Samuel Low (b. 1765)

GENIUS of tuneful verse! inspired by whom,

Divine Mæonides in numbers first

Dawn’d on a world o’ercast with mental gloom,

And strains sublime to barb’rous Greece rehearsed;

Spirit of song! from whose Castalian fount

The Mantuan poet sweet instruction drew;

With piercing ken to whose Aonian mount,

Once Albion’s bards on eagle pinions flew;

Though far aloof thy vot’ry stretch his wing,

That o’er no classic land presumes to soar,

Him hast thou taught in plaintive strains to sing,

To feel thy solace, and thy power adore;

And, spite of envy’s futile venom, thou

Hast placed a leaf of laurel on his brow.