The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed: And Those which he Design'd for the Press, Now Published out of the Authors Original Copies ... The Text Edited by A. R. Waller |
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 | The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley |  |
An Answer to a Copy of Verses sent me to Jersey.
As to a Northern People (whom the SunUses just as the Romish Church has done
Her Prophane Laity, and does assign
Bread only both to serve for Bread and Wine)
A rich Canary Fleet welcome arrives;
Such comfort to us here your Letter gives,
Fraught with brisk racy Verses, in which we
The Soil from whence they came, tast, smell, and see:
Such is your Present to'us; for you must know,
Sir, that Verse does not in this Island grow
No more then Sack; One lately did not fear
(Without the Muses leave) to plant it here.
44
Rhymes, as ev'en set the hearers Ears on Edge.
Written by ------ Esquire, the
Year of our Lord six hundred thirty three.
Brave Jersey Muse! and he's for this high stile
Call'd to this day the Homer of the Isle.
Alas, to men here no Words less hard be
To Rhime with, then Mount Orgueil is to me.
Mount Orgueil, which in scorn o'th' Muses law
With no yoke-fellow Word will daign to draw.
Stubborn Mount Orgueil! 'tis a work to make it
Come into Rhime, more hard then 'twere to take it.
Alas, to bring your Tropes and Figures here,
Strange as to bring Camels and Ele'phants were.
And Metaphor is so unknown a thing,
'Twould need the Preface of, God save the King.
Yet this I'll say for th' honor of the place,
That by Gods extraordinary Grace
(Which shows the people'have judgment, if not Wit)
The land is undefil'd with Clinches yet.
Which in my poor opinion, I confess,
Is a most sing'ular blessing, and no less
Then Irelands wanting Spiders. And so far
From th' Actual Sin of Bombast too they are,
(That other Crying Sin o'th' English Muse)
That even Satan himself can accuse
None here (no not so much as the Divines)
For th' Motus primò primi to Strong Lines.
Well, since the soil then does not natu'rally bear
Verse, who (a Devil) should import it here?
For that to me would seem as strange a thing
As who did first Wild Beasts into 'Islands bring.
Unless you think that it might taken be
As Green did Gond'ibert, in a Prize at Sea.
But that's a Fortune falls not every day;
'Tis true Green was made by it; for they say
The Parl'ament did a noble bounty do,
And gave him the whole Prize, their Tenths and Fifteens too.
| The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley | |