Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES SPOKEN BY THE GHOST OF JOHN DENNIS AT THE DEVIL TAVERN, by THOMAS GRAY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES SPOKEN BY THE GHOST OF JOHN DENNIS AT THE DEVIL TAVERN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: From purling streams and the elysian scene
Last Line: And alexander wears a ramilie.


FROM purling Streams & the Elysian Scene,
From Groves, that smile with never-fading Green
I reascend; in Atropos' despight
Restored to Celadon, & upper light:
Ye gods, that sway the Regions under ground,
Reveal to mortal View your realms profound;
At his command admit the eye of Day;
When Celadon commands, what God can disobey?
Nor seeks he your Tartarean fires to know,
The house of Torture, & th' Abyss of Woe;
But happy fields & Mansions free from Pain,
Gay Meads, & springing flowers best please y gentle Swain:
That little, naked, melancholy thing
My Soul, when first she tryed her flight to wing;
Began with speed new Regions to explore,
And blunder'd thro' a narrow Postern door;
First most devoutly having said its Prayers,
It tumbled down a thousand pair of [Stairs],
Thro' Entries long, thro' Cellars vast & deep,
Where ghostly Rats their habitations keep,
Where Spiders spread their Webs, & owlish Goblins sleep.
After so many Chances had befell,
It came into a mead of Asphodel:
Betwixt the Confines of y light & dark
It lies, of 'Lyzium y S James's park:
Here Spirit-Beaux flutter along the Mall,
And Shadows in disguise scate o'er y Iced Canal:
Here groves embower'd, & more sequester'd Shades,
Frequented by y Ghosts of Ancient Maids,
Are seen to rise: the melancholy Scene
With gloomy haunts, & twilight walks between
Conceals the wayward band: here spend their time
Greensickness Girls, that died in youthful prime,
Virgins forlorn, all drest in Willow-green-i
With Queen Elizabeth and Nicolini.
More to reveal, or many words to use
Would tire alike your patience & my muse.
Believe, that never was so faithful found
Queen Proserpine to Pluto under ground,
Or Cleopatra to her Marc-Antony
As Orozmades to his Celadony.

P:S:

Lucrece for half a crown will shew you fun,
But M Oldfield is become a Nun.
Nobles & Cits, Prince Pluto & his Spouse
Flock to the Ghost of Covent-Garden house:
Plays, which were hiss'd above, below revive;
When dead applauded, that were damn'd alive:
The People, as in life, still keep their Passions,
But differ something from the world in Fashions.
Queen Artemisia breakfasts on Bohea,
And Alexander wears a Ramilie.





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