
Improve the rage thou didst inspire,
Encrease my heat and still preserve my Fire:

From Phoebus all my fancy came,
'Twas Phoebus first that taught me how to sing,
And strike the speaking string;
He Art inspir'd, He rais'd my Fame,
And gave the glory of a Poet's name:

You noble Maids, and noble Boys,
The chast Diana's chiefest care below,
Whose dreadful Darts and Bow,
Fierce Tygers fear; observe my voice,
Observe the measures of the publick joys:

Just praises give Latona's Son;
And sing the Moon with her encreasing light
The beauteous Queen of Night,
Kind to our Fruits, and swift alone
To turn the headlong Months, and whirl 'em down.

When Marriage bands confine thy Love
Then boast, as years brought round the Feast, I plaid
The Tunes that Horace made;
I sang his Verse; and This did prove
A pleasing Tribute to the Gods above.