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« Which, unobserv'd, a wand'ring Greek and blind,
"Heard me repeat, and treafur'd in his mind;
"And fir'd with thirft of more than mortal praise,
"From me, the God of Wit, ufurp'd the bays.
"But let vain Greece indulge her growing fame,
"Proud with celeftial fpoils to grace her name;
"Yet when my arts fhall triumph in the Weft,
"And the white ifle with female pow'r is bleft;
"Fame, I foresee, will make reprisals there,
"And the tranflator's palm to me transfer.
"With lefs regret my claim I now decline,
"The world will think his English Iliad mine."

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E. FENTON.

To Mr. P O P E.

TO praife, and ftill with just respect to praise
A bard triumphant in immortal bays,

The learn'd to fhow, the fenfible commend,
Yet ftill preserve the province of the friend;
What life, what vigour, muft the lines require?
What mufic tune them, what affection fire?

O might thy genius in my bofom shine;
Thou should'ft not fail of numbers worthy thine;
The brightest ancients might at once agree
To fing within my lays, and fing of thee.

Horace himself would own thou doft excell

In candid arts to play the critic well,
Ovid himself might wish to fing the dame
Whom Windfor-Foreft fees a gliding ftream:
On filver fect with annual ofier crown'd,
She runs for ever thro' poetic ground.

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How

How flame the glories of Belinda's hair,
Made by the Mufe the envy of the fair?
Lefs fhone the treffes Egypt's princes wore,
Which fweet Callimachus fo fung before.
Here courtly trifles fet the world at odds;
Bells war with beaux, and whims defcend for gods.
The new machines, in names of ridicule,
Mock the grave phrenzy of the chemic fool.
But know, ye fair, a point conceal'd with art,

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The Sylphs and Gnomes are but a woman's heart.
The graces ftand in fight; a fatire-train

Peeps o'er their head, and laughs behind the scene.
In Fame's fair temple, o'er the boldest wits
Infhrin'd on high the facred Virgil fits;
And fits in measures fuch as Virgil's mufe

To place thee near him might be fond to chufe.
How might he tune th' alternate reed with thee,
Perhaps a Strephon thou, a Daphnis he;
While fome old Damon, o'er the vulgar wife,
Thinks he deferves, and thou deserv'st the prize?
Rapt with the thought, my fancy feeks the plains,
And turns me fhepherd while I hear the ftrains.
Indulgent nurfe of ev'ry tender gale,
Parent of flow'rets, old Arcadia, hail !
Here in the cool my limbs at eafe I fpread,
Here let thy poplars whisper o'er my head:
Still flide thy waters, foft among the trees,
Thy afpins quiver in a breathing breeze!

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Smile, all ye vallies, in eternal spring,

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Be hufh'd, ye winds, while Pope and Virgil fing.
In English lays, and all fublimely great,
Thy Homer warms with all his ancient heat;
He shines in council, thunders in the fight,
And flames with ev'ry fenfe of great delight.

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Long has that poet reign'd, and long unknown,

Like monarchs fparkling on a diftant throne;

In

In all the majesty of Greek, retir'd,
Himfelf unknown, his mighty name admir'd;

His language failing, wrapt him round with night; 55
Thine, rais'd by thee, recalls the work to light.
So wealthy mines, that ages long before
Fed the large realms around with golden ore,
When choak'd by finking banks, no more appear,
And fhepherds only fay, The mines were here:
Should fome rich youth (if nature warm his heart,
And all his projects stand inform'd with art)
Here clear the caves, there ope the leading vein;
The mines detected flame with gold again.

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How vaft, how copious, are thy new defigns!

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How ev'ry mufic varies in thy lines!

Still, as I read, I feel my bofom beat,

And rife in raptures by another's heat.

Thus in the wood, when fummer dress'd the days,
While Windfor lent us tuneful hours of ease,
Our ears the lark, the thrufh, the turtle bleft,
And Philomela fweeteft o'er the reft:
The fhades refound with fong-Ofoftly tread,
While a whole season warbles round my head.

