The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
 | The Age Reviewed |  |
A savoury feast, surcharged with kickshaw meat,
May charm a shrieve that only lives to eat,—
Give me the table spread with wholesome food,
Where few the meats, but every one is good:
Our bookish feast is now a gaudy waste,
Startling the eye, but palling on the taste;
Each mulish fool, can couch his random pen,
And furbish fustian for admiring men;—
Beget an Essay with delirium fraught,
And skin the clouds to travel for a thought!
Hope, Truth, and Friendship,—Valour, Pride, and Fear,
Snail-like, crawl on through each besotted year;
The “Spring” is flow'rless; “Night” less dark than “Day,”
While worn-out “Youth” bemoans her tresses gray.
May charm a shrieve that only lives to eat,—
Give me the table spread with wholesome food,
Where few the meats, but every one is good:
Our bookish feast is now a gaudy waste,
Startling the eye, but palling on the taste;
Each mulish fool, can couch his random pen,
And furbish fustian for admiring men;—
125
And skin the clouds to travel for a thought!
Hope, Truth, and Friendship,—Valour, Pride, and Fear,
Snail-like, crawl on through each besotted year;
The “Spring” is flow'rless; “Night” less dark than “Day,”
While worn-out “Youth” bemoans her tresses gray.
| The Age Reviewed | |