All The Blocks! or, An Antidote to "All The Talents." Satirical Poem. In Three Dialogues. By Flagellum [i.e. S. W. H. Ireland] |
 |
|
| 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
TO FRIEND POLYPUS. |
 | All The Blocks! |  |
70
TO FRIEND POLYPUS.
I must allow, redoubted Polypus,Your talents make a most confounded fuss;
But where they are my muse cannot discover:
For being of good verse, a judge and lover,
Your style is often turgid—often poor;
Your meaning dubious, and your sense obscure:
And when I condescend to talk of time,
Your measure's faulty—couplets void of rhyme:
So much as Poetaster.—If I quote
Your prose, the burthen of full many a note
Appears as if the comment had been press'd,
And vi et armis 'listed 'mongst the rest .
71
More lenient prove to me, than I to you.
As it would be very unjust to hazard an assertion without giving a proof—in page 79, of All the Talents, appears the ensuing couplet:
If not t' attack myself must be the end on't;
I verus me—both plaintiff and defendant!
A rhyme it may be called, if on't and ant can be so denominated.
But if the public be desirous of reading poverty
of idea, and a rhyme applied, as I may say, without rhyme
or reason, refer to page 36, and there will be found the following
lines:
I verus me—both plaintiff and defendant!
Thee, scorning pomp of retinue and plate,
Prudence makes rich, and virtue renders great.
An idea as miserable in itself, as it is poorly expressed;
however it is, without doubt, well appropriated to the faculties
of the present ministry. But I need no further obtrude
upon my reader's patience, who, if he has perused The
Talents, must have selected an ample catalogue of such defects,
forming an addenda to the present note.
Prudence makes rich, and virtue renders great.
| All The Blocks! | |