Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/80

How Time himself stands still at her command,
Realms shift their place, and Ocean turns to land.
Here gay Description Ægypt glads with show'rs,^{[R. 1]}
Or gives to Zembla fruits, to Barca flow'rs;
75 Glitt'ring with ice here hoary hills are seen,
There painted vallies of eternal green,
In cold December fragrant chaplets blow,
And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.
All these, and more, the cloud-compelling Queen^{[I. 1]}
80 Beholds thro' fogs, that magnify the scene.
She, tinsel'd o'er in robes of varying hues,
With self-applause her wild creation views;
Sees momentary monsters rise and fall,
And with her own fools-colours gilds them all.
85 'Twas on the day, when ** rich and grave,
Like Cimon, triumph'd^{[R. 2]} both on land and wave:

Remarks

1. Ver. 73. Ægypt glads with show'rs,] In the lower Ægypt Rain is of no use, the overflowing of the Nile being sufficient to impregnate the soil.—These six verses represent the Inconsistencies in the descriptions of poets, who heap together all glittering and gawdy images, though in compatible in one season, or in one scene.
   See the Guardian, No. 40. parag. 6. See also Eusden's whole works, if to be found. It would not have been unpleasant to have given Examples of all these species of bad writing from these Authors, but that it is already done in our Treatise of the Bathos. Scribl.
2. Ver. 85, 86. 'Twas on the Day, when ** rich and grave, Like Cimon, triumph'd] Viz. a Lord Mayor's Day; his name the

Imitations

1. Ver. 79. The cloud-compelling Queen] From Homer's Epithet of Jupiter, νεφεληγερέτα Ζ??ς.