The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont ... Edited from the autograph manuscript with introduction and notes by Eloise Robinson |
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Detraction
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 | The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont |  |
424
Detraction
May 30.
1
Thinkst thou to scape this Monsters teeth?Then hope to fly the jaws of Death:
Nay, things whose pitch
Is farr above the reach
Of any Death, are yet assaulted by
Detractions most unbounded Cruelty.
2
How oft has Blasphemies black TongueAt God him self her venome flung?
And wouldst thou fare
Better than things which are
The Best of all? faint fool, that cannot be
Wherein thy God's a Sharer, Miserie.
3
'Tis rank Repugnancy at whichThy fond ambition doth reach:
Canst thou tell how
Like every one to grow?
Unless thou canst, thou must contented be
To let those things which differ, disagree.
425
4
To win the Proud Mans praise, canst thouPlant insolence on thine own brow;
Yet still, to reap
Fame with the Sordid, creep
Beneath fair Ingenuity? oh no!
What creature e'r was Worm & Eagle too?
5
Since then Detraction must at theeBe snarling, on necessitie;
In the compleat
Armour of Virtue meet
Thy peevish Foe, who then, the more she bite,
The more she'l break her teeth, & knaw her spight.
| The Minor Poems of Joseph Beaumont | |