HARD is thy fate (great Wit) thus to advance Thy poem in this age of ignorance, To send it forth in such a time as this, Where none must judge, but such as judge amiss; Coarse, sordid censurers, that think their eyes Abus'd if fix'd, on aught but Mercuries, Where honest judgements will not doubt to swear Thy work deserves an amphitheatre. Nor is this piece such as of late hath been The tedious stuff of poetaster seen, Wit to a nobler height, doth thine intend; No common labour to no common end. For by thy version we are taught anew, T' interpret what we vainly thought we knew But still mistook; so that in this we find Thou canst do miracles and cure the blind. The orac'lous mist from Seneca is fled, Which with fresh laurel crowns his verdant head, And the black curtain of his clouded sense Is drawn by thy exact intelligence. Hippolitus that erst was set upon By all, mangled by misconstruction, Dis-member'd by misprision, now by thee And thy ingenious chirurgerie Is re-united to his limbs, and grown Stronger as thine, than when great Theseus' son. Go on then Wit's example, and revive, What none but such as thee, can keep alive; Slack not the work for want of industry, For not a line of those thou writ'st can die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CRADLE SONG, FR. SONGS OF INNOCENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE THE AFRICAN CHIEF by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT ELEGY: 18. LOVES PROGRESS by JOHN DONNE THE BALLAD OF A DAFT GIRL by DOROTHY ALDIS A TOMB BY THE SEA by AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS SUMMER SONG: 1 by GEORGE BARKER |