Thy manly force, and genius unconfin'd,
Shall mould to future fame the growing mind;
To ripen'd souls more solid aids impart,
And while you touch the sense correct the heart:
Yet tho' o'er all you shed diffusive light,
Base minds will envy still, and scribblers write.
Thus the imperial scurce of genial heat
Gilds the aspiring dome and mean retreat;
Bids gems a semblance of himself unfold,
And warms the purer ductile ore to gold:
Yet the same heat assists each reptile birth,
And draws infectious vapours from earth.
TO THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD,
FOR me how vain to urge my vent'rous flight,
Where only Pope's strong pinion can aspire!
Horace, great source of true poetic light,
Would melt my waxen wings before his fire.
As Thames' clear stream thro' flow'ry margins flows,
At first the humbler treasure of the plain,
Till with each spring the swelling current grows,
And rolls his pow'r and comerce o'er the main :
So soft descending from the Muses' hill
Pope's spreading genius passes ev'ry bound,
Big with experience, knowledge, taste, and skill,
And flows uncheck'd o'er all poetic ground.
Fresh wreaths on ev'ry side await his head,
Whether in Fancy's wilds * he youthful stray,
In Humour's † frolic round new measures tread,
Or boldly follow Pindar's pathless way.
*Pastoral and Windsor Forest. Rape of the Lock.
Religious he maintains the Muses' trust;
Pure in his breast he guards the sacred fire;
To his progressive genius strictly just,
Its use dilating as its pow'rs aspire.
Whether from antique rust, with pious toil,
He polish Britain's ancient poets' * praise,
Or planting careful in his better soil,
Preserve more green the Greek and Roman bays. †
Whether the nobler monument the frame
To those whom virtues, arts, or arms, adorn;
Or snatch from Envy ||, or the grave, their fame,
Whom Pride oppresses, or the virtuous mourn;
Till (as of old, some heav'n-instructed bard)
To Man ** he plead in Truth and Wisdom's cause;
Chastises Vice, deals Virtue her reward,
Supports the pulpit, and supplies the laws.
High on the swelling gale of constant praise
We see this Swan of Thames sublimely rise,
Ev'n Envy's †† breath but serves his flight to raise,
And lift his spotless plumage to the skies.
While on the humble banks, far, far below!
Unmark'd, my tuneless reed I painful try;
Like the small bee, with toil collecting slow
The faint perfume which lowly shrubs supply.
† Homer. Horace, Ovid. ** Essay on Man.
To move our absent prince* (the realm's desire,)
Then let his skill compose th' attractive song;
Or you, my Lord, may boldly strike the lyre,
You to whose call the willing Muses throng.
Persuasion decks your words with ev'ry art
To lead the social band in sportive wit,
To guide the judgment, and to warm the heart,
While senates held in raptʼrous silence sit.
Or (tho' each bard in rev'rence mute should wait)
A joyful people his return shall greet;
The busy hall shall cease from loud debate;
Contending parties bow at George's feet.
Applauding senates shall record his fame,
And hail the arbiter of Europe home:
Him haughty Gallia's dread they shall proclaim; 55
From him the Turk and Tartar wait their doom.
Fate never gave a king so great before;
A king so good no nation shall behold;
For him the grateful realm shall Heav'n adore;
For him, whose reign revives the Age of Gold.
To peaceful congress when his arts have led
Europe's contending lords, inur'd to war,
The sacred olive wreath shall grace his head,
That wreath so often purchas'd by his care.
*This ode was written when his majesty was expected from Hanover in the year 1736-7.
My voice unheard would join the gen'ral praise, 65
When well-plac'd Eloquence exhausts the theme ;
When mitred lords their hands to heav'n shall raise,
And give God thanks with piety extreme.
With loyal luxury to crowd the board
Artists shall vie, th' eternal feasts succeed;
Woods, lakes, and seas, their plenty shall afford,
And slaughter'd hecatombs profusely bleed.
But far from kings and courts, my humbler fate
Blesses with health and peace my homely fare,
Where my calm wishes frame no schemes of state,
But still for Britain's welfare form the pray❜r.
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