 | Poems upon several occasions |  |
398
TO Mr. CREECH ON HIS Translation of Lucretius.
What to begin would have been Madness thought,
Exceeds our Praise when to Perfection brought;
Who could believe Lucretius' lofty Song
Could have been reach'd by any modern Tongue?
Of all the Suitors to immortal Fame,
That by Translations strove to raise a Name,
This was the Test, this the Ulysses Bow,
Too tough by any to be bent but you.
Carus himself of the hard Task complains
To fetter Grecian Thoughts in Roman Chains,
Much harder thine in an unlearned Tongue
To hold in Bonds, so easie yet so strong,
The Greek Philosophy and Latin Song.
If then he boasts that round his sacred Head
Fresh Garlands grow, and branching Laurels spread,
Such as not all the mighty Nine before
E'er gave, or any of their Darlings wore,
What Laurels should be thine, what Crowns thy Due,
What Garlands, Mighty Poet, shou'd be grac'd by you?
Tho' deep, tho' wondrous deep, his Sense does flow,
Thy shining Stile does all its Riches show;
So clear the Stream, that thro' it we descry
All the bright Gems that at the Bottom lie;
Here you the Troublers of our Peace remove,
Ignoble Fear, and more Ignoble Love:
Here we are taught how first our Race began,
And by what Steps our Fathers climb'd to Man;
To Man as now he is—with Knowledge fill'd
In Arts of Peace and War, in Manners skill'd,
Equal before to his fellow Grazers of the Field.
Nature's first State, which well transpos'd and own'd,
(For Owners in all Ages have been found)
Has made a Modern Wit so much renown'd,
When thee we read, we find to be no more
Than what was sung a thousand Years before.
Exceeds our Praise when to Perfection brought;
Who could believe Lucretius' lofty Song
Could have been reach'd by any modern Tongue?
Of all the Suitors to immortal Fame,
That by Translations strove to raise a Name,
This was the Test, this the Ulysses Bow,
Too tough by any to be bent but you.
Carus himself of the hard Task complains
To fetter Grecian Thoughts in Roman Chains,
399
To hold in Bonds, so easie yet so strong,
The Greek Philosophy and Latin Song.
If then he boasts that round his sacred Head
Fresh Garlands grow, and branching Laurels spread,
Such as not all the mighty Nine before
E'er gave, or any of their Darlings wore,
What Laurels should be thine, what Crowns thy Due,
What Garlands, Mighty Poet, shou'd be grac'd by you?
Tho' deep, tho' wondrous deep, his Sense does flow,
Thy shining Stile does all its Riches show;
So clear the Stream, that thro' it we descry
All the bright Gems that at the Bottom lie;
Here you the Troublers of our Peace remove,
Ignoble Fear, and more Ignoble Love:
Here we are taught how first our Race began,
And by what Steps our Fathers climb'd to Man;
400
In Arts of Peace and War, in Manners skill'd,
Equal before to his fellow Grazers of the Field.
Nature's first State, which well transpos'd and own'd,
(For Owners in all Ages have been found)
Has made a Modern Wit so much renown'd,
When thee we read, we find to be no more
Than what was sung a thousand Years before.
Thou only for this Noble Task wert fit,
To shame thy Age to a just Sense of Wit,
By shewing how the Learned Romans writ.
To teach fat heavy Clowns to know their Trade,
And not turn Wits, who were for Porters made;
But quit false Claims to the Poetick Rage,
For Squibs, and Crackers, and a Smithfield Stage.
Had Providence e'er meant that, in despight
Of Art and Nature, such dull Clods should write,
Bavius and Mœvius had been sav'd by Fate
For Settle and for Shadwel to Translate,
As it so many Ages has for thee
Preserv'd the mighty Work that now we see.
To shame thy Age to a just Sense of Wit,
By shewing how the Learned Romans writ.
To teach fat heavy Clowns to know their Trade,
And not turn Wits, who were for Porters made;
But quit false Claims to the Poetick Rage,
For Squibs, and Crackers, and a Smithfield Stage.
401
Of Art and Nature, such dull Clods should write,
Bavius and Mœvius had been sav'd by Fate
For Settle and for Shadwel to Translate,
As it so many Ages has for thee
Preserv'd the mighty Work that now we see.
| Poems upon several occasions | |