And lovers all betray, and are betray'd. 510 The goddess self some noble hand had wrought; Smiling she seem'd, and full of pleasing thought: From ocean as she first began to rise, And smooth'd the ruffled seas and clear'd the skies; She trode the brine, all bare below the breast, And the green waves but ill conceal'd the rest; A lute she held; and on her head was seen A wreath of roses red, and myrtles green; Her turtles fann'd the buxom air above; And, by his mother, stood an infant Love, 520 With wings unfledged; his eyes were banded o'er; His hands a bow, his back a quiver bore, Supplied with arrows bright and keen, a deadly store. But in the dome of mighty Mars the red With different figures all the sides were spread; This temple, less in form, with equal grace, Was imitative of the first in Thrace: For that cold region was the loved abode And sovereign mansion of the warrior god. The landscape was a forest wide and bare; 530 Where neither beast, nor human kind repair; The fowl, that scent afar, the borders fly, And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky. A cake of scurf lies baking on the ground, And prickly stubs, instead of trees, are found; Or woods, with knots and knares, deform'd and old; Headless the most, and hideous to behold: A rattling tempest through the branches went, That stripp'd them bare, and one sole way they bent. Heaven froze above, severe, the clouds congeal, 540 And through the crystal vault appear'd the standing hail. Such was the face without; a mountain stood Threatening from high, and overlook'd the wood: Beneath the lowering brow, and on a bent, The temple stood of Mars armipotent: The frame of burnish'd steel, that cast a glare From far, and seem'd to thaw the freezing air. A strait long entry to the temple led, Blind with high walls; and horror over head: Thence issued such a blast, and hollow roar, 550 As threaten'd from the hinge to heave the door: In through that door, a northern light there shone; 'Twas all it had, for windows there were none. The gate was adamant; eternal frame! Which, hew'd by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came, The labour of a god; and all along Tough iron plates were clench'd to make it strong. A tun about was every pillar there; A polish'd mirror shone not half so clear. There saw I how the secret felon wrought, 560 And treason labouring in the traitor's thought; And midwife Time the ripen'd plot to murder brought. There the red Anger dared the pallid Fear; Next stood Hypocrisy, with holy leer, Soft smiling, and demurely looking down, But hid the dagger underneath the gown: The assassinating wife, the household fiend; And far the blackest there, the traitor-friend. On the other side, there stood Destruction bare;