The Poems of Edmund Waller Edited by G. Thorn Drury |
SOME VERSES OF AN IMPERFECT COPY,
DESIGNED FOR A FRIEND, ON HIS TRANSLATION OF OVID'S “FASTI.” |
The Poems of Edmund Waller | ||
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SOME VERSES OF AN IMPERFECT COPY, DESIGNED FOR A FRIEND, ON HIS TRANSLATION OF OVID'S “FASTI.”
Rome's holy-days you tell, as if a guestWith the old Romans you were wont to feast.
Numa's religion, by themselves believed,
Excels the true, only in show received.
They made the nations round about them bow,
With their dictators taken from the plough;
Such power has justice, faith, and honesty!
The world was conquered by morality.
Seeming devotion does but gild a knave,
That's neither faithful, honest, just, nor brave;
But where religion does with virtue join,
It makes a hero like an angel shine. [OMITTED]
The Poems of Edmund Waller | ||