Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ODE: SECUNDEM ARTEM, by WILLIAM COWPER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ODE: SECUNDEM ARTEM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shall I begin with ah, or oh?
Last Line: To bind the poet's brow, or please the critic's nose.


1.

SHALL I begin with Ah, or Oh?
Be sad? Oh! yes. Be glad? Ah! no.
Light subjects suit not grave Pindaric ode,
Which walks in metre down the Strophic road.
But let the sober matron wear
Her own mechanic sober air:
Ah me! ill suits, alas! the sprightly jig,
Long robes of ermine, or Sir Cloudesley's wig.
Come, placid Dulness, gently come,
And all my faculties benumb;
Let thought turn exile, while the vacant mind
To trickie words and pretty phrase confined,
Pumping for trim description's art,
To win the ear, neglects the heart.
So shall thy sister Taste's peculiar sons,
Lineal descendants from the Goths and Huns,
Struck with the true and grand sublime
Of rhythm converted into rime,
Court the quaint Muse, and con her lessons o'er,
When sleep the sluggish waves by Granta's shore:
There shall each poet share and trim,
Stretch, cramp, or lop the verse's limb,
While rebel Wit beholds them with disdain,
And Fancy flies aloft, nor heeds their servile chain.

2.

O Fancy, bright aerial maid!
Where have thy vagrant footsteps strayed?
For, Ah! I miss thee 'midst thy wonted haunt,
Since silent now the enthusiastic chaunt,
Which erst like frenzy rolled along,
Driven by the impetuous tide of song;
Rushing secure where native genius bore,
Not cautious coasting by the shelving shore.
Hail to the sons of modern Rime,
Mechanic dealers in sublime,
Whose lady Muse full wantonly is drest,
In light expression quaint, and tinsel vest,
Where swelling epithets are laid
(Art's ineffectual parade)
As varnish on the cheek of harlot light;
The rest, thin sown with profit or delight,
But ill compares with ancient song,
Where Genius poured its flood along;
Yet such is Art's presumptuous idle claim,
She marshals out the way to modern fame;
From Grecian fable's pompous lore
Description's studied, glittering store,
Smooth, soothing sounds, and sweet alternate rime,
Clinking, like change of bells, in tingle tangle chime.

3.

The lark shall soar in every Ode,
With flowers of light description strewed;
And sweetly, warbling Philomel, shall flow
Thy soothing sadness in mechanic woe.
Trim epithets shall spread their gloss,
While every cell's o'ergrown with moss:
Here oaks shall rise in chains of ivy bound,
There mouldering stones o'erspread the rugged ground.
Here forests brown, and azure hills,
There babbling fonts, and prattling rills;
Here some gay river floats in crisped streams,
While the bright sun now gilds his morning beams,
Or sinking on his Thetis' breast,
Drives in description down the west.
Oh let me boast, with pride-becoming skill,
I crown the summit of Parnassus' hill:
While Taste and Genius shall dispense,
And sound shall triumph over sense;
O'er the gay mead with curious steps I'll stray;
And, like the bee, steal all the sweets away;
Extract its beauty, and its power,
From every new poetic flower,
And sweets collected may a wreath compose,
To bind the poet's brow, or please the critic's nose.





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