While cruel Nero only drains <br />The moral Spaniard's ebbing veins, <br />By study worn, and slack with age, <br />How dull, how thoughtless is his rage! <br />Heighten'd revenge he should have took, <br />He should have burnt his tutor's book; <br />And long have reign's supreme in vice; <br />One noble wretch can only rise; <br />'Tis he whose fury shall deface <br />The Stoic's Image in this piece, <br />For, while unhurt, divine Jordain, <br />Thy work and Seneca's remain, <br />He still has body, still has soul, <br />And lives and speaks restored and whole.<br /><br />Matthew Prior<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-a-picture-of-seneca-dying-in-a-bath-by-jordain/
