Betwixt the Bears, like foaming river's tide,
The horrid Dragon twists his scaly hide.
To distant Helice his tail extends,
In glittering folds round Cynosyra bends.
Swoln is his neck—eyes charg’d with sparkling fire
His crested head illume. As if in ire 50
To Helice he turns his foaming jaw,
And darts his tongue barb’d with a blazing star.
His head upon the arctic wave he lays,
Where blend the western with the eastern rays.
Around the pole he swims, but never laves
His fiery limbs in ocean’s cooling waves.
A Labouring Man next rises to our sight:
But what his task—or who this honour’d wight—
No Poet tells. Upon his knee he bends,
And hence his name Engonasin descends. 60
He lifts his suppliant arms, and dares to rest
His right foot on the scaly Dragon's crest.
Near shines that diamond Crown, which Bacchus
made
For faithful Ariadne, when betray'd
By ingrate Theseus, left to grief and shame
Th' enamour'd God consol'd the widow’d dame.
A head of splendour Serpentarius rears:
As crystal clear his shoulder broad appears,
