The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. Containing, besides his Sermons, and Essays on miscellaneous subjects, several additional pieces, Selected from his Manuscripts by the Rev. Dr. Jennings, and the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, in 1753: to which are prefixed, memoirs of the life of the author, compiled by the Rev. George Burder. In six volumes |
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The Adventurous Muse.
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 | The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. |  |
The Adventurous Muse.
I
Urania takes her morning flightWith an inimitable wing:
Thro' rising deluges of dawning light
She cleaves her wondrous way,
She tunes immortal anthems to the growing day;
Nor Rapin gives her rules to fly, nor Purcell notes to sing.
II.
She nor inquires, nor knows, nor fearsWhere lie the pointed rocks, or where th'ingulphing sand,
Climbing the liquid mountains of the skies,
She meets descending angels as she flies,
Nor asks them where their country lies,
Or where the sea-marks stand.
Touch'd with an empyreal ray
She springs, unerring, upward to eternal day,
Spreads her white sails aloft, and steers,
With bold and safe attempt, to the celestial land.
III.
Whilst little skiffs along the mortal shoresWith humble toil in order creep,
Coasting in sight of one another's oars,
Nor venture thro' the boundless deep.
Such low pretending souls are they
Who dwell inclos'd in solid orbs of scull;
Plodding along their sober way,
The snail o'ertakes them in their wildest play,
While the poor labourers sweat to be correctly dull.
IV.
Give me the chariot whose diviner wheelsMark their own rout, and unconfin'd
Bound o'er the everlasting hills
And lose the clouds below, and leave the stars behind.
Give me the muse whose gen'rous force,
Impatient of the reins,
Pursues an unattempted course,
Breaks all the critics' iron chains,
And bears to paradise the raptur'd mind.
V.
There Milton dwells: The mortal sungThemes not presum'd by mortal tongue;
New terrors, or new glories, shine
In every page, and flying scenes divine
Surprise the wond'ring sense, and draw our souls along.
Behold his muse sent out t'explore
The unapparent deep where waves of Chaos roar,
And realms of night unknown before.
She trac'd a glorious path unknown,
Thro' fields of heav'nly war, and seraphs overthrown,
Where his advent'rous genius led:
Sov'reign she fram'd a model of her own,
Nor thank'd the living nor the dead.
The noble hater of degenerate rhyme
Shook off the chains, and built his verse sublime,
A monument too high for coupled sound to climb.
He mourn'd the garden lost below;
(Earth is the scene for tuneful woe)
Now bliss beats high in all his veins,
Now the lost Eden he regains,
Keeps his own air, and triumphs in unrival'd strains.
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VI.
Immortal bard! Thus thy own Raphael sings,And knows no rule but native fire:
All heav'n sits silent, while to his sov'reign strings
He talks unutterable things;
With graces infinite his untaught fingers rove
Across the golden lyre:
From ev'ry note devotion springs.
Rapture, and harmony, and love,
O'erspread the list'ning choir.
| The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D. D. | |