Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DRYDEN AND THACKERAY (HISTORICAL CONTRAST), by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES


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DRYDEN AND THACKERAY (HISTORICAL CONTRAST), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When one whose nervous english verse
Last Line: Makes the pantheon where he lies.
Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord
Subject(s): Dryden, John (1631-1700); Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811-1863); Westminster Abbey


WHEN one whose nervous English verse,
Public and party hates defied,
Who bore and bandied many a curse
Of angry times -- when Dryden died,

Our royal Abbey's Bishop-Dean
Waited for no suggestive prayer,
But, ere one day closed o'er the scene,
Craved as a boon to lay him there.

The wayward faith, the faulty life,
Vanished before a nation's pain;
"Panther" and "Hind" forgot their strife,
And rival statesmen thronged the fane.

O gentle Censor of our age!
Prime master of our ampler tongue!
Whose word of wit and generous page
Were never wroth except with wrong, --

Fielding -- without the manners' dross,
Scott -- with a spirit's larger room,
What prelate deems thy grave his loss?
What Halifax erects thy tomb?

But, may be, He who so could draw
The hidden great, the humble wise,
Yielding with them to God's good law,
Makes the Pantheon where he lies.





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