Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN EPISTLE TO DR. GUIBBONS, A CELEBRATED PHYSICIAN, by THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EPISTLE TO DR. GUIBBONS, A CELEBRATED PHYSICIAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: To trace all-wondrous nature's latent ways
Last Line: Should be himself detain'd amidst us too.
Subject(s): Death; Healing; Letters; Nature; Physicians; Praise; Dead, The; Cures; Doctors


TO trace all-wondrous Nature's latent Ways,
To meet her Author in each various Maze,
To ease, to chear, to strengthen, to restore,
For this GOD granted first the Healing Pow'r;
Important Trust! to Thee securely giv'n,
Preserving Man as Delegate of Heav'n.

There are——but all their Actions how unblest!
Who deaf to Truth on Second Causes rest;
And boldly careless of their Maker's Will,
Attempt, impoverish, boast, insure, and kill;
Not so hast Thou deny'd Almighty Power,
But verst in Knowledge own'st a GOD the more;
Hence is thy Patient fearless of the Grave,
For Learning and Devotion join to save:

O Guibbons! from whose Presence Death retreats,
And on whose Dictates Health obsequious waits,
How art thou pleas'd, thro' every crowded Street,
The living Proofs of pious Care to meet;
Old Age forgetting its Decays to view,
And Youth improv'd in all its Bloom by You.

Thy Skill would make us on this World be fixt,
But that thy Life reminds us of the next:
Happy, yet loose to all Engagements here,
Resign'd to GOD, religiously severe!
Industrious ev'n the meanest to regard,
Like Guardian Angels kind without Reward.

Garth vainly strove to blast thy rising Fame,
Which greater Dryden consecrates to Fame;
Regardless Thou of either Muse's Lays,
Nor stung with Scorn, nor studious Thou of Praise.

Yet deign to hear the Wishes that I bring,
Unus'd to flatter, and unskill'd to sing,
O live! thou public Blessing to Mankind,
In Thee may Galen's Art and Age be join'd;
Late may thy Bust some hallow'd Dome adorn,
And thine own Oxford late her Patron mourn.

'Tis just that He who bids us stay below,
Should be Himself detain'd amidst Us too.





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