The Insignificance of mere Parade.
Oh! if servility with supple knees,
Whose trade it is to smile, to crouch, to please; If smooth dissimulation, skill'd to grace
A devil's purpose with an angel's face; If smiling peeresses, and simp'ring peers Encompassing his throne a few short years; If the gilt carriage and the pamper'd steed, That wants no driving, and disdains the lead If guards, mechanically form'd in ranks, Playing, at beat of drum, their martial pranks, Should'ring and standing as if stuck to stone, While condescending majesty looks on; If monarchy consist in such base things, Sighing, I say again, I pity kings!
To be suspected, thwarted, and withstood, Ev'n when he labours for his country's good; To see a band, call'd patriot, for no cause, But that they catch at popular applause, Careless of all th' anxiety he feels,
Hook disappointment on the public wheels;
The Discomforts of Royalty.
With all their flippant fluency of tongue, Most confident, when palpably most wrong; If this be kingly, then farewell for me
All kingship, and may I be poor and free! To be the table-talk of clubs up stairs, To which th' unwash'd artificer repairs, T' indulge his genius after long fatigue, By diving into cabinet intrigue;
(For what kings deem a toil, as well they may, To him is relaxation and mere play)
To win no praise when well-wrought plans prevail, But to be rudely censur'd when they fail;
To doubt the love his fav'rites may pretend, And in reality to find no friend,
If he indulge a cultivated taste,
His gall'ries with the works of art well grac'd, To hear it call'd extravagance and waste; If these attendants, and if such as these, Must follow royalty, then welcome ease; However humble and confin'd the sphere, Happy the state that has not these to fear.
The Muse not an Inhabitant of Cheapside.
A. Thus men, whose thoughts contemplative have
On situations that they never felt,
Start up sagacious, cover'd with the dust Of dreaming study and pedantic rust,
And prate and preach about what others prove, As if the world and they were hand and glove. Leave kingly backs to cope with kingly cares; They have their weight to carry, subjects their's; Poets, of all men, ever least regret
Increasing taxes and the nation's debt.
Could you contrive the payment, and rehearse The mighty plan, oracular, in verse,
No bard, howe'er majestic, old or new,
Should claim my fixt attention more than you. B. Not Brindley nor Bridgewater would essay To turn the course of Helicon that way; Nor would the nine consent the sacred tide Should purl amidst the traffic of Cheapside, Or tinkle in 'Change Alley, to amuse
The leathern ears of stock-jobbers and jews.
A Baton's Scorn of arbitrary Chains.
A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of rhyme To themes more pertinent, if less sublime.
When ministers and ministerial arts,
Patriots, who love good places at their hearts; When admirals, extoll'd for standing still, Or doing nothing with a deal of skill;
Gen'rals who will not conquer when they may,
Firm friends to peace, to pleasure, and good pay; When freedom, wounded almost to despair, Though discontent alone can find out where; When themes like these employ the poet's tongue, I hear as mute as if a syren sung.
Or, tell me, if you can, what pow'r maintains
A Briton's scorn of arbitrary chains?
That were a theme might animate the dead, And move the lips of poets cast in lead.
B. The cause, tho' worth the search, may yet elude Conjecture and remark, however shrewd, They take, perhaps, a well-directed aim, Who seek it in his climate and his frame."
The Result of changeful Seasons.
Lib'ral in all things else, yet nature here With stern severity deals out the year. Winter invades the spring, and often pours A chilling flood on summer's drooping flow'rs; Unwelcome vapours quench autumnal beams, Ungenial blasts attending, curl the streams; The peasants urge their harvest, ply the fork With double toil, and shiver at their work; Thus with a rigour, for his good design'd, She rears her fav'rite man of all mankind, His form robust and of elastic tone, Proportion'd well, half muscle and half bone, Supplies with warm activity and force
A mind well lodg'd and masculine of course. Hence liberty, sweet liberty inspires, And keeps alive, his fierce but noble fires. Patient of constitutional controul,
He bears it with meek manliness of soul; But if authority grow wanton, woe
To him that treads upon the free-born toe;
« ForrigeFortsett » |