Faction Display'd/To the Unknown Author

by William Shippen

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To the Unknown

AUTHOR

Of the Incomparable

POEM

Faction Display'd.

O Matchless Genius! Whose Exalted Lays
Transcend my humble and unequal Praise.
Not fam'd Apelles Pencil could express
The Beauteous Heav'n of Cytherea's Face;
Nor any Art your Muse's Image draw,
Who what she is, like Light, herself can only show.

⁠Let other Poets, in untuneful Verse,
Or Delia's, or Lardella's Charms rehearse;
Let Songs and Sonnets be their humble Choice,
Let them conform their Subjects be to their Voice.
But your refin'd, your more extended Thought
(With, Judgment, Wit, Experience, Learning fraught)
Pursues a Loftier, Theam, a Nobler Height,
And Fathoms all the Secrets of the State;
Displays the Wily Arts of Human-Kind,
How Faction sowrs the Blood, and gnaws upon the Mind.

⁠Strong and Majestick does your Stile appear,
Your Notions weighty, your Reflections clear.
With nicest Art, you turn each Polish'd Line,
To make your Darling Celsus in full Lustre shine.
But oh! In what a moving Strain you Mourn
O're the belov'd Marcellus sacred Urn,

Mingling the sweetest Joy with the severest Grief,
Like the fam'd Spear, at once you Wound, at once Relieve.

⁠'Twas Harmony (as Learned Antients thought)
The Nat'ral World to Form and Order brought;
And may your Heav'nly ever Tuneful Lays,⁠$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
Make all our Factions, our Divisions cease,
Charm and Compose the Moral World to Peace.

H.B.