Poems and Plays By William Hayley ... in Six Volumes. A New Edition |
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SONNET
TO
Dr. HARINGTON |
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 | Poems and Plays |  |
165
SONNET TO Dr. HARINGTON
Harmonious friend! to whom my honour'd MuseIs eager to declare how much she owes,
Accept, and with indulgent eye peruse
Her hasty verse, impatient to disclose
How from your aid her new attraction flows.
Cold as the figure of unfinish'd clay,
Which by Prometheus' plastic hand arose,
My lifeless song in half existence lay:
I could not add the spark of heav'nly flame:
To harmony's high sphere I dar'd not stray
To steal from thence—but in this languid frame
You pour, without a theft, the vital ray:
Your generous art the quick'ning spirit gives,
And by your tuneful fire the Ballad lives.
| Poems and Plays | |