Giovanni Battista Casti Poems

Let others sing his pious deeds and bold—
And wars Eneas did in Latium wage,
Whence empire and the city rose, of old,
That to the World gave laws in after age:
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If in my youth, ambitious then of fame,
In my more verdant and vivacious age,
The deeds and virtues did my song engage
Of heroes worthy an eternal name,
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Hence, dreams or fables, hence! Others before
Have sung, while poesy their bosoms warmed,
How Jove, in bull and golden shower transformed,
Agenor and Acrisius wrong' d of yore;
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Who would believe that hard and arid stone,
Which hath no principle of light nor heat,
Doth in itself inactive fires secrete
With luminous existence of their own!
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