Miscellany Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Long hath the Sacred, Venerable, Name
Of POET (once so highly rais'd by Fame)
Been, nor unjustly, trampled under Feet;
Their Laurels blasted and their Flowers unsweet.
The Virgin Springs and Chaste Pierian Groves
Have been profan'd by Base Incestuous Loves:
Castalian Streams, so Pure in former Times,
Were since Polluted with unhallowed Rhymes:
When Villains durst the Poet's Task invade,
And Shamefull Vice, dress'd up in Masquerade,
Did Heavenly Wit presume to Personate:
While Phœbus and the Nine in Mourning sate.
Then Blushing Vertue never durst appear;
For Gaudy Flatt'ry her Rich Robes did wear.
Affrighted Truth fled the Enchanted Ground:
And Chastity could there no more be found:
False Fiends and Phantomes onely danc'd around.

What Shame and Grief did then our Souls oppress,
To see the Laureate Tribe in such Distress?
Vile Mævius Honour'd, Maro in Disgrace;
Loose Sirens seated in the Muses Place:
Wise Fancy's Sacred Flame extinguish'd quite;
While Ignis Fatuus shew'd a Cheating Light?
All were Asham'd, and All at This did Grieve!—
But Heyrick only could Our Wrongs relieve.

viii

He broke the Charm: He ended all the Spell:
And now th' Obscener Vision's fled to Hell.
Now Genuine Sense, adorn'd with Manly Grace,
Doth shew to Heaven his Lov'd, Majestick, Face:
Now Fancy's various Mantle freely flows;
While Curious Judgment doth her Locks compose,
And braids in Artfull Knots those Tresses fair,
That will the Hearts of Phœbu's Sons ensnare.
Now Charming Wit, which Few before did know,
Walks at Noon-day; doth all her Beauties show,
How Sweet her Looks, how Ravishing her Tongue,
What Heavenly Treasure's in her Artfull Song:
How, while She innocently seeks to Please,
The Ravish'd Soul forgets her old Disease,
And Painless Joys and Endless Pleasures sees.

Thus to the Learned Arugonian King
That Health, which Galen's Art could never bring,
The Charming Curtius kindly did impart,
And Cur'd his Body, when He'd Gain'd his Heart.

Here wisely-flowing Eloquence disdains
To be confin'd, but in Poetick Chains:
Sweet are the Bonds, that tye the Soul to Sense:
And scope allow for All things, but Offence!

Here Various Learning doth her Wealth disclose,
And All, that's worth our Knowledge, freely shows:
All Nature's Secrets offers to our View,
Far more, than Watry Proteus ever knew:
Thô He Great Neptune's scaly Herds doth keep
Well-vers'd in All the Wonders of the Deep.

For Heyrick's boundless and unwearied Mind
To this our Upper World can't be confin'd;
But ransacks Thetis's Bosom and explores
Her Inmost Caverns and her Utmost Shores,

And strangely doth the Vast Abyss contain
Within the Vaster Ocean of his Brain.

All, that was ever Writ, or Done, or Said,
Well hath He understood and well survey'd:
Pierian Tempe, where Apollo Reigns,
And Spacious History's Delightfull Plains,
And Heaven and Earth's far-distant Regions lie
Conspicuous to his Sharp, Sagacious, Eye.

Nor yet meer Knowledge doth his Verse bestow;
But, as We're Wiser, makes Us Better grow:
With Moral Use it smooths Rough Nature's Face,
And Human Art with Heavenly Sense doth grace:
Vertue in every Lineament doth shine:
Gross the Materials, but the Form Divine.

Yet, when my Heyrick would advance a Strain
Too High for All, that doth on Earth remain,
No Female Vanity, nor Lordly Ape,
Nor Wealthy Ignorance, nor Witless Shape,
Bespeak his Muse:—But up aloft She flies,
And views Bright VERTUE with undazled Eyes:
On Vertue onely She delights to Gaze;
To Vertue onely gives Deserved Praise:
For onely Vertue, and (which is the same,)
Great RUTLAND, can his Panegyricks claim;
Chast GAINSBOROW, and the Heavenly BRIDGET'S Name.

Joshua Barnes. Emmanuel Coll. Cambridge Novemb. 24. 1690.