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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT WALPOLE, ESQ. by AMBROSE PHILIPS

Poet Analysis

First Line: VOTARY TO PUBLIC ZEAL
Last Line: SOON WITH SILVER-ACCENT, SUNG.
Subject(s): WALPOLE, ROBERT (1676-1745);

VOTARY to public zeal,
Minister of England's weal,
Have you leisure for a song,
Tripping lightly o'er the tongue,
Swift and sweet in every measure,
Tell me, Walpole, have you leisure?
Nothing lofty will I sing,
Nothing of the favourite king,
Something, rather, sung with ease,
Simply elegant to please.
Fairy virgin, British Muse,
Some unheard-of story choose:
Choose the glory of the swain,
Gifted with a magic strain,
Swaging grief of every kind,
Healing, with a verse, the mind:
To him came a man of power,
To him, in a cheerless hour;
When the swain, by Druids taught,
Soon divin'd his irksome thought,
Soon the maple harp he strung,
Soon with silver-accent, sung.



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