AS when with utmost skill some architect Designs a noble structure to erect, Searches whate'er each country does produce For outward ornament, or inward use: So, Friend, from divers books thy lab'ring thought Has all the huddled am'rous notions sought, And into form and shape the unlickt cubs has brought. Here Proteus-Love thou show'st in various dress, From gaudy France to more majestic Greece; Something thou gather'st too from Roman ore, And Spain contributes to thy well-got store, Whence (each by thee refin'd in English mould) Verse smooth as oil does flow, and pure as gold. Thus the laborious Bee with painful toil From various flowers of a various soil, Duly concocting the abstracted juice, In plenty does th' ambrosial food produce. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE REALM OF FANCY by JOHN KEATS HYMN OF THE WEST by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN AT PORT ROYAL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 4. AFFECTED INDIFFERENCE by MARK AKENSIDE DISAPPOINTED by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS MEMORY'S DOOR by MARY OTTO ASHER HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 34 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |