Miscellanies in Prose and Verse :: :: University of Virginia Library

Cease, ye profane, your impious rhimes,
Ye wanton poets of the times,
Whose wit is lavish'd in defence
Of folly, and the joys of sense;
The mischief-spreading verse forbear,
That taints the mind, and pains the modest ear.
Too strongly is our bark borne down the stream,
By passions pow'rful gale;
Ill does it then the Muse beseem
With modulated breath to swell the hast'ning sail.

II.

For what, ye sons of verse, was reason given,
Illustrious donative of Heaven;
For what, but with the charms of flowing lays,
To propagate the Donor's praise;
And lead with sweetest force the mind,
By mirth and melody combin'd,

To know and to revere the first great Cause:
Who fram'd the skies, and earth, and sea,
Gave us, and all that we behold, to be,
And rules the whole by wondrous laws.

III.

How can degenerate bards excuse
The sallies of a vitious Muse;
How poor a plea 'twou'd be to say,
That ye were borne, spite of yourselves, away,
To pen the gross or impious page,
And court the taste of a licentious age!
No more with conqu'ring truth debate,
Nor term your wickedness your fate;
No more with grov'ling views debase an art
Design'd to raise the thought and mend the heart.

IV.

Awake, ye sons of harmony,
And string anew the silver lyre;
To themes sublime your art apply,
And set the soul on fire:

Fear not to quit the common road,
And shew that to be wise is to be good;
Till won to virtue by persuasive lays,
All practise what all now consent to praise.

V.

When blest Religion breathes in ev'ry strain,
And hallows the poetick vein,
Like tow'ring eagles soars the bard on high,
And dwells above the unpolluted sky.
Thus Moses tun'd his voice, thus Deb'rah sung,
And David's harp to airs divine was strung.

VI.

All-gracious God, to me the power impart,
To emulate their pious art:
Fain would I take a daring flight, and bring
From Heaven the verse that sings th'Eternal King.

Then should my zeal stop piety's decay,
And light in ev'ry heart devotion's ray;
Till Nature's change my thoughts and verse inspire
With sweeter musick and sublimer fire.