 | Churchill defended, a poem |  |
What Champion of Parnassus will step forth
To blast the Censure that infests thy Worth,
Bid all thy native Lustre fully shine,
If I the just, though daring Task decline?
I who (forgive the Pride) presume I see
Thy Nature and thy Fortune fall to me,
Oft by the Thames, with genuine Ardour fraught,
Hast thou attended while thy Dryden taught:
I in a harsher Climate, on the Tweed,
The wonderous Poet oft was wont to read,
Deep, and more deep imbibe his heaven-bred Flame,
And sigh—“Shall I too ever have a Name?”
But both our sacred Fires have long been quell'd,
Against our Genius curst Restraint rebell'd;
Luckless we plung'd into a Sphere of Life,
With Wit and Learning constantly at Strife;
Each rosy Doctor pass'd our Merit by,
But mark'd our Failings with a cruel Eye.
To blast the Censure that infests thy Worth,
Bid all thy native Lustre fully shine,
If I the just, though daring Task decline?
5
Thy Nature and thy Fortune fall to me,
Oft by the Thames, with genuine Ardour fraught,
Hast thou attended while thy Dryden taught:
I in a harsher Climate, on the Tweed,
The wonderous Poet oft was wont to read,
Deep, and more deep imbibe his heaven-bred Flame,
And sigh—“Shall I too ever have a Name?”
But both our sacred Fires have long been quell'd,
Against our Genius curst Restraint rebell'd;
Luckless we plung'd into a Sphere of Life,
With Wit and Learning constantly at Strife;
Each rosy Doctor pass'd our Merit by,
But mark'd our Failings with a cruel Eye.
| Churchill defended, a poem | |