Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
Thomas Warton (1728–1790)Sonnet Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s ‘Monasticon’
D
By Fancy’s genuine feelings unbeguiled,
Of painful pedantry the poring child,
Who turns, of these proud domes, th’ historic page,
Now sunk by Time, and Henry’s fiercer rage.
Think’st thou the warbling Muses never smiled
On his lone hours? Ingenuous views engage
His thoughts, on themes, unclassic falsely styled,
Intent. While cloistered Piety displays
Her mouldering roll, the piercing eye explores
New manners, and the pomp of elder days,
Whence culls the pensive bard his pictured stores.
Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways
Of hoar Antiquity, but strown with flowers.