Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ODE TO TASTE, by THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER Poet's Biography First Line: Leave not britannia's isle,since pope is fled Last Line: Hurl'd wildly to the ground! Subject(s): Civilization; Great Britain; Poetry & Poets | ||||||||
LEAVE not Britannia's Isle; since Pope is fled To meet his Homer in Elysian Bowers, What Bard shall dare resume His various-sounding Harp? Let not resistless Dulness o'er us spread Deep Gothic Night; for lo! the Fiend appears, To blast each blooming Bay That decks our barren Shores. Say beauteous Queen of Life-refining Arts, Who wont to visit oft at midnight Hour Sweet Virgil's laurell'd Tomb On Naples' fertile Shore: Say where thy Dwelling is? or on the Banks Of smooth Ilissus, sage-inspiring Stream, Where Plato thought of old, And hoar Musæus walk'd! Still dost thou tread the sacred Ground where once Thy Votaries, or strung the golden Lyre, Or taught the moral Song Of sweet Philosophy? Or in some ruin'd Temple dost thou dwell Of ancient Rome, deserted of the World, Where prostrate lies in Dust The shapely Column's Height; Where thou may'st still behold with raptur'd Eye The beauteous Arts of fair Antiquity That still can charm the Mind, Tho' smote by Time's rough Hand. When Man a Savage wander'd in the Woods (As hoar Tradition tells) in ancient Days, Wont from the laden Oak To shake his barb'rous Food; Thy Pow'r reduc'd him from his native Wilds And to the soft Civilities of Life Subdu'd his stubborn Heart; And taught to raise the Dome Well-archt, to string the Lyre, the breathing Bust To form, and guide the Pencil, Heav'n-born Arts That harmonize the Mind, And fit for social Joys. Thee once thou fairest Daughter of the Muse The Goth stern-looking bound in cruel Chains, And gor'd with many a Wound Thy bleeding Bosom fair, When pouring o'er Italia's tempting Plains With Hand profane thy Temples he deform'd, And all thy beauteous Domes Hurl'd wildly to the Ground! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVY OF OTHER PEOPLE'S POEMS by ROBERT HASS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS A SONG by ROBERT HASS THE FATALIST: TIME IS FILLED by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 192 by LYN HEJINIAN LET ME TELL YOU WHAT A POEM BRINGS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA JUNE JOURNALS 6/25/88 by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA FOLLOW ROZEWICZ by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA HAVING INTENDED TO MERELY PICK ON AN OIL COMPANY, THE POEM GOES AWRY by HICOK. BOB A FAREWELL TO POETRY by THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER A FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE by THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER A PARAPHRASE ON THE 13TH CHAPTER OF ISAIAH by THOMAS WARTON THE ELDER |
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