That constellation set, the world in vain
Must hope to look upon t
A. Are we then left-B. Not wholly in the dark; Wit now and then, struck smartly, shows a spark, Sufficient to redeem the modern race
n total night and absolute disgrace.
While servile trick
rick and imitative knack
Confine the million in the beaten track,
Perhaps some courser, who disdains the road,
Snuffs up
p the wind, and flings himself abroad.
Contemporaries all surpass'd, see one;
Short his career indeed, but ably run};'
Churchill ; himself unconscious of his pow'rs
In penury consum'd his idle hours;
And, like a scatter'd seed at random sown,
Was left to spring by vigour of his own.
Lifted at length, by dignity of thought
And dint of genius, to an
to an affluent lot,
He laid his head in Luxury's soft lap,
easy nap.
And took, too often, there his easy r
If brighter beams than all he threw not forth,
"Twas negligence in him, not want of worth.
Surly, and slovenly, and bold, and coarse, a
Too proud for art, and trusting in mere force,
Spendthrift alike of money and of wit,
Always at speed, and never drawing bit,
He struck the lyre in such a careless mood,
And so disdain'd the rates he understood,
He snatch'd it rudely from the muses' hand.
Men woadT
Nature, exerting an unwearied pow'r,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to ev'ry flow'r'; n
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads "
The dancing Naiads through the dewy
meads:
She fills profuse ten thousand little throats Jud
With music, modulating all their notes;
And charms the woodland scenes, and wilds un
With artless airs and concerts of her own:
But seldom (as if fearful of expense)
Vouchsafes to man a poet's just pretence
Fervency, freedom, fluency of thought,fisol brА
Harmony, strength, words exquisitely sought
Fancy, that from the bow, that spans
Brings colours, dipp'd in Heav'n, that never die;
A soul exalted above Earth, a mind
Skill'd in the characters that form mankind T
And, as the Sun in rising beauty dress'd,
Looks to the westward from the dappled east,
And marks, whatever clouds may interpose,
Ere yet his race begins, it's glorious close
An eye like his to catch the distant goal;' enqeal
Or, ere the wheels of verse begin to roll,
Like his to shed illuminating rays
On ev'ry scene and subject it surveys:
Thus grac'd, the man asserts a poet's name,
And the world cheerfully admits the claim.
Pity Religion has so seldom found
A skilful guide into poetic ground
The flow'rs would spring where'er she deign'd to stray,
And ev'ry muse attend her in her way.
Virtue indeed meets many a rhyming friend,
And many a compliment politely penn'd;
in that becoming vest
Religion weaves for her, and half undress'd,
Stands in the desert, shiv'ring and forlorn,
A wintry figure, like a wither'd thorn.
The shelves are full, all other themes are sped;
Hackney'd and d worn to the last flimsy thread,
Satire has long since done his best; and curst
And loathsome Ribaldry has d
Fancy has sported all her
done his worst;
er pow'rs away
and in children's
In tales, in trifles, and
complaint, and almost true,
Whate'er we write, we we bring forth nothing new. "Twere p e new in indeed to see a bard all fire,
Touch'd with a a coal from Heav'n, assume the lyre, And tell the world, still kindling as sung,
With more than mortal music on his tongue,
That He, who died below, and reigns above,
Inspires the song, and that his name is Love.
For, after all, if merely to beguile,
By flowing numbers and a flow'ry style,
The tædium that the lazy rich endure,
Which now and then sweet poetry may cure;
Or, if to see the name of idle self,
Stamp'd on the well-bound quarto, grace the shelf,
To float a bubble on the breath of Fame,
Prompt his endeavour and engage his aim,
Debas'd to servile purposes of pride,
How are the pow'rs of genius misapplied!
The gift, whose office is the Giver's praise,
To trace him in his word, his works, his ways!
Then spread the rich discov'ry, and invite
Mankind to share in the divine delight,
Distorted from it's use and just design,
To make the pitiful possessor shine,
To purchase, at the fool-frequented fair
Of yanity, a wreath for self to wear,
Is profanation of the basest kind—
Ive a butt vel
Proof of a trifling and a worthless mind tow
A. Hail Sternhold, then; and Hopkins, bail-
B. Amen. is dus ad, water NeT
If flatt'ry, folly, lust, employ the pen
If acrimony, slander, and abuse,»l ? angelfu mp nT Give it a charge to blacken and traduce;
Though Butler's wit, Pope's numbers, Prior's ease,
With all that fancy can invent to please,
Adorn the polish'd periods as they fall,
One madrigal of theirs is worth them all.
A. "Twould thin the ranks of the poetic tribe,
To dash the pen through all that you proscribe.
B. No matter we could shift when they were not; And should, no doubt, if they were all forgot. a
Si quid loquar audiendum. Her. Lib. iv. Od. 2.
SING, muse, (if such a theme, so dark, so long,
May find a muse to grace it with a song)
By what unseen and unsuspected arts
The serpent Errour twines round human hearts;
Tell where she lurks, beneath what flow'ry shades,
That not a glimpse of genuine light pervades,
The pois'nous, black, insinuating worm
Successfully conceals her loathsome form.
Take, if ye can, ye careless and supine
Counsel and caution from a voice like mine!
Truths, that the theorist could never reach,
And observation taught me, I would teach.
Not all, whose eloquence the fancy fills,
Musical as the chime of tinkling rills, wat dat of
Weak to perform, though mighty to pretend,
Can trace her mazy windings to their end de bosa
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