DICTATE, O mighty judge, what thou hast seen Of cities, and of courts, of books, and men; And deign to let thy servant hold the pen. Through ages thus I may presume to live, And from the transcript of thy prose receive What my own short-lived verse can never give. Thus shall fair Britain with a gracious smile Accept the work; and the instructed isle, For more than treaties made, shall bless my toil. Nor longer hence the Gallic style preferred, Wisdom in English idiom shall be heard, While Talbot tells the world, where Montaigne erred. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ALNWICK CASTLE by FITZ-GREENE HALLECK ENVOY, TO 'MORE SONGS FROM VAGABONDIA' by RICHARD HOVEY PHILLIS INAMOROTA by LANCELOT ANDREWES IN THE DEEP WHITE SNOW by ANNE ATWOOD INTRODUCTORY VERSES TO MARIA HACK by BERNARD BARTON GLIMPSES OF ITALY: 2. THE CLOISTER GARDEN AT CERTOSA by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON UNIVERSAL GOOD, THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE WILL; AND EVIL by JOHN BYROM MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD HAYES: TO THEOPHILUS HOWARD by THOMAS CAMPION |