26 
TAME SWAN. Ciass Ih 
pares himself to a bee, contenting itself with 
the creeping thyme, sends his Dirceum us 
num into the clouds: r 
Multa Dirceeum levat aura cygnum, 
Tendit, Antonz, quoties in altos 
Nubium tractus. Ode II. Lib. 1V. 
but when he finds himself struck with a true. 
poetical spirit, he at once assumes the form of 
this favourite bird, 
Non usitata nec tenui feror 
Penna, biformis per liquidum zthera 
Vates: 
et album mutor in alitem. Ode. XX. Lib. If. 

And doubtless he was on the wing in his first ode, 
Sublimi feriam sydera vertice. 
Besides these opinions, the antients held an- 
other still more singular, imagining that the. 
swan foretold its own end: to explain this we 
must consider the twofold character of the poet, 
Vates and Poeta, which the fable of the trans- 
migration continues to the bird, or they might 
be supposed to derive that faculty from Apollo* 
their patron deity, the god of prophecy and di- 
vination. 
As to their being supposed to sing more 
sweetly at the approach of death, the cause is 
beautifully explained by Plato, who attributes 
* Platonis Phedo. Ed. Cantab. 1683. p. 124. 
PY 
