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Poems by the Late Reverend Dr. Thomas Blacklock

Together with an Essay on the Education of the Blind. To Which is Prefixed A New Account of the Life and Writings of the Author

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To Dr. BEATTIE.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


190

To Dr. BEATTIE.

With the Author's Poems.

O, Warm'd by inspiration's brightest fire,
For whom the muses string their fav'rite lyre,
Tho' with superior genius blest, yet deign
A kind reception to my humbler strain.
When florid youth impell'd, and fortune smil'd,
The vocal art my languid hours beguil'd:
Severer studies now my life engage;
Researches dull, that quench poetic rage;
From morn to ev'ning destin'd to explore
Th' verbal critic and the scholiast's lore;
Alas! what beam of heav'nly ardor shines
In musty lexicons and school divines?
Yet to the darling object of my heart,
A short, but pleasing retrospect I dart;
Revolve the labours of the tuneful quire,
And what I cannot imitate, admire.
O could my thoughts with all thy spirit glow;
As thine harmonious, could my accents flow;
Then, with approving ear, might'st thou attend,
Nor in a Blacklock blush to own a friend.