LET those who will hang rapturously o'er The flowing eloquence of Plato's page; Repeat, with flashing eyes, the sounds that pour From Homer's verse as with a torrent's rage; Let those who list ask Sully to assuage Wild hearts with high-wrought periods, and restore The reign of rhetoric; or maxims sage Winnow from Seneca's sententious lore, Not these, but Judah's hallowed bards, to me Are dear: Isaiah's noble energy; The temperate grief of Job; the artless strain Of Ruth and pastoral Amos; the high songs Of David; and the tale of Joseph's wrongs. Simply, pathetic, eloquently plain. |