TO MR. JOHN MOORE, AUTHOR OF THE CELEBRATED WORM-POWDER. How much, egregious Moore, are we Whate'er we think, whate'er we fee, Man is a very Worm by birth, That Woman is a Worm, we find The Learn'd themselves we Book-worms name, The Nymph whose tail is all on flame, Is aptly term'd a Glow-worm. The Fops are painted Butterflies, That flutter for a day; First from a Worm they take their rife, And in a Worm decay. The The Flatterer an Earwig grows; Thus Worms fuit all conditions; Mifers are Muck-worms, Silk-worms Beaus, And Death-watches Physicians. That Statesmen have the Worm, is seen, By all their winding play; Their Confcience is a Worm within, Ah Moore! thy skill were well employ'd, If thou couldst make the Courtier void O learned Friend of Abchurch-Lane, Our Fate thou only canft adjourn Ev'n Button's Wits to Worms shall turn, SONG, BY A PERSON OF QUALITY. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1733. I. FLUTT'RING fpread thy purple Pinions, I a Slave in thy Dominions; Nature must give way to Art. II. Mild Arcadians, ever blooming, See my weary Days confuming, III. Thus the Cyprian Goddefs weeping, IV. Cynthia, tune harmonious Numbers; V. Gloomy V. Gloomy Pluto, King of Terrors, VI. Mournful Cypress, verdant Willow, VII. Melancholy fmooth Maander, On thy Margin Lovers wander, With thy flow'ry Chaplets crown'd. VIII. Thus when Philomela, drooping, Softly feeks her filent Mate, See the Bird of Juno stooping; Melody refigns to Fate. THE above is a pleasant burlefque on the gawdy, glittering, florid ftyle and manner of certain descriptive poets. I think the reader will pardon me for laying before him part of a piece of ridicule on the fame subject, and of equal merit, which made its first appearance many years ago in the Oxford Student, and is thus entitled, "Ode to Horror, in the Allegoric, Defcriptive, Alli. terative, Epithetical, Fantastic, Hyperbolical, and Diabolical Style of our Modern Ode- Writers and Monody-Mongers." "Ferreus ingruit Horror." "O Goddefs of the gloomy fcene, Of fhadowy shapes, thou black-brow'd Queen; On yonder mould'ring abbey found; VIRG. |