University of Virginia Library

We had a water Poet once,
Nor was he register'd a Dunce.
J'll lay a while my toiling by,
And hang abroad my nets to dry,
And stow my Apostolick boat,
And try to raise a swan-like note:
For fishing oft in Twicknam reach,
J've heard fine strains along the beach,
That tempt to sing a Cave's renown
And fetch from thence an ivy Crown.

Adieu a while forsaken Flood,
To ramble in the Delian wood,
And pray the God my well-meant Song
May not my subject's merit wrong.

Say Father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flow'ry banks, if you have seen
The much sung Grotto of the Queen.
Contemplative, forget a while
Oxonian Towers, and Windsor's pile,
And Woolsey's pride (his greatest guilt)
And what Great William since has built;
And flowing fast by Richmond Scenes,
(Honour'd retreat of two great Queens)
From Sion-house, whose proud survey
Brow-beats your flood, look cross the way,
And view, from highest swell of tide,
The milder Scenes of Surrey side.

Though yet no Palace grace the shore,
To lodge that pair you shou'd adore;
Nor Abbies, great in ruin, rise,
Royal Equivalents for vice;
Behold a Grott, in delphic grove,
The Graces' and the Muses' love.
(O might our Laureat study here,
How would he hail his new-born year!)

A Temple from vain glories free,
Whose Goddess is Philosophy,
Whose sides such licens'd Idols crown
As Superstition wou'd pull down;
The only Pilgrimage I know
That men of sense wou'd chuse to go:
Which sweet abode, her wisest choice,
Urania cheers with heavenly voice,
While all the Virtues gather round,
To see her consecrate the ground.
If thou the God with winged feet,
In Council talk of this retreat,
And jealous Gods resentment show
At Altars rais'd to men below;
Tell those proud Lords of Heaven, 'tis fit
Their house our Heroes should admit;
While each exists, as Poets sing,
A lazy leud immortal thing,
They must, or grow in disrepute,
With Earth's first Commoners recruit.

Needless it is in terms unskill'd
To praise whatever Boyle shall build;
Needless it is the Busts to name
Of men, Monopolists of Fame;
Four Chiefs adorn the modest stone,
For Virtue as for Learning known;
The thinking Sculpture helps to raise
Deep thoughts, the Genii of the place:
To the minds ear, and inward sight,
There silence speaks, and shade gives light:
While insects from the threshold preach,
And minds dispos'd to musing teach:
Proud of strong limbs and painted hues:
They perish by the slightest bruise;
Or Maladies begun within
Destroy more slow life's frail machine;
From Maggot-youth thrô change of state
They feel like us the turns of Fate;
Some born to creep have liv'd to fly,
And change Earth-cells for dwellings high;
And some that did their six wings keep,
Before they dy'd been forc'd to creep.
They politicks like ours profess,
The greater prey upon the less;
Some strain on foot huge loads to bring;
Some toil incessant on the wing;
And in their different ways explore
Wise sense of want by future store;
Nor from their vigorous schemes desist
Till death, and then are never mist.
Some, frolick, toil, marry, increase,
Are sick and well, have war and peace,
And broke with Age, in half a day
Yield to successors, and away.

Let not profane this sacred place,
Hypocrisy with Janus' face;
Or Pomp, mixt state of pride and care;
Court kindness, Falsehood's polish'd ware;
Scandal disguis'd in Friendship's vail,
That tells, unask'd, th'injurious tale,
Of treaty of intriguing kind,
With scorns article like sign'd;
And books, [illeg.] with [illeg.] times,
Bloated with Juno's [illeg.];
Or Art politic, which allows
The Jesuit-remedy for vows;
Or Priest, perfuming Crowned head,
Till in a swoon Truth lyes for dead;
Or tawdry Critick, who perceives
No grace, which plain proportion gives,
And more than lineaments divine
Admires the gilding of the shrine;
Or that self haunting spectre Spleen,
In thickest fog the clearest seen;
Or Prophecy, which dreams a lie,
That Fools believe and Knaves apply;
Or frolick mirth profanely loud,
And happy only in a Crowd;
Or melancholly's pensive gloom,
Proxy in Contemplation's room.

