XII

Then, Sir, accept this worthless verse,
The tribute of an humble Muse,
'Tis all the portion of my niggard stars;

Nature the hidden spark did at my birth infuse,
And kindled first with indolence and ease;
And since too oft debauch'd by praise,

'Tis now grown an incurable disease:
In vain to quench this foolish fire I try
In wisdom and philosophy:

In vain all wholesome herbs I sow, Where nought but weeds will grow Whate'er I plant (like corn on barren earth) By an equivocal birth,

Seeds, and runs up to poetry.

T°

ODE TO KING WILLIAM

ON HIS SUCCESSES IN IRELAND

O purchase kingdoms and to buy renown, Are arts peculiar to dissembling France; You, mighty monarch, nobler actions crown, And solid virtue does your name advance.

Your matchless courage with your prudence joins,
The glorious structure of your fame to raise;
With its own light your dazzling glory shines,
And into adoration turns our praise.

Had you by dull succession gain'd your crown,
(Cowards are monarchs by that title made,)
Part of your merit Chance would call her own,
And half your virtues had been lost in shade.

But now your worth its just reward shall, have:
What trophies and what triumphs are your due!
Who could so well a dying nation save,

At once deserve a crown, and gain it too.

You saw how near we were to ruin brought,

You saw th' impetuous torrent rolling on; And timely on the coming danger thought,

Which we could neither obviate nor shun.

Britannia stripp'd of her sole guard, the laws,
Ready to fall Rome's bloody sacrifice;

You straight stepp'd in, and from the monster's jaws
Did bravely snatch the lovely, helpless prize.

Nor this is all; as glorious is the care

To preserve conquests, as at first to gain:
In this your virtue claims a double share,
Which, what it bravely won, does well maintain.

Your arm has now your rightful title show'd,
An arm on which all Europe's hopes depend,
To which they look as to some guardian God,
That must their doubtful liberty defend.

Amazed, thy action at the Boyne we see!

When Schomberg started at the vast design: The boundless glory all redounds to thee,

The impulse, the fight, th' event, were wholly thine.

The brave attempt does all our foes disarm;

You need but now give orders and command, Your name shall the remaining work perform, And spare the labour of your conquering hand.

France does in vain her feeble arts apply,
To interrupt the fortune of your course:
Your influence does the vain attacks defy
Of secret malice, or of open force.

Boldly we hence the brave commencement date
Of glorious deeds, that must all tongues employ;
William's the pledge and earnest given by fate,
Of England's glory, and her lasting joy.

ODE TO THE ATHENIAN SOCIETY'

I

Moor Park, Feb. 14, 1691.

S when the deluge first began to fall,

AS That mighty ebb never to flow again,

When this huge body's moisture was so great,
It quite o'ercame the vital heat;

That mountain which was highest, first of all
Appear'd above the universal main,

To bless the primitive sailor's weary sight;
And 'twas perhaps Parnassus, if in height
It be as great as 'tis in fame,

And nigh to Heaven as is its name;
So, after the inundation of a war,

When learning's little household did embark,
With her world's fruitful system, in her sacred ark,
At the first ebb of noise and fears,

Philosophy's exalted head' appears;

And the Dove-Muse will now no longer stay,
But plumes her silver wings, and flies away;
And now a laurel wreath she brings from far,
To crown the happy conqueror,

To show the flood begins to cease,

And brings the dear reward of victory and peace.

II

The eager Muse took wing upon the waves' decline,
When war her cloudy aspect just withdrew,
When the bright sun of peace began to shine,
And for a while in heavenly contemplation sat,
On the high top of peaceful Ararat;

And pluck'd a laurel branch, (for laurel was the first that grew,

"I have been told, that Dryden having perused these verses, said, 'Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet;' and that this denunciation was the motive of Swift's perpetual malevolence to Dryden."Johnson in his "Life of Swift. -W. E. B.

In Malone's "Life of Dryden," p. 241, it is stated that John Dunton, the original projector of the Athenian Society, in his "Life and Errours," 1705, mentions this Ode," which being an ingenious poem, was prefixed to the fifth Supplement of the Athenian Mercury."-W. E. B.

The first of plants after the thunder, storm and rain,)
And thence, with joyful, nimble wing,

Flew dutifully back again,

And made an humble chaplet for the king.1

And the Dove-Muse is fled once more,

(Glad of the victory, yet frighten'd at the war,) And now discovers from afar

A peaceful and a flourishing shore:

No sooner did she land

On the delightful strand,

Than straight she sees the country all around,
Where fatal Neptune ruled erewhile,

Scatter'd with flowery vales, with fruitful gardens crown'd,
And many a pleasant wood;

As if the universal Nile

Had rather water'd it than drown'd:
It seems some floating piece of Paradise,
Preserved by wonder from the flood,
Long wandering through the deep, as we are told
Famed Delos' did of old;

And the transported Muse imagined it
To be a fitter birth-place for the God of wit,
Or the much-talk'd-of oracular grove;

When, with amazing joy, she hears
An unknown music all around,

Charming her greedy ears

With many a heavenly song

Of nature and of art, of deep philosophy and love;
While angels tune the voice, and God inspires the tongue.
In vain she catches at the empty sound,

In vain pursues the music with her longing eye,
And courts the wanton echoes as they fly.

III

Pardon, ye great unknown, and far-exalted men,
The wild excursions of a youthful pen;

1 The Ode I writ to the king in Ireland.-Swift.

2 The floating island, which, by order of Neptune, became fixed for the use of Latona, who there brought forth Apollo and Diana. See Ovid, "Metam.," vi, 191, etc.-W. E. B.

Forgive a young and (almost) virgin Muse,
Whom blind and eager curiosity

(Yet curiosity, they say,

Is in her sex a crime needs no excuse)

Has forced to grope her uncouth way,
After a mighty light that leads her wandering eye:
No wonder then she quits the narrow path of sense
For a dear ramble through impertinence;
Impertinence! the scurvy of mankind.

And all we fools, who are the greater part of it,
Though we be of two different factions still,
Both the good-natured and the ill,

Yet wheresoe'er you look, you'll always find
We join, like flies and wasps, in buzzing about wit.
In me, who am of the first sect of these,
All merit, that transcends the humble rules
Of my own dazzled scanty sense,
Begets a kinder folly and impertinence
Of admiration and of praise.

And our good brethren of the surly sect,

Must e'en all herd us with their kindred fools:

For though possess'd of present vogue, they've made
Railing a rule of wit, and obloquy a trade;

Yet the same want of brains produces each effect.
And you, whom Pluto's helm does wisely shroud
From us, the blind and thoughtless crowd,
Like the famed hero in his mother's cloud,
Who both our follies and impertinences see,
Do laugh perhaps at theirs, and pity mine and me.

IV

But censure's to be understood

Th' authentic mark of the elect,

The public stamp Heaven sets on all that's great and good,
Our shallow search and judgment to direct.

The war, methinks, has made
Our wit and learning narrow as our trade;
Instead of boldly sailing far, to buy
A stock of wisdom and philosophy,

We fondly stay at home, in fear
Of every censuring privateer;