ODE FOR WILLIAM PRESTON,
Author of an irregular Ode to the Moon, added to an
Essay upon Lyric Poetry, and inserted in the 1st Volume
of Philosophical Transactions, Dublin, 1787.
[_]
The attribution of this poem is questionable.
By strange effects “of Study's vauntive ken”
One William Preston did espy
An untrod path of Poesy.
What then?
He got on Pegasus, and mounted soon
“Up to the pleni-lunar Hand o' the Moon,”
To meet with Madness:—she
Peopled his verse with dire Variety:
Dæmons, Harpies, Ghosts by myriads,
All and some,
See they come,
With Tritons, Screech-owls, Wolves and Nereids,
Leaving their “fretted Vaults of sculptur'd Foam.”—
Now, wherefore dost thou call?
Go, says he, go, tell Mason how I show'd
Another way to make an Ode
That's all