ON

MR. POPE AND HIS POEMS.

BY JOHN SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF LUCKINGHAM.
With age decay’d, with courts and business tird,
Caring for nothing but what ease requir'd;
Too dully serious for the Muse's sport,
And, from the critics, safe arriv'd in port;
I little thought of lannehing forth again,
Amidst adventurons rovers of the pen ;
And after so much undeserv'd success,
Thus hazarding, at last, to make it less..

Encomiums suit not this censorious time,
Itself a subject for satiric rhyme :
Ignorance honour'd, wit and worth defamid;
Folly triumphant, and ev’n Homer blam'd!
But to this genius, join'd with so.duch art,
Such various learning mix'd in every part,
Poets are bound a loud applause to pay ;
Spollo bids it, and they mikt obey.

And yet so wonderful, sublime a thing,
As the great Iliad, scaree conld make me sirg;.
Except I justly could at once commend
A good companion, and as firn a friend,
One moral, or a mere well-natar'd deed,
Can all desert in sciences exceed.
'Tis great delight to laugh at some men's ways,
But a much greater to give merit praise..

TO MR. POPE.

BY DR. PARNELL.
To praise, and still with just respect to praise
A bard triumphant in immortal hays;
The learn'd to show, the sensible commend,
Yet still preserve the province of the friend ;
What life, what vigour, must the lines require!
What music tune them, what affection fire!

O might thy genius in my bosom shine,,
Thon should'st not fail of numbers worthy thine ;
The brightest ancients might at once agree
To sing within my lays, and sing of thee.

Horace himself would own thou dost excel
In candid arts to play the critic well.
Ovid himself 'might wish to sing the dame
Whom Windsor-Forest sees a gliding stream;
Op silver feet, with annual osier crown'd,
She runs for ever through poetic ground.

How flame the glories of Belinda's bair,
Made by thy Muse the envy of the fair!
Less shone the tresses Egypt's princess wore,
Which sweet Callimachus so sung before.
Here courtly trities set the world at odds;
Belles war with beaux, and whims descend for gods.
The new machines, in names of ridicule