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His roses nipt in every page,
My poor Anacreon mourns thy rage.
By thee my Ovid wounded lies;
By thee my Lesbia's sparrow dies:
Thy rabid teeth have half destroy'd
The work of love, in Biddy Floyd;
They rent Belinda's locks away,
And spoil'd the Blouzelind of Gay.
For all, for every single deed,
Relentless justice bids thee bleed.
Then fall a victim to the Nine,
Myself the priest, my desk the shrine.
Bring Homer, Virgil, Tasso near,
To pile a sacred altar here.

Hold, boy, thy hand outruns thy wit,
You reach'd the plays that Dennis writ;
You reach'd me Philips' rustic strain;
Pray take your mortal bards again.
Come, bind the victim,—there he lies,
And here between his numerous eyes
This venerable dust I lay,

From manuscripts just swept away.
The goblet in my hand I take,
(For the libation's yet to make)
A health to poets! all their days
May they have bread as well as praise;
Sense may they seek, and less engage
In papers fill'd with party-rage.
But if their riches spoil their vein,
Ye Muses, make them poor again.

Now bring the weapon, yonder blade
With which my tuneful pens are made.
I strike the scales that arm thee round,
And twice and thrice I print the wound;

The sacred altar floats with red,
And now he dies, and now he's dead.

How like the son of Jove I stand, This hydra stretch'd beneath my hand! Lay bare the monster's entrails here, To see what dangers threat the year: Ye gods! what sonnets on a wench? What lean translations out of French? 'Tis plain, this lobe is so unsound,

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prints before the months go round. But hold, before I close the scene, The sacred altar should be clean. Oh, had I Shadwell's second bays, Or Tate, thy pert and humble lays! (Ye pair, forgive me, when I vow I never miss'd your work till now) I'd tear the leaves to wipe the shrine, (That only way you please the Nine) But since I chance to want these two, I'll make the songs of Durfey do.

Rent from the corps, on yonder pin I hang the scales that brac'd it in: I hang my studious morning gown, And write my own inscription down:"This trophy from the Python won, This robe, in which the deed was done, These, Parnell, glorying in the feat, Hung on these shelves, the Muses' seat. Here ignorance and hunger found Large realms of wit to ravage round; Here ignorance and hunger fell, Two foes in one, I sent to hell. Ye poets, who my labours see, Come share the triumph all with me!

Ye critics! born to vex the Muse,
Go mourn the grand ally you lose.'

Parnell.

ON AN INKGLASS ALMOST DRIED IN THE SUN.

TO APOLLO.

PATRON of all those luckless brains,
That, to the wrong side leaning,
Indite much metre with much pains,
And little or no meaning.

Ah why, since oceans, rivers, streams,
That water all the nations,
Pay tribute to thy glorious beams,
In constant exhalations,

Why, stooping from the noon of day,
Too covetous of drink,
Apollo, hast thou stol'n away
A poet's drop of ink?

Upborne into the viewless air

It floats a vapour now,

Impell'd through regions dense and rare,
By all the winds that blow.

Ordain'd perhaps ere summer flies,
Combin'd with millions more,

To form an Iris in the skies,
Though black and foul before.

Illustrious drop! and happy then
Beyond the happiest lot,
Of all that ever pass'd my pen,
So soon to be forgot!

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Phoebus, if such be thy design,

To place it in thy bow,

Give wit, that what is left may shine
With equal grace below.

Cowper.

THE HAUNCH OF VENISON.

A POETICAL EPISTLE TO LORD CLARE.

THANKS, my lord, for your ven'son, for finer or fatter

Ne'er rang'd in a forest, or smok'd on a platter; The haunch was a picture for painters to study, The white was so white, and the red was so ruddy; Though my stomach was sharp, I could scarce help regretting

To spoil such a delicate picture by eating:

I had thoughts, in my chamber to place it in view, To be shown to my friends as a piece of vertù : As in some Irish houses, where things are so so, One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show;

But, for eating a rasher of what they take pride in, They'd as soon think of eating the pan it is fried in. But hold-let me pause-don't I hear you pronounce,

This tale of the bacon a damnable bounce;

Well, suppose it a bounce-sure a poet may try, By a bounce now and then, to get courage to fly. But, my lord, it's no bounce: I protest, in my turn,

It's a truth, and your lordship may ask Mr. Burne*.

• Lord Clare's nephew.

To go on with my tale-as I gaz'd on the haunch,
I thought of a friend that was trusty and staunch;
So I cut it, and sent it to Reynolds undrest,
To paint it, or eat it, just as he lik'd best,

Of the neck and the breast I had next to dispose; "Twas a neck and a breast that might rival Monroe's; But in parting with these I was puzzled again, With the how, and the who, and the where, and the when.

There's Coley, and Williams, and Howard, and
Hiff-

I think they love ven'son-I know they love beef.
There's my countryman Higgins-oh! let him alone,
For making a blunder, or picking a bone.
But hang it--to poets, that seldom can eat,
Your very good mutton's a very good treat;
Such dainties to them, it would look like a flirt,
Like sending 'em ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
While thus I debated, in reverie center'd,
Au acquaintance, a friend (as he call'd himself) en-
An under-bred, fine-spoken fellow was he, [ter'd;
Who smil❜d as he gaz'd at the ven❜son and me.
'What have we got here? Why this is good eating!
Your own, I suppose-or is it in waiting?'

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Why whose should it be, sir? cried I with a flounce;

'I get these things often'-but that was a bounce : 'Some lords, my acquaintance, that settle the nation,

Are pleas'd to be kind--but I hate ostentation.'

"If that be the case then,' cried he very gay, 'I'm glad I have taken this house in my way. To-morrow you take a poor dinner with me; No words-I insist on't—precisely at three :

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