Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WRITTEN TO A NEAR NEIGBOUR IN A TEMPESTUOUS NIGHT, 1748, by HENRIETTA (ST. JOHN) KNIGHT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WRITTEN TO A NEAR NEIGBOUR IN A TEMPESTUOUS NIGHT, 1748, by                    
First Line: You bid my muse not cease to sing
Last Line: Th' intoxicated poet's bane.
Alternate Author Name(s): Luxborough, Lady
Subject(s): Solitude; Storms; Loneliness


YOU bid my muse not cease to sing,
You bid my ink not cease to flow;
Then say it ever shall be spring,
And boisterous winds shall never blow:
When you such miracles can prove,
I'll sing of friendship, or of love.

But now, alone, by storms oppressed,
Which harshly in my ears resound;
No cheerful voice with witty jest,
No jocund pipe, to still the sound;
Untrained beside in verse-like art,
How shall my pen express my heart?

In vain I call th' harmonious Nine,
In vain implore Apollo's aid;
Obdurate, they refuse a line,
While spleen and care my rest invade.
Say, shall we Morpheus next implore,
And try if dreams befriend us more?

Wisely at least he'll stop my pen,
And with his poppies crown my brow:
Better by far in lonesome den
To sleep unheard-of -- than to glow
With treacherous wildfire of the brain,
Th' intoxicated poet's bane.




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