Hymn to Mars

TO MARS

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE.
Magnanimous, unconquer’d, boistrous Mars,

In darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars

Fierce and untam’d, whose mighty pow’r can make

The strongest walls from their foundations shake:

Mortal destroying king, defil’d with gore, 5

Pleas’d with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar:

Thee, human blood, and swords, and spears delight,

And the dire ruin of mad savage fight.

Stay, furious contests, and avenging strife,

Whose works with woe, embitter human life; 10

To lovely Venus, and to Bacchus yield,

To Ceres give the weapons of the field;

Encourage peace, to gentle works inclin’d,

And give abundance, with benignant mind.

[Trans. Thomas Taylor, 1792]