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For his assistance in my Poetical Compositions.
TO Thee, great GOD! I lift my humble strains, | |
| My verse inspire; let judgment hold the reins, | |
| And curb my fancy’s fierce unruly fire, | |
| Which else would, wild, to boundless flights aspire. | |
| May I not write too little, or too much, | 5 |
| But paint with care, not with a hasty touch. | |
| May all my thoughts be rather just than high, | |
| And never let me rave when I should fly. | |
| But yet secure me from the low extreme, | |
| Of writing meaner than becomes my theme. | 10 |
| Through all my works, let order clearly shine, | |
| And let me know the reason of each line. | |
| Give me to trace out nature in each thought, | |
| And let each piece be to perfection brought; | |
| A subject for my genius fit to choose, | 15 |
| Not vainly light, nor yet profanely loose, | |
| But innocent, at least, if not sublime, | |
| And let my numbers smoothly flow in rhyme. | |
| May each production, writ with strength and ease, | |
| The ear, the judgment, and the fancy please. | 20 |
| But if my soul, by a superior flame, | |
| Was never fir’d to merit lasting fame, | |
| Awaken’d, let me see my fond mistake, | |
| And with just anger from my folly break. | |
| Nor let me in the poet lose the priest, | 25 |
| But know both what and when to write is best; | |
| From wasting, to redeem my vacant hours, | |
| And to refine the roughness of my powers. | |
| The brightest ancients let me read and know, | |
| And let their spirit in my numbers flow; | 30 |
| And all the moderns, who, by thee inspired, | |
| Will be, as long as nature lasts, admired: | |
| By nobler patterns so to form my lays, | |
| As from the thinking few to merit praise. | |
| But most, dear God, assist my towering lyre, | 35 |
| To sound thy name upon its trembling wire; | |
| Be thou the subject of my lofty verse, | |
| And, thine unbounded work, the universe: | |
| The streaming purple, gushing from his heart, | |
| Which made the Saviour’s suffering soul depart. | 40 |
| Doubly immortal, then, shall be my fame, | |
| Heaven shall contain my soul, and earth my name. | |
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