On A Picture Of Seneca Dying In A Bath, By Jordain

A poem by Matthew Prior

While cruel Nero only drains
The moral Spaniard's ebbing veins,
By study worn, and slack with age,
How dull, how thoughtless is his rage!
Heighten'd revenge he should have took,
He should have burnt his tutor's book;
And long have reign's supreme in vice;
One noble wretch can only rise;
'Tis he whose fury shall deface
The Stoic's Image in this piece,
For, while unhurt, divine Jordain,
Thy work and Seneca's remain,
He still has body, still has soul,
And lives and speaks restored and whole.