WHO would commend thee, friend! and thinks 't may be Performed by a faint hyperbole, Might also call thee but a man, or dare To praise thy mistress with the term of fair. But I, the choicest of whose knowledge is My knowing thee, cannot so grossly miss. Since thou art set so high, no words can give An equal character, but negative. Subtract the earth and baseness of this age, Admit no wildfire in poetic rage, Cast out of learning whatsoever's vain, Let ignorance no more haunt noblemen, Nor humour travellers, let wits be free From over-weening, and the rest is thee. Thee, noble soul! whose early flights are far Sublimer than old eagles' soarings are, Who light'st love's dying torch with purer fire, And breath'st new life into the Teian lyre, That love's best secretaries that are past, Liv'd they, might learn to love, and yet be chaste. Nay, vestals might as well such sonnets hear, As keep their vows and thy Black Riband wear; So chaste is all, that though in each line lie More amorettoes than in Doris' eye, Yet so they're charm'd, that look'd upon they prove Harmless as Chariessa's nightly love. So powerful is that tongue, that hand, that can Make soft Ionics turn grave Lydian. How oft this heavy, leaden Saturnine, And never elevated soul of mine, Hath been pluck'd up by thee, and forc'd away, Enlarged from her still adhering clay! How every line still pleas'd! when that was o'er I cancell'd it, and prais'd the other more; That if thou writ'st but on, my thoughts shall be Almost ingulf'd in an infinity. But, dearest friend, what law's power ever gave To make one's own free first-born babe his slave? Nay, manumise it; for what else wilt be To strangle, but deny it liberty? Once lend the world a day of thine, and fright The trembling still-born children of the night. That at the last, we undeceiv'd may see Theirs were but fancies, thine in poetry. Sweet swan of silver Thames! but only she Sings not till death, though in thine infancy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 65. AL-WAJID by EDWIN ARNOLD ADDRESS TO SUBSCRIBERS .. FUND FOR CLOTHING CHILDREN CHARITY SCHOOL by BERNARD BARTON REVERY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE SOUND OF ASPENS by PEARLE R. CASEY OLD BOOKS ARE BEST by BEVERLY CHEW E.W.D. by FRANCES CROFTS DARWIN CORNFORD |