Page:An Essay on Translated Verse - Roscommon (1684).djvu/43

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For that which Rome to Conquest did Inspire,
Was not the Vestal, but the Muses sire;
Heaven joyns the Blessings, no declining Age,
E're felt the Raptures of Poetick Rage.

Of many faults, Rhyme is (perhaps) the Cause,
Too strict to Rhyme We slight more useful Laws.
For That, in Greece or Rome, was never known,
'Till By Barbarian Deluges oreflown,
Subdu'd, Undone, They did at Last, Obey,
And change their Own for their Invaders way.

I grant that from some Mossy, Idol Oak
In Double Rhymes our Thor and Woden spoke;
And by Succession of unlearned Times,
As Bards began so Monks Rung on the Chimes.

But