| |
| SEE yonder hill, so green, so round, | |
| Its brow with ambient beeches crowned! | |
| ’Twould well become thy gentle care | |
| To raise a dome to Venus there: | |
| Pleas’d would the nymphs thy zeal survey; | 5 |
| And Venus, in their arms, repay. | |
| ’Twas such a shade, and such a nook | |
| In such a vale, near such a brook, | |
| From such a rocky fragment springing, | |
| That famed Apollo chose, to sing in. | 10 |
| There let an altar wrought with art | |
| Engage thy tuneful patron’s heart, | |
| How charming there to muse and warble | |
| Beneath his bust of breathing marble! | |
| With laurel wreath and mimic lyre | 15 |
| That crown a poet’s vast desire. | |
| Then, near it, scoop the vaulted cell | |
| Where Music’s charming maids may dwell; | |
| Prone to indulge thy tender passion, | |
| And make thee many an assignation. | 20 |
| Deep in the grove’s obscure retreat | |
| Be placed Minerva’s sacred seat; | |
| There let her awful turrets rise | |
| (For Wisdom flies from vulgar eyes:) | |
| There her calm dictates shalt thou hear | 25 |
| Distinctly strike thy listening ear: | |
| And who would shun the pleasing labour | |
| To have Minerva for his neighbour? * * * * * | |
| But did the Muses haunt his cell? | |
| Or in his dome did Venus dwell? | 30 |
| Did Pallas in his counsels share? | |
| The Delian god reward his prayer? | |
| Or did his zeal engage the fair? | |
| When all the structures shone complete | |
| Not much convenient, wondrous neat; | 35 |
| Adorned with gilding, painting, planting, | |
| And the fair guests alone were wanting. | |
| Ah me! (’twas Damon’s own confession) | |
| Came Poverty and took possession. | |
| |
