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The miscellaneous works (1813)

Dallas, Robert Charles (1754-1824)
  
[epigraph]
  
[dedication]

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POEMS
  
EPISTLE:
  
ELEGIAC EPISTLE.
  
EPIGRAM.
  
EPITAPH:
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SONGS.
 IV. 
IV.
 V. 
V.

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EPIGRAM.

[An Ass, says Esop, died betwixt]

An Ass, says Esop, died betwixt
Two ricks of hay;
On neither could his choice be fixt,
So down he lay.
A twelvemonth full young Damon stood
By Love suspended;
Now smiled on Chloe, now on Jude,
And both commended.
But one at length, the chosen lass,
He made his bride:
Was Damon now the greater Ass,
Or he that died?
 

The Author hopes that sincerity is not necessary in the composition of an Epigram, which is a concise Poem that would be in danger of being lost to the Poetic Art, if Truth and Good-nature were allowed to stand in the way of a droll turn of words, or quaint combination of ideas.

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