Satires And Biography By Anthony Pasquin [i.e. John Williams] |
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[When ye are snar'd mid pertinacious Puts] |
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 | Satires And Biography |  |
[When ye are snar'd mid pertinacious Puts]
When ye are snar'd mid pertinacious Puts,
Pantoufled recusants that spit at youth;
Petulant Seniors, who complacent teize,
Chuckle and shake to grace a witless jest;
Then beg you'll pardon when they can't offend:
Who only rapt'rous dwell on what they've seen,
Denying Excellence that is, to be,
Pity their prodigality of taunt,
Let the small embers of their pride consume
Unwetted by the issue of Disdain;
Garrulity's the privilege of age.
Pantoufled recusants that spit at youth;
Petulant Seniors, who complacent teize,
Chuckle and shake to grace a witless jest;
Then beg you'll pardon when they can't offend:
Who only rapt'rous dwell on what they've seen,
Denying Excellence that is, to be,
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Let the small embers of their pride consume
Unwetted by the issue of Disdain;
Garrulity's the privilege of age.
Believe, my Chicks, one third of what you hear,
And think, e'en then, 'tis possible you err;
'Tis said the liberal note that man as mean,
Who lets Suspicion her foul lodgment make
Within the chambers of his narrow breast,
There, with a scowling and half-open'd eye,
To sneer at Amity, and mar Esteem!
Yet he who in the zenith of his heart
Measures his inmates with a self-made scale,
To take the altitude of human aims,
Will find his rapid mensuration nought:
Aghast, unnerv'd, confounded and reduc'd,
Closing those avenues where Fraud approach'd,
He'll acrimonious scan all promis'd joy;
Take in those sails his Confidence unfurl'd,
Pine with the lazy poison of Chagrin,
And wax (too swiftly) prematurely old.
And think, e'en then, 'tis possible you err;
'Tis said the liberal note that man as mean,
Who lets Suspicion her foul lodgment make
Within the chambers of his narrow breast,
There, with a scowling and half-open'd eye,
To sneer at Amity, and mar Esteem!
Yet he who in the zenith of his heart
Measures his inmates with a self-made scale,
To take the altitude of human aims,
Will find his rapid mensuration nought:
Aghast, unnerv'd, confounded and reduc'd,
Closing those avenues where Fraud approach'd,
He'll acrimonious scan all promis'd joy;
Take in those sails his Confidence unfurl'd,
Pine with the lazy poison of Chagrin,
And wax (too swiftly) prematurely old.
The gust of violence I reprobate,
As there is no Propensity so fierce
(Ee'n tho' it flounder'd like the Theban snake,
Or champ'd and foam'd like Pluto's triple Swiss)
But what a mental lenient may allay,
Or mild Urbanity's silk rein coerce;
No wight (with mental sanity) e'er rav'd
Before the man he fear'd, or nymph he woo'd.
As there is no Propensity so fierce
(Ee'n tho' it flounder'd like the Theban snake,
Or champ'd and foam'd like Pluto's triple Swiss)
But what a mental lenient may allay,
Or mild Urbanity's silk rein coerce;
No wight (with mental sanity) e'er rav'd
Before the man he fear'd, or nymph he woo'd.
When, ('neath the abdomen of some black cloud,
That bellying hangs with indigested mists:
Or in the azure, pellucid expanse)
By Fear directed you espy a Hawk,
Cow'ring to reconnoitre and consume,
Gather the dab-chicks in a huddled heap,
And hide the trembling phalanx with your wing:
Hawks are to us what Lawyers are to men,
Calamitous attachments to our kind;
Too high to combat, and too fell to scorn:
Proud of advantages which Heaven allows,
Immunities peculiar to destroy,
They whet their crook'd carniv'rous beaks at will,
Then tear the groveling captive they've enfang'd:
To laceration antecedent, they
Curvet and gambol in th'ethereal space,
'Till Enmity or Whim shall give the clue:
Then with velocity they cut the air,
Pounce on the flutterers—ingulph the brood,
And reel inebriate with infant blood.
That bellying hangs with indigested mists:
Or in the azure, pellucid expanse)
By Fear directed you espy a Hawk,
Cow'ring to reconnoitre and consume,
Gather the dab-chicks in a huddled heap,
And hide the trembling phalanx with your wing:
Hawks are to us what Lawyers are to men,
Calamitous attachments to our kind;
Too high to combat, and too fell to scorn:
Proud of advantages which Heaven allows,
Immunities peculiar to destroy,
They whet their crook'd carniv'rous beaks at will,
Then tear the groveling captive they've enfang'd:
To laceration antecedent, they
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'Till Enmity or Whim shall give the clue:
Then with velocity they cut the air,
Pounce on the flutterers—ingulph the brood,
And reel inebriate with infant blood.
Deal out contumely with dread and awe,
Nor make that ulcerous that's scarce unskinn'd:
Go stand between the object and the storm,
But blush to castigate a broken reed:
We've all our peccadilloes and our worth;
Obloquial arrows seldom whiz around,
But from that quiver Error hangs—behind!
Nor make that ulcerous that's scarce unskinn'd:
Go stand between the object and the storm,
But blush to castigate a broken reed:
We've all our peccadilloes and our worth;
Obloquial arrows seldom whiz around,
But from that quiver Error hangs—behind!
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