126 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



Homer made mention of this artist, because, 

 when in want of subsistence, this great poet 

 had been kindly received and treated by a 

 currier of Hyle, in Boeotia, named Tychius ; 

 and for many ages the place was shown where 

 Homer recited his verses to his host, under 

 the shade of a poplar. From the beautiful 

 manner in which the author of the Iliad com- 

 pares the fall of Simoi'sius, by the hand of 

 Ajax, to a poplar just cut down, we may con- 

 clude that it was a favourite tree with this 

 celebrated Greek writer. Pope thus translates 

 the verse : 



" So falls a poplar, that in watery ground 



Raised high the head, with stately branches crown'd, 



(Fell'd by some artist with his shining steel, 



To shape the circle of the bending wheel) 



Cut down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread, 



With all its beauteous honours on its head." 



Ovid notices the poplar as the tree on 

 which lovers wrote their verses. In the 

 epistle from GEnone to Paris it is thus men- 

 tioned : 



" There grows a poplar by the river side, 



Whose trunk engraved records my once loved name : 

 Live, poplar, live, that wavest o'er the tide 

 With this memorial of my lover's shame : 

 ' When Paris flies, and reckless of his love, 

 ' Can breathe unblest by his QEnone's eyes, 

 6 Then Xanthus backward from his course shall move, 

 c And to their fountain-head his waves shall rise." 



H. P. jun. 



