POE POE 739 
as a proof that it was not a temple. Some fuppofe it to 
have been a curia, others a bafilica, and others a mere 
market or exchange. In common to all thefe edifices it 
may be obferved, that they are raifed upon fubftru&ions, 
vifible in all the Doric temples of Italy and Sicily, forming 
three gradations, intended folely to give due elevation 
and relievo to the fuperftru&ure; that the columns in all 
rife without bafes from the uppermoftof thefe degrees; that 
thefe columns are all fluted between four and five diameters 
in height, and taper, as they afcend, about one-fourth ; 
that the capitals are all very flat and prominent; that the 
intercolumniation is a little more than one diameter ; that 
the order and ornaments are in all the fame, and the pedi¬ 
ment in all very low: in fine that they are all built of a 
porous ftone, of a light or rather yellow grey, and in many 
places perforated and worn away. In the open place be¬ 
tween the firft and fecond temple were two other large edi¬ 
fices built of the fame fort of Hone, and nearly of the fame 
.fize. All the temples ftand in a line, and border a ftreet 
that ran from gate to gate, and divided the town into 
two, nearly equal, parts. A hollow fpace fcooped out in 
a femicircular form feems to be the traces of a theatre, 
which lying in front of the temples gives reafpn for fup- 
pofing that other public buildings might have ornamented 
the fame fide, and made it to correfpond in grandeur with 
that oppoiite: in which cafe few cities could have furpaf- 
fed Pee it uin in fplendid appearance. 
The walls of the town remain in all the circumferences 
five at leaft, and in fome places twelve, feet high ; they 
are formed of folid blocks of ftone, with towers at inter¬ 
vals ; the archway of one gate only ftands entire. This 
rampart enclofes a fpace of nearly four miles in circuit; 
and its extent, with the many towers that rofe at inter¬ 
vals, and its elevation of more than forty feet, (how it to 
have been a work of great ftrength and magnificence. 
Within thefe walls, that once encircled a populous and 
fplendid city, now rife one cottage, two farm-houfes, a 
villa, and a church. The remaining fpace is covered with 
thick matted grafs, overgrown with brambles fpreading 
over the ruins, or buried under yellow undulating corn. 
A few rofe-bufties, the remnants of the hiferi r of aria Poejli, 
flourifti neglected here and there, and ftill bloffom twice a 
year, in May and December, as if to fupport their ancient 
fame, and juftify the deferiptions of the poets. Virgil 
and Ovid juft mention the Poeftan rofes s Propertius intro¬ 
duces them as an inftance of Mortality ; Claudian employs 
them to grace a complimentary comparifon: Aufonius 
alone prefents them in all their beauty and fweetnefs. 
Vidi Pceftano gauderi rofaria cultu 
Exoriente novo rofeida Lucifero. Idyll, xxv. 
Pceftum ftands on a fertile plain, bounded on the weft 
by the Tyrrhene Sea; about a mile diftant on the fouth 
by five hills, in the midft of which Acropoli fits embo. 
fomed; on the north by the Bay of Salerno and its rugged 
border; while to the eaft the country fwells into two 
mountains, which ftill retain their ancient names Calli- 
mai'a and Cantena, and behind them towers Mount Al- 
burnus with its pointed fummits. A ftream called the 
Solofone flows under the walls, and by fpreading its wa¬ 
ters over its low borders, and thus producing pools that 
corrupt in hot weather, continues, as in ancient times, 
(fee Strabo, lib. v.) to infeft the air, and render Pceftum a 
dangerous refidence in fummer. 
Amid thefe objefts and feenes, rural and ordinary, rife 
the three temples, like the maufoleums of the ruined city, 
dark, filent, and. majeftic. Mr. Watkins has given accu¬ 
rate and minute delineations and meafurements of thefe 
• Celebrated temples ; and he, as well as other travellers, 
fuppofes, that the pillars were covered with a fort of plaf- 
ter, or ftucco, which, by its long duration, feems to have 
acquired the hardnefs and confiftency, as it certainly has 
the appearance, of ftone. Near Pceftum there are four 
mineral fprings, to which is aferibed confiderable efficacy 
in different complaints ; from thefe fprings flow as many 
ftreamlets, that form the flume falfo which falls into th e 
Solofone clofe to the walls of the city. Beyond the ruins* 
and feparated from them by a little ftream, now called 
Paftena, rifes the hill of the Acropoli, which merits the 
examination of the naturalift. As the plains that extend 
for fome way on each fide of the Silarus are very thinly 
inhabited, and at the fame time covered with woods and 
thickets, they are become the refort of banditti and out¬ 
laws. At the mouth of the Silarus is the feite of the tem¬ 
ple of Juno Argiva, of high antiquity, and attributed even 
to Jafon. Euftace's Claffical Tour, vol. ii. 
PO'ESY J'. [poejis, Lat. from womens, Gr.] The art of 
writing poems.—A poem is the work of a poet ; poe/y is 
his “ ikill or craft of making;’’ the very fi&ion itfelf^ the 
reafon or form of the work. B. Jonfon. 
How far have we 
Profan’d thy heavenly gift of poefy ? 
Made proftitute and profligate the mufe, 
Whofe harmony was firft ordain’d above 
For tongues of angels. Druden. 
Poem; metrical compofition ; poetry,—Mufick and poefy 
ufe to quicken you. Shakefpeare. —There is an hymn, for 
they have excellent poefy ; the fubjeft is always the praifes 
of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, concluding ever with a 
thankfgiving for the nativity of our Saviour. Bacon's 
New Atlantis.— Any curious or difficult work.—The 
Greek word is from mtu, I make, I frame, I invent. 
Hence alchemy, or the art of making gold, was anciently 
called poefy, chryfopoefy, fyc. Chambers. 
PO'ET ,f. [poeta , Lat. Gr.] An inventor; an au¬ 
thor of fiftion ; a writer of poems; one who writes in mea- 
fure. A poet is a “maker,” as the word fignifies; and he who 
cannot make, that is, invent, hath his name for nothing. 
Dry den. —Cicero relates it as a faying of Democritus and 
Plato, that there could be no good poet “ fine afflatu furo • 
ris, without a tinfhire of madnefsand Arillotle calls 
poets exprefsly, maniaci , maniacs, madmen. Chambers. 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 
And, as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen 
Turns them to fliapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name. Shakefpeare. 
Poet Laureat. See Laureat, vol. xii. p. 304. This 
title, fays Gibbon, is perpetuated by cuftom, rather 
than vanity, in the Englifli court; and he adds, “From 
Auguftus to Louis, the mufe has too often been falfeand 
venal; but I much doubt whether any age or court can 
produce a fimilar eftabliftiment of a ftipendary poet, who, 
in every reign, and at all events, is bound tofurnifti, twice 
a-year, a meafure of praife and verfe, fuch as may be fung 
in the chapel, and, I believe, in the prefence of the fove- 
reign. I ipeak the more freely, as the beft time for 
aboliffiing this ridiculous cuftom, is while the prince is a 
man of virtue, and the poet a man of genius.” Deck and 
Fall, vol. xii.—-We believe it has been abolifhed. 
PO'ET’s CA'SIA, in botany. Ostris. 
PO'ETASTER, J. A vile petty poet. Horace hath ex- 
pofed thofe trifling poetajlers, that fpend themfelves in 
glaring deferiptions, and fewing here and there fome cloth 
of gold on their fackcloth. Felton. 
Let no poetafler command or intreat 
Another, extempore verfes to make. B. Jonfon. 
Begin not as th’old poetafler did ; 
Troy’s famous war, and Priam’s fate, I fing. Rofcommon. 
PO'ETESS,yl A female poet. The poeteffes of the age 
have done wonders in this kind. SpeClator, N° 15, 
That fhrew, the Roman poetejfe, 
That taught her goffips learned bitternefle. Bp. Hall. 
POET'IC, or Poetical, adj. Expreffed in poetry; per¬ 
taining to poetry; fuitable to poetry. The mordl of that 
poetical fiftion, that the uppermoft link of all the feries of 
fubordinate 
\ 
