Translations and Poems Written on Several Occasions [by Samuel Boyse] |
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To the
Same, With Nature, a Poem.
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183
To the Same, With Nature, a Poem.
Epistle II.
Principibus placuisse viris non ultima laus est.
Patron of Learning! and the Muse's Friend!
To thee, accomplish'd Clerk, these Lines I send,
Which by thy much lov'd Esca's flow'ry Side,
With faint Essay, the rural Muse has try'd;
And, ravish'd with the various Charms she saw,
Has sketch'd a Landskip abler Hands shou'd draw.
To thee, accomplish'd Clerk, these Lines I send,
Which by thy much lov'd Esca's flow'ry Side,
With faint Essay, the rural Muse has try'd;
And, ravish'd with the various Charms she saw,
Has sketch'd a Landskip abler Hands shou'd draw.
Let others, Strangers to all foreign Worth,
Curse the cold Climate, and the frozen North!
Say, that the barren Land no Prospect yields,
But naked Mountains, and unshelter'd Fields;
Nature is blameless,—she has done her Part,
And only wants the Sister-Aids of Art;
Bless'd with such all-improving Hands as thine,
Soon would her Face with new Advantage shine!
Ev'n Rocks should bloom beneath the studious Arm,
And every Blemish soften to a Charm!
Curse the cold Climate, and the frozen North!
Say, that the barren Land no Prospect yields,
But naked Mountains, and unshelter'd Fields;
Nature is blameless,—she has done her Part,
And only wants the Sister-Aids of Art;
Bless'd with such all-improving Hands as thine,
Soon would her Face with new Advantage shine!
184
And every Blemish soften to a Charm!
Would'st thou indulge the Muse's fond Request,
Thy Country Seat in all its Beauties drest;
Fair as its Model, just as its Design,
To future Ages should distinguish'd shine;
Rais'd by thy Pen, shou'd Northern Wansteads rife,
Or future Chatsworths strike the ravish'd Eyes!
Till Scotia should as lovely Villa's boast,
As grace fair Thames's Shore, or bless Hesperia's Coast!
Thy Country Seat in all its Beauties drest;
Fair as its Model, just as its Design,
To future Ages should distinguish'd shine;
Rais'd by thy Pen, shou'd Northern Wansteads rife,
Or future Chatsworths strike the ravish'd Eyes!
Till Scotia should as lovely Villa's boast,
As grace fair Thames's Shore, or bless Hesperia's Coast!
As once of old, at great Amphion's Call,
To magic Numbers rose the Theban Wall!
The same Effect thy noble Strains should yield,
And Verse again resume the Pow'r to build.
To magic Numbers rose the Theban Wall!
The same Effect thy noble Strains should yield,
And Verse again resume the Pow'r to build.
| Translations and Poems | |