Ostendunt terris hunc tantùm fata, neo ultrà,
Ease sinunt. Virg.
i
With due proportion thy too cruel fate;
Could I some happy miracle bring forth,
Great as my wishes and thy greater worth,
All Helicon should soon be thine,
And pay a tribute to thy shrine.
The learnèd sisters all transformed should be,
No longer nine, but one Melpomene:
- ↑ This is the earliest poem that can be traced to a date. It was written in 1675, when Oldham was twenty years of age, and published in his Remains, four years after his death. It is carefully constructed on the models then in vogue, and shows considerable skill in the exhaustive process of extravagant panegyric. The germs of future excellence strike root boldly in this piece, which is remarkable for variety and fertility of illustration, and has many passages of sweetness and beauty. Pope considered this ode one of the best of Oldham's compositions, and noted it on a fly-leaf of a copy in his possession, for special commendation, together with the Fourth Satire on the Jesuits, the Satire on Virtue, the translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, and the Impertinent from Horace. This note of Pope's was communicated to Captain Thompson by Mr. Wilkes.
