 | Poems (1872) |  |
99
TO MY MOST FRIENDLY AND DESERVING BENJ. JONSON.
ON HIS ‘VOLPONE,’ OR THE FOX.
What thou hast dared with thy poetic pen,If ancient teachers of the laws of men
And God had dared to follow out like thee,
Wise to salvation all of us would be.
Those ancients, with what cobwebs they abound!
Nor is such follower of those ancients found
As thou, who, following, darest break new ground.
100
Put on from their first moment reverend looks:
No literary effort childhood brooks.
Old at their very birth books needs must be
To which thou givest immortality.
Genius and toil thee on a level place
With ancients: them excel, that the new race
Rise from our wickedness, in which, alas,
Both past and future ages we surpass.
| Poems (1872) | |