THE FARNESIAN HERCULES.
"Invicti membra Glyconis."
HORACE
IN THE MUSEUM BORBONICO, NAPLES.
CALM in the consciousness of supreme strength,
Of mighty labors done―their own reward―
The statue stands, revealing in their length
The invincible limbs of Glycon: so the bard,
From him who conquered here the marble hard
Into Arch-Victory, the work described.
Great, even as the demigod he dared
To chisel, was the artist: he imbibed
An inspiration, falling like a shower,
The pure Sublime, and shaped it without fault;
And, swelling every sinewy limb, the Power,
Breathed from the sculpture, serves alike to exalt
Appreciation of what true Art can,
And all that Nature makes divine in man!
From A Vision of Faery Land and Other Poems (Boston, 1853), 92.
