Poems on Various Subjects with some Essays in Prose, Letters to Correspondents, &c. and A Treatise on Health. By Samuel Bowden |
 |
 |
TO Peter Lovel, Esq;
|
|
|
 | Poems on Various Subjects |  |
109
TO Peter Lovel, Esq;
Occasion'd by His VERSES in Praise of the Author's Poem on the Vicarage-House at Frome, and his censuring him for omitting the Architect.
Ingenious
Lovel! your harmonious lays,
By meaning mine, establish your own praise.
Thus public favour, generous Cæsar won,
And raising Pompey's statues,—fix'd his own.
But tho' you find some beautys to commend,
And often lose the critic, in the friend;
Yet you arraign the Poet of neglect,
Who prais'd the pile, and not the Architect.
But to applaud the structure couches still,
An approbation of the builder's skill:
You who a Poem, I a Pile commend,
The Author's merit modestly intend.
By meaning mine, establish your own praise.
Thus public favour, generous Cæsar won,
And raising Pompey's statues,—fix'd his own.
But tho' you find some beautys to commend,
And often lose the critic, in the friend;
Yet you arraign the Poet of neglect,
Who prais'd the pile, and not the Architect.
But to applaud the structure couches still,
An approbation of the builder's skill:
110
The Author's merit modestly intend.
The Artist's Virtues too conspicuous shine,
To need such humble eulogys as mine.
At nobler schemes he aims—The Good of Man,
The state his care—the commonwealth his plan.
He can design a landscape, or a pile,
And with that pencil make his country smile:
Not only sketch a building for his friend,
But laws project, that building to defend:
Tho' fine the taste, fair fabrics to erect,
A Patriot is the noblest Architect.
Such best adorn the structures which they raise,
And lofty palaces proclaim their praise.
'Tis Merit only makes a happy seat,
A cavern glorious, and a cottage great.
To need such humble eulogys as mine.
At nobler schemes he aims—The Good of Man,
The state his care—the commonwealth his plan.
He can design a landscape, or a pile,
And with that pencil make his country smile:
Not only sketch a building for his friend,
But laws project, that building to defend:
Tho' fine the taste, fair fabrics to erect,
A Patriot is the noblest Architect.
Such best adorn the structures which they raise,
And lofty palaces proclaim their praise.
'Tis Merit only makes a happy seat,
A cavern glorious, and a cottage great.
July, 1748.
| Poems on Various Subjects | |