Classic Poem

Nursed in the lap of languid ease
The flames of love more fiercely glow,
Long leisure feeds the soft disease,
And bids the sweet infection grow.

With vigour rouse thy torpid soul,
The fond delusion wouldst thou fly,
Action and arms Love's spells controul,
And overpower his feeble cry.

When round the Thracian God her arms
The smiling queen of beauty throws,
When he, inclining o'er her charms,
The faulchion and the spear foregoes,

Then Love protects his mother's bower,
And guards each avenue with care;
While amorous spells, formed by his power,
Impregnate all the ambient air.

Then with new force his shafts fly round,
New votaries then before him kneel;
Then too, in stronger fetters bound,
New fires, new pangs, his captives feel.

At length when, satiate with joy,
Stern Mars resumes his glittering spear
And bids to arms, the coward boy
Spreads his light wings and flys in fear.