The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
 | The Age Reviewed |  |
So fast the stream from Helicon o'erflows,
Poor Wisdom trembles for her flooded prose!
Miss rhymes at school;—be-praised, her eighteen years
Present a volume fresh with sighs and tears;—
The lad of twenty, puffed from ancient Rome,
Fails not to cram his ravings in a tome;
While elder ideots in lethargic strains,
Distil poetic vapours from their brains:—
If poets born or made—no matter,—when
'Tis print and paper that inspire the pen.—
When, thus the brainsick rumble out their lines,
And every spinster in her “hot-pressed” shines,—
When Papers, trunks, and fashionable pies,
Alike reveal the poet to our eyes,—
No wonder, meaning swoons away in sound,
And gaudy jingle runs a modish round!
Poor Wisdom trembles for her flooded prose!
Miss rhymes at school;—be-praised, her eighteen years
Present a volume fresh with sighs and tears;—
The lad of twenty, puffed from ancient Rome,
Fails not to cram his ravings in a tome;
While elder ideots in lethargic strains,
Distil poetic vapours from their brains:—
If poets born or made—no matter,—when
'Tis print and paper that inspire the pen.—
When, thus the brainsick rumble out their lines,
And every spinster in her “hot-pressed” shines,—
130
Alike reveal the poet to our eyes,—
No wonder, meaning swoons away in sound,
And gaudy jingle runs a modish round!
| The Age Reviewed | |