Poems on Several Occasions With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet. The Second Edition |
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To Mr. HANDELL.
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
To Mr. HANDELL.
The Sounds which vain unmeaning Accents bearMay strike the Sense and play upon the Ear:
In youthful Breasts inspire a transient Flame;
Then vanish in the Void from whence they came.
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With lofty Style, in Numbers smooth and strong,
Such as young Ammon's Passions cou'd controul,
Or chear the Gloom of Saul's distemper'd Soul;
To these the Goddess Muse shall tune her Voice:
For then the Muse directs the Master's Choice.
Such Themes are suited to the Hero's Mind:
But rural Lays have Charms for all Mankind.
Whether the Poet paints the native Scene,
Or calls to trip it on the level Green:
Or leads the Wand'rer by the Moon along,
While the sweet Chauntress tunes her Even-Song:
The serious Mind with sudden Rapture glows;
The Gazer sinks into sedate Repose:
And each in Silence doubts, if more to praise
The Pow'r of Handell's Notes, or Milton's Lays.
One Labour yet, great Artist! we require;
And worthy thine, as worthy Milton's Lyre;
In Sounds adapted to his Verse to tell
How, with his Foes, the Hebrew Champion fell:
To all invincible in Force and Mind,
But to the fatal Fraud of Womankind.
To others point his Error, and his Doom;
And from the Temple's Ruins raise his Tomb.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |