 | Early Maryland poetry. The works of Ebenezer Cook ... |  |
TO THE Generous SUBSCRIBERS, &c.
THE Author finding all Attempts prove vain,
Those glittering Smiles from Fortune to obtain:
That purblind Goddess on the Fool bestows;
His tow'ring Grandeur to her Bounty owes;
Rather than on base Terms, the Point dispute,
To the Pierian Songsters makes his Suit,
In gingling Rhimes, to guide his gouty Feet,
The ancient Path of Pegasus to beat.
When mounted on old Roan, with Guide before;
The Spurious Off-spring of some Tawny-Moor,
To Battle-Town, the Author took his way,
That thro' thick Woods and fenny Marshes lay,
And mangled Oaks, laid blended on the Plains,
Cut down for Fuel by unthinking Swains.
Those glittering Smiles from Fortune to obtain:
That purblind Goddess on the Fool bestows;
His tow'ring Grandeur to her Bounty owes;
Rather than on base Terms, the Point dispute,
To the Pierian Songsters makes his Suit,
In gingling Rhimes, to guide his gouty Feet,
The ancient Path of Pegasus to beat.
36
The Spurious Off-spring of some Tawny-Moor,
To Battle-Town, the Author took his way,
That thro' thick Woods and fenny Marshes lay,
And mangled Oaks, laid blended on the Plains,
Cut down for Fuel by unthinking Swains.
At Ax and Hoe, like Negroe Asses tug,
To glut the Market with a poisonous Drug:
Destroy sound Timber, and lay waste their Lands,
To head a Troop of Aethiopian Hands,
Worse Villains are, than Forward's Newgate Bands:
Will by their Heirs be curst for these Mistakes,
E'er Saturn thrice his Revolution makes;
Whose thriftless State, this Looking-Glass is meant,
By way of Metaphor, to represent:
Wherein the Planter may his Fate behold,
By sad Experience, has been often told,
It's Industry, and not a nauseous Weed,
Must cloath the Naked, and the Hungry feed.
Correct those Errors length of Time have made,
Since the first Scheme of Government was laid
In Maryland, for propagating Trade,
Will never flourish, till we learn to sound
Great-Britain's Channel, and in Cash abound:
To glut the Market with a poisonous Drug:
Destroy sound Timber, and lay waste their Lands,
To head a Troop of Aethiopian Hands,
Worse Villains are, than Forward's Newgate Bands:
Will by their Heirs be curst for these Mistakes,
E'er Saturn thrice his Revolution makes;
Whose thriftless State, this Looking-Glass is meant,
By way of Metaphor, to represent:
Wherein the Planter may his Fate behold,
By sad Experience, has been often told,
It's Industry, and not a nauseous Weed,
Must cloath the Naked, and the Hungry feed.
Correct those Errors length of Time have made,
Since the first Scheme of Government was laid
In Maryland, for propagating Trade,
Will never flourish, till we learn to sound
Great-Britain's Channel, and in Cash abound:
The only best Expedient that remains,
To make the Profit equal to the Pains,
And set us on the Par with neighbouring Swains.
To make the Profit equal to the Pains,
And set us on the Par with neighbouring Swains.
This
thread-bare Theme the Author's Muse here sings,
Did never drink of the Castalian Springs,
Or bath'd her Limbs in Heliconian Streams,
Where fiery Phoebus cools his thirsty Beams.
Did never drink of the Castalian Springs,
Or bath'd her Limbs in Heliconian Streams,
Where fiery Phoebus cools his thirsty Beams.
Such
lofty Numbers and heroic Strains
Of sprightly Wit, as Virgil's Lays contains,
When elevated with Phoebian Fire,
On Tyber's Banks, he struck the warbling Lyre,
Are too sublime for her, that ne'er could fly
Above the Pitch of Grub-street Elegy,
Or the flat Sound of Doggerel Poetry:
So hopes Subscribers will be pleas'd to pass
A candid Thought on this, his Looking-Glass.
Of sprightly Wit, as Virgil's Lays contains,
When elevated with Phoebian Fire,
On Tyber's Banks, he struck the warbling Lyre,
Are too sublime for her, that ne'er could fly
Above the Pitch of Grub-street Elegy,
Or the flat Sound of Doggerel Poetry:
So hopes Subscribers will be pleas'd to pass
A candid Thought on this, his Looking-Glass.
37
Such kind Encouragement to Poesy give,
The Sotweed Factor by his Muse may live:
This Province wisheth well, and should be glad,
To see young Girls in Home-spun Vestments clad,
Plain as this Dress, wherein his Muse appears;
And tho' distasteful to their blooming Years,
Yet the Hibernian Lasses, we are told,
Such modest Garments wore in Days of old.
Nor was the best bred Nymph allow'd to wed,
And taste the Pleasures of a Nuptial Bed,
'Till she, before some Magistrate did go,
Equipp'd in Home-spun Weeds, from Head to Toe,
Swore solemnly on the Evangelist,
Each Flaxen Thread, her tender Hands did twist.
And were such Laws and Customs here in Force,
Maidens would soon industrious grow of course.
To Minstrel Sounds, prefer the Weaver's Loom,
As did Arachne, 'till she had her Doom;
The Sotweed Factor by his Muse may live:
This Province wisheth well, and should be glad,
To see young Girls in Home-spun Vestments clad,
Plain as this Dress, wherein his Muse appears;
And tho' distasteful to their blooming Years,
Yet the Hibernian Lasses, we are told,
Such modest Garments wore in Days of old.
Nor was the best bred Nymph allow'd to wed,
And taste the Pleasures of a Nuptial Bed,
'Till she, before some Magistrate did go,
Equipp'd in Home-spun Weeds, from Head to Toe,
Swore solemnly on the Evangelist,
Each Flaxen Thread, her tender Hands did twist.
And were such Laws and Customs here in Force,
Maidens would soon industrious grow of course.
To Minstrel Sounds, prefer the Weaver's Loom,
As did Arachne, 'till she had her Doom;
Improve each Minute at the Flaxen Wheel,
That now think Scorn, to exercise the Reel.
That now think Scorn, to exercise the Reel.
But
as young Cloe may think it too hard,
Her matrimonial Geer, to spin and card,
Before she dare, by Strephon be embrac'd,
By Bride-maids, on her Wedding Night, unlac'd:
So if it were ordain'd, to end the Strife,
No Swain should be allow'd to have a Wife,
On any Terms, 'till he Three Thousand Weight
Of Merchantable Hemp, and fit for Freight,
Or Flax had made, I dare be bold to say,
Strephon would have no Time at Cards to play,
On Horse-Racing, his Substance throw away,
'Till he the Gordian-Knot with Cloe ty'd,
By Industry, obtain'd her for his Bride.
Her matrimonial Geer, to spin and card,
Before she dare, by Strephon be embrac'd,
By Bride-maids, on her Wedding Night, unlac'd:
So if it were ordain'd, to end the Strife,
No Swain should be allow'd to have a Wife,
On any Terms, 'till he Three Thousand Weight
Of Merchantable Hemp, and fit for Freight,
Or Flax had made, I dare be bold to say,
Strephon would have no Time at Cards to play,
On Horse-Racing, his Substance throw away,
'Till he the Gordian-Knot with Cloe ty'd,
By Industry, obtain'd her for his Bride.
| Early Maryland poetry. The works of Ebenezer Cook ... | |