WHEN Cyrus, call’d the younger, fought
Against his king and brother,
What eunuch who’d cut off the head
And right hand of that warrior dead,
Was flayed alive by orders brought
From that young prince’s mother?
What general who could assuage
The poisonous serpent’s bite,
Assisted Turnus ‘gainst his foe
Eneas? but alas ! laid low,
Not long did he the battle wage,
Or triumph in the light.
When the last king of Persia fell,
By an assassin’s sword,
Kindly the Grecian warrior treated.
The mother of the prince defeated:
Her royal name I pray you tell,
And how she mourned her lord.
Who, banished from imperial Rome,
In spite of service rendered,
Retired among the Volscian race,
Burn’d to revenge the unjust disgrace,
And spite of all proposals tendered,
Threatened his native home?
When Rome’s troops Syracusa fill’d,
Each palace, and each cot,
Who skilled in scientific lore,
Left not the precincts of his door,
Till interrupted he was kill’d
By one who knew him not?
The characters I’ve chosen here,
With ages past connected,
In order placed, at once will show,
The very thing I wish to know;
A constellation on the sphere,
From the northern part selected.
(Elizabeth Hitchener)
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Based on Topics: Light Poems, War & Peace Poems, Youth Poems, Home Poems, Mothers Poems, Brothers Poems, Service Poems, Failure Poems, Science Poems, Characters PoemsBased on Keywords: precincts, eunuch, flayed, assisted, cyrus, tendered, eneas, turnus, proposals, volscian