Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FRAGMENT WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT, by GEORGE CRABBE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Oh, great apollo! By whose equal aid Last Line: With her who calls me from thy wonder now.' | ||||||||
OH, great Apollo! by whose equal aid The verse is written, and the med'cine made; Shall thus a boaster, with his fourfold powers, In triumph scorn this sacred art of ours? Insulting quack! on thy sad business go, And land the stranger on this world of woe. Still I pass on, and now before me find The restless ocean, emblem of my mind; There wave on wave, here thought on thought succeeds, Their produce idle works, and idle weeds: Dark is the prospect o'er the rolling sea, But not more dark than my sad views to me; Yet from the rising moon the light beams dance In troubled splendour o'er the wide expanse; So on my soul, whom cares and troubles fright, The Muse pours comfort in a flood of light. -- Shine out, fair flood! until the day-star flings His brighter rays on all sublunar things. 'Why in such haste? by all the powers of wit, I have against thee neither bond nor writ; If thou'rt a poet, now indulge the flight Of thy fine fancy in this dubious light; Cold, gloom, and silence shall assist thy rhyme, And all things meet to form the true sublime.' -- 'Shall I, preserver deem'd around the place, With abject rhymes a doctor's name disgrace? Nor doctor solely, in the healing art I'm all in all, and all in every part; Wise Scotland's boast let that diploma be Which gave me right to claim the golden fee: Praise, then, I claim, to skilful surgeon due, For mine th' advice and operation too; And, fearing all the vile compounding tribe, I make myself the med'cines I prescribe; Mine, too, the chemic art; and not a drop Goes to my patients from a vulgar shop. But chief my fame and fortune I command From the rare skill of this obstetric hand: This our chaste dames and prudent wives allow, With her who calls me from thy wonder now.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A HUMBLE INVOCATION by GEORGE CRABBE A MARRIAGE RING by GEORGE CRABBE A WEARY TRAVELLER by GEORGE CRABBE AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND by GEORGE CRABBE BELVOIR CASTLE; WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF DUCHESS OF RUTLAND by GEORGE CRABBE CONCLUDING LINES OF PRIZE POEM ON HOPE by GEORGE CRABBE EPISTLE TO PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY by GEORGE CRABBE |
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