FOLLY

The common fubjects of our scribbling tribe;
But when true virtues, with unclouded light,
All great, all royal, fhine divinely bright,
Our eyes are dazzled, and our voice is weak;
Let England, Flanders, let all Europe fpcak,
Let France acknowledge that her fhaken throne
Was once fupported, Sir, by you alone:
Banish'd from thence for an ufurper's fake,
Yet trufted then with her laft defperate stake :
When wealthy neighbours ftrove with us for power,
Let the fea tell, how in their fatal hour,
Swift as an eagle, our victorious prince,
Great Britain's genius, flew to her defence;
His name ftruck fear, his conduct won the day,
He came, he faw, he feiz'd the struggling prey,
And while the heavens were fire and th' ocean blood,
Confirm'd our empire o'er the conquer'd flood.

O happy iflands, if you knew your blifs!
Strong by the fea's protection, safe by his !
Exprefs your gratitude the only way,
And humbly own a debt too vaft to pay :

But when you find that vigorous heat abate,
Leave off, and for another fummons wait.
Before the radiant fun, a glimmering lamp,
Adulterate metals to the sterling stamp,
Appear not meaner, than mere human lines,
Compar'd with those whose inspiration fhines:
These nervous, bold; thofe languid and remifs
There, cold falutes; but here, a lover's kifs.
Thus have I feen a rapid, headlong tide,
With foaming waves the paffive Soane divide;
Whofe lazy waters without motion lay,
While he, with eager force, urg'd his impetuous way.
The privilege that ancient poets claim,

Now turn'd to license by too just a name,
Belongs to none but an establish'd fame,
Which fcorns to take it---

Abfurd expreffions, crude, abortive thoughts,
All the lewd legion of exploded faults,

Bafe fugitives to that asylum fly,

;

And facred laws with infolence defy.
Not thus our heroes of the former days,
Deferv'd and gain'd their never-fading bays;
For I mistake, or far the greatest part
Of what fome call neglect, was study'd art.
When Virgil feems to trifle in a line,
'Tis like a warning-piece, which gives the fign
To wake your fancy, and prepare your fight,
To reach the noble height of some unusual flight.
I lose my patience, when with faucy pride,
By.untun'd ears I hear his numbers try❜d.

Reverfo

Reverse of nature! fhall fuch copies then
Arraign th' originals of Maro's pen!
And the rude notions of pedantic schools
Blafpheme the facred founder of our rules!
The delicacy of the niceft ear

Finds nothing harsh or out of order there.
Sublime or low, unbended or intense,
The fund is ftill a comment to the fenfe.

A fkilful ear in numbers fhould prefide,
And all difputes without appeal decide.
This ancient Rome and elder Athens found,
Before mistaken ftops debauch'd the found.
When, by impulfe from heaven, Tyrtæus fung,
In drooping foldiers a new courage sprung;
Reviving Sparta now the fight maintain'd,
And what two generals loft a poet gain'd.
By fecret influence of indulgent skies,
Empire and poefy together rife.

True poets are the guardians of a state,

And, when they fail, portend approaching fate.
For that which Rome to conquest did inspire,
Was not the Veftal, but the Mufes' fire;
Heaven joins the bleffings: No declining age
E'er felt the raptures of poetic rage.

Of many faults, rhyme is (perhaps) the caufe, Too ftrict to rhyme, we flight more useful laws, For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known, Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown:

Subdued, undone, they did at last obey,
And change their own for their invaders' way.

I

I

grant that from fome moffy, idol oak,

In double rhymes our Thor and Woden spoke;
And by fucceffion of unlearned times,

As Bards began, fo Monks rung on the chimes.

But now that Phoebus and the facred Nine, With all their beams on our bleft ifland fhine, Why should not we their ancient rites restore, And be, what Rome or Athens were before?

Have we forgot how Raphael's numerous profe • Led our exalted fouls through heavenly camps, • And mark'd the ground where proud apostate thrones 'Defy'd Jehovah! Here, 'twixt hoft and hoft, (A narrow, but a dreadful interval)

• Portentous fight! before the cloudy van
Satan with vaft and haughty strides advanc'd,
⚫ Came towering arm'd in adamant and gold.
There bellowing engines, with their fiery tubes,
'Difpers'd æthereal forms, and down they fell
By thousands, angels on arch-angels roll'd;
Recover'd, to the hills they ran, they flew,

• Which (with their ponderous load, rocks, waters, ' woods)

• From their firm feats torn by the fhaggy tops

‹ They bore like shields before them through the air, • Till more incens'd they hurld them at their foes.

All was confufion, heaven's foundations fhook,
Threatning no lefs than univerfal wreck,

For Michael's arm main promontories flung,

* An essay on blank verfe, out of Paradife Loft, B. VI.

" And

And over-preft whole legions weak with sin : Yet they blafphem'd and struggled as they lay, 'Till the great enfign of Meffiah blaz'd,

And (arm'd with vengeance) God's victorious Son (Effulgence of paternal deity)

• Grasping ten thousand thunders in his hand,
• Drove th' old original rebels headlong down,
And fent them flaming to the vast abyss.'
O may I live to hail the glorious day,
And fing loud peans through the crowded way,
When in triumphant state the British Muse,
True to herself, shall barbarous aid refuse,
And in the Roman majesty appear,
Which none know better, and none come fo near.

A PARAPHRASE

CXLVIIIth

Azure vaults! O crystal sky!

The world's transparent canopy,

Break your long filence, and let mortals know
With what contempt you look on things below.

Wing'd fquadrons of the god of war,
Who conquer wherefoe'er you are,

Let echoing anthems make his praises known
On earth his footstool, as in heaven his throne.