The Powers of the Pen A poem addressed to John Curre ... By E. Lloyd ... The second edition, with large additions |
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 | The Powers of the Pen |  |
In a fine Phrensy of the Soul,
When Poets glance from Pole to Pole,
Bearing on visionary Wings
The shadowy Forms of real Things;
When eagle-plum'd they soar on high
To bring down Virtue from the Sky;
Or cowring low upon the wing,
Vice's grim Form from Hell they bring,
The Pen each Phantom which they bear
Embodies, ere it melts to air;
To each fugacious image gives
A Fixedness, and while it lives
Arrests the fleeting Thought, before
It vanishes, and is no more—
When Poets glance from Pole to Pole,
Bearing on visionary Wings
The shadowy Forms of real Things;
When eagle-plum'd they soar on high
To bring down Virtue from the Sky;
Or cowring low upon the wing,
Vice's grim Form from Hell they bring,
The Pen each Phantom which they bear
Embodies, ere it melts to air;
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A Fixedness, and while it lives
Arrests the fleeting Thought, before
It vanishes, and is no more—
| The Powers of the Pen | |