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This to my friend and when a friend infpires,

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My filent harp its mafter's hand requires,

Shakes off the duft, and makes thefe rocks refound;

For fortune plac'd me in unfertile ground :

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Far from the joys that with my foul agree,
From wit, from learning-very far from thee.
Here mofs-grown trees expand the fmalleft leaf;
Hère half an acre's corn is half a theaf;
Here hills with naked heads the tempeft meet,
Rocks at their fides, and torrents at their feet;
Or lazy lakes, unconfcious of a flood,
Whose dull brown Naiads ever fleep in mud.
Yet here content can dwell, and learned eafe,
A friend delight me, and an author pleafe;
VOL. I.!

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Ev'n

Ev'n here I fing, when POPE fupplies the theme,
Shew my own love, tho' not increafe his fame."

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LET vulgar fouls triumphal arches taife,

Or fpeaking marbles, to record their praise; And picture (to the voice of fame unknown) The mimic feature on the breathing stone; Mere mortals; fubject to death's total fway, Reptiles of earth, and beings of a day !

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'Tis thine, on ev'ry heart to grave thy práife, A monument which worth alone can raife! Sure to furvive, when time fhall whelm in duft The arch, the marble, and the mimic buft Nor 'till the volumes of th' expanded fky enha Blaze in one flame, fhalt thou and Homer die : Then fink together in the world's laft fires, What heav'n created, and what heav'n inspires. If ought on earth, when once this breath is fled, 15 With human tranfport touch the mighty dead,, Shakespear rejoice! his hand thy page refines; Now ev'ry fcene with native brightness fhines Juft to thy fame, he gives thy genuine thought; So Tully publifh'd what Lucretius wrote; 20 Prun'd by his care, thy laurels loftier grow, And bloom afresh on thy immortal brow.

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Thus when thy draughts, O Raphael !, time invades, And the bold figure from the canvass, fades, i h A rival hand recalls from ev'ry part. Some latent grace, and equals art with art;.

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Transported

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Tranfported we furvey the dubious ftrife,
While each fair image ftarts again to life.
How long, untun'd, had Homer's facred lyre
Jarr'd grating difcord, all extinct his fire?
This you beheld and, taught by heav'n to fing,
Call'd the loud mufic from the founding ftring.
Now wak'd from flumbers of three thoufand years,
Once more Achilles in dread pomp appears,"
Tours o'er the field of death; as fierce he turns,
Keen flash his arms, and all the hero burns;
With martial stalk, and more than mortal might,
He ftrides along, and meets the gods in fight:
Then the pale Titans, chain'd on burning floors,
Start at the din that rends th' infernal fhores,

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Tremble the tow'rs of heav'n, earth rocks her coafts,

And gloomy Pluto shakes with all his ghofts.

To ev'ry theme refponds thy various lay;

Here rolls a torrent, there meanders play;
Sonorous as the ftorm thy numbers rife,

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Tofs the wild waves, and thunder in the fkies;
Or fofter than a yielding virgin's figh,

The gentle breezes breath away and die.

Thus, like the radiant god who sheds the day,
You paint the vale, or gild the azure way;

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And while with ev'ry theme the verse complies,
Sink without groveling, without rashness rise.

Proceed, great bard! awake th' harmonious ftring,

Be ours all Homer! ftill Ulyffes fing.

How long that hero, by unskilful hands,

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Strip'd of his robes, a beggar trod our lands?
Such as he wander'd o'er his native coaft,
Shrunk by the wand, and all the warrior loft :
O'er his fimooth fkin a bark of wrinkles fpread;
Old age difgrac'd the honours of his head ;

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Nor longer in his heavy, eye-ball shin'd

The glance divine, forth-beaming from the mind.
But you, like Pallas, ev'ry limb infold y

With royal robes, and bid him fhine in gold;

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