Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE POET'S PETITION, by JOSIAH RELPH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE POET'S PETITION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If phoebus his poet's petition would crown
Last Line: To virtue's improvement, and vice's decay.
Alternate Author Name(s): Relph, Joseph
Subject(s): Country Life; Poetry & Poets


If Phœbus his poet's petition would crown,
I'd ask a retreat in a snug country town,
Near which a clear stream in a valley should glide,
With fountains and meadows and groves by its side;
And then my ambition no farther should stray,
But to better my life, and to better my lay,
To virtue's improvement, and vice's decay.

A competent fortune should be my next call,
Too great for contempt, and for envy too small;
I would work, not for need, but my fancy to please,
With various enjoyment of labour and ease.

A friend of like temper and honesty tried,
Should double my joys and my sorrows divide,
But far from my cottage let beauty remove,
Nor poison my innocent pleasures with love.

At town I or seldom or never would come,
Unless when no subject of satire's at home;
Or (since sweetest pleasures the soonest will cloy)
To give a new relish to surfeiting joy.

And when those dear pleasures no more shall be mine,
Not weary with life, nor yet loath to resign,
In death I would gently dissolve as in rest,
And this epitaph should be wrote in each breast:
The poet's ambition no farther did stray,
But to better his life, and better his lay,
To virtue's improvement, and vice's decay.





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