 | Poems on several occasions |  |
Are not the schools with heathen authors stor'd?
Isn't Horace for his language much ador'd?
Tho' to a chaste unsullied mind, the verse
Conveys a sense too filthy to rehearse.
Oh! for a pen to blot the hateful name,
To make ev'n Sodom blush in burning flame.
Are these the proper lessons for our youth?
O blush ye schools for this unnat'ral truth!
Give me the Bard who nobly does aspire
To that divine, that true poetick fire,
Which glows and warms within each sacred page,
The glory and delight of ev'ry age;
Who knows no muse but that great Spirit's aid,
Which o'er the whole creation is display'd;
Who frames his faith and conduct to those laws,
And lives the lively picture which he draws;
Whose faith is fix'd, depending on that word
Which has reveal'd the Sovereign God and Lord:
Where such I find, I'm not asham'd to tell
My heart goes with him and I wish him well.
Isn't Horace for his language much ador'd?
Tho' to a chaste unsullied mind, the verse
Conveys a sense too filthy to rehearse.
xiii
To make ev'n Sodom blush in burning flame.
Are these the proper lessons for our youth?
O blush ye schools for this unnat'ral truth!
Give me the Bard who nobly does aspire
To that divine, that true poetick fire,
Which glows and warms within each sacred page,
The glory and delight of ev'ry age;
Who knows no muse but that great Spirit's aid,
Which o'er the whole creation is display'd;
Who frames his faith and conduct to those laws,
And lives the lively picture which he draws;
Whose faith is fix'd, depending on that word
Which has reveal'd the Sovereign God and Lord:
Where such I find, I'm not asham'd to tell
My heart goes with him and I wish him well.
| Poems on several occasions | |