 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
Where soft Humanity retains her Seat,
Your tender Lines will kind Acceptance meet;
But let the Vengeance of thy Verse be shed,
In Terms of Terror, on the perjur'd Head:
Correct with freedom, and with warmth reprove;
His Heart's too hard for gentle Strokes to move:
His Conscience sleeps, whilst mild Perswasion charms,
And must be wak'd by Dread and loud Alarms:
He (for you cannot well be too severe)
A publick Mark of Infamy should wear,
Lest others fall in his perfidious Snare.
From him, let Virtue's honest Sons recede,
For 'tis a Crime to countenance the Deed.
Of all the Vices that I yet have nam'd,
Perj'ry's the blackest, and should most be blam'd;
It strikes whole Families in one sad Hour,
And quite subverts the Legislative Pow'r.
In vain are wholesome Laws for Justice meant,
When faithless Oaths can frustrate their Intent.
Your tender Lines will kind Acceptance meet;
But let the Vengeance of thy Verse be shed,
In Terms of Terror, on the perjur'd Head:
28
His Heart's too hard for gentle Strokes to move:
His Conscience sleeps, whilst mild Perswasion charms,
And must be wak'd by Dread and loud Alarms:
He (for you cannot well be too severe)
A publick Mark of Infamy should wear,
Lest others fall in his perfidious Snare.
From him, let Virtue's honest Sons recede,
For 'tis a Crime to countenance the Deed.
Of all the Vices that I yet have nam'd,
Perj'ry's the blackest, and should most be blam'd;
It strikes whole Families in one sad Hour,
And quite subverts the Legislative Pow'r.
In vain are wholesome Laws for Justice meant,
When faithless Oaths can frustrate their Intent.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |