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"Come then that honest fame; whose sober ray
"Or gilds the satire, or the moral lay;
"Which dawns, tho' thou, rough Donne! hew out the line;
"But beams, sage Horace! from each strain of thine.
"O! if, like these, one poet more could brave
"The venal statesman, or the titled slave;
"Brand frontless Vice, strip all her stars and strings,
"Nor spare her basking in the smile of Kings:
"Yet stoop to Virtue, tho' the prostrate maid
"Lay sadly pale in bleak misfortune's shade:
If grave, yet lively; rational, yet warm;
"Clear to convince, and eloquent to charm;
"He pour'd, for her lov'd cause, serene along
"The purest precept, in the sweetest song:
"For her lov'd cause, he trac'd his moral plan,
"Yon various region of bewild'ring man;
"Or gilds the satire, or the moral lay;
"Which dawns, tho' thou, rough Donne! hew out the line;
"But beams, sage Horace! from each strain of thine.
"O! if, like these, one poet more could brave
"The venal statesman, or the titled slave;
"Brand frontless Vice, strip all her stars and strings,
"Nor spare her basking in the smile of Kings:
"Yet stoop to Virtue, tho' the prostrate maid
"Lay sadly pale in bleak misfortune's shade:
If grave, yet lively; rational, yet warm;
"Clear to convince, and eloquent to charm;
"He pour'd, for her lov'd cause, serene along
"The purest precept, in the sweetest song:
"For her lov'd cause, he trac'd his moral plan,
"Yon various region of bewild'ring man;
"Explor'd