O Delia when I touch this string,
To thee my Muse directs her wing.
Unspotted Fair, with downcast look
Mind not so much the murm'ring brook;
Nor fixt in thought, with footstep slow
Through Cypress allies cherish woe;
I see the Soul in pensive fit,
And mopeing like sick Linnet sit,
With dewy eye and moulting wing,
Unperch'd, averse to fly or sing;
I see the favourite curls begin,
(Disus'd to toilet discipline,)
To quit their post, lose their smart air,
And grow again like Common hair;
And tears, which frequent kerchiefs dry,
Raise a red circle round the Eye;
And by this burr about the Moon
Conjecture more ill weather soon.
Love not so much the dolefull knell;
And news the boding night-birds tell;
Nor watch the wainscots hollow blow;
And hens portentous when they crow;
Nor sleepless mind the deathwatch beat;
In Taper find no winding sheet;
Nor in burnt coal a Coffin see,
Thô thrown at others meant for thee:
Or when the Coruscation gleams,
Find out not first the bloody streams;
Nor in imprest remembrance keep
Grim Tapstry figures wrought in sleep;
Nor rise to see in Antique Hall
The moonlight Monsters on the wall,
And shadowy spectres darkly pass
Trailing their Sables o'er the grass.
Let Vice and guilt act how they please
In souls their conquer'd provinces;
By Heaven's just Charter it appears,
Virtue's exempt from quartering fears.
Shall then arm'd phancies fiercely drest
Live at discretion in your breast?
Be wise and pannick fright disdain,
At notions, meteors of the brain;
And sights perform'd, illusive scene!
By magick lantern of the spleen.
Come here, from balefull cares releast,
With Virtue's ticket, to a feast,
Where decent Mirth and Wisdom joyn'd
In Stewardship, regale the mind.
Call back the Cupids to your Eyes,
I see the Godlings with surprize
Not knowing home in such a plight
Fly to and fro, afraid to light......

Far from my theme, from method far,
Convey'd in Venus' flying Car,
I go, compell'd by feather'd steeds,
That scorn the rein when Delia leads.

No dawb of Elegiac strain
These holy walls shall ever stain;
As Spiders Irish wainscot flee,
Falsehood with them shall disagree:
This floor let not the vulgar tread,
Who worship only what they dread;
Nor bigots who but one way see
Through blinkers of Authority;
Nor they who its four Saints defame
By making Virtue but a name;
Nor abstract wit, (painfull regale
To hunt the pig with slippery tail!)
Artists who richly chase their thought,
Gaudy without but hollow wrought,
And beat too thin, and tool'd too much
To bear the proof and standard touch;
Nor Fops to guard this Silvan ark
With necklace bells in treble bark;
Nor Cynics growl and fiercely paw,
The Mastiffs of the moral law.

Come Nymph with rural honours drest,
Virtues exterior form confest,
With charms untarnish'd innocence
Display, and Eden shall commence:
When thus you come in sober fit,
And wisdom is prefer'd to wit;
And looks diviner graces tell,
Which dont with giggling muscles dwell;
And Beauty like the ray-clipt Sun
With bolder Eye we look upon;
Learning shall with obsequious mien
Tell all the wonders she has seen;
Reason her Logick armour quit,
And proof to mild persuasion fit;
Religion with free thought dispense,
And cease Crusading against sense;
Philosophy and she embrace,
And their first league again take place;
And morals pure, in duty bound,
Nymph-like the sister chiefs surround;
Nature shall smile, and round this Cell
The turf to your light pressure swell,
And knowing beauty by her shoe,
Well air its carpet from the dew.
The Oak, while you his umbrage deck
Lets fall his acorns in your neck:
Zephyr his civil kisses gives,
And plays with curls, instead of leaves:
Birds, seeing you, believe it spring,
And during their vacation sing;
And flow'rs lean forward from their seats
To traffick in exchange of sweets;
And Angels bearing wreaths descend,
Preferr'd as Virgers to attend
This Fane, whose Deity intreats
The Fair to grace its upper seats.

O kindly view our letter'd strife,
And guard us through polemic life;
From poison vehicled in praise,
For satire shots but slightly graze;
We claim your zeal and find within
Philosophy and you are kin.

What Virtue is we judge by you,
For actions right are beauteous too:
By tracing the soft female mind,
We best what is true nature find:
[illeg.]
They [illeg.];
Your vapours bred from fumes declare
How steams create tempestuous air,
Till gushing tears and hasty rain
Make Heaven and you serene again:
Our Travells through the starry skies
Were first suggested by your Eyes;
We by the interposing fan
Learn how Eclipses first began;
The vast Ellipse from Scarbrô home
Describes how blazing Comets roam;
The glowing colours of the Cheek
Their Origin from Phæbus speak;
Our watch how Luna strays above
Feels like the care of jealous love;
And all things we in science know
From your known love for riddles flow.

Father! forgive, thus far I stray,
Drawn by attraction from my way.
Mark next with awe, the Foundress well
Who on these banks delights to dwell;
You on the Terrass see her plain,
Move like Diana with her train.
If you then fairly speak your mind,
In Wedlock since with Isis Joyn'd,
You'l own, you never yet did see,
At least in such a high degree,
Greatness delighted to undress;
Science a Scepter'd hand caress;
A Queen the friends of Freedom prize;
A Woman wise Men Canonize.