"Lucretius--nobler than his mood! Who dropp'd his plummet down the broad Deep universe, and said 'No God,' "Finding no bottom. He denied Divinely the divine, and died Chief poet on the Tiber-side, "By grace of God. His face is stern, As one compell'd, in spite of scorn, To teach a truth he could not learn. "And Ossian, dimly seen or guess'd! Once counted greater than the rest, When mountain-winds blew out his vest. "And Spenser droop'd his dreaming head (With languid sleep-smile you had said From his own verse engendered) "On Ariosto's, till they ran Their locks in one!--The Italian Shot nimbler heat of bolder man "From his fine lids. And Dante stern And sweet, whose spirit was an urn For wine and milk pour'd out in turn. "And Goethe--with that reaching eye His soul reach'd out from far and high, _And fell from inner entity_. "And Schiller, with heroic front Worthy of Plutarch's kiss upon't-- Too large for wreath of modern wont. "Here Milton's eyes strike piercing-dim! The shapes of suns and stars did swim Like clouds on them, and granted him "God for sole vision! Cowley, there, Whose active fancy debonaire Drew straws like amber--foul to fair. "And Burns, with pungent passionings Set in his eyes. Deep lyric springs Are of the fire-mount's issuings. "And poor, proud Byron--sad as grave And salt as life! forlornly brave, And quivering with the dart he drave. "And visionary Coleridge, who Did sweep his thoughts as angels do Their wings, with cadence up the Blue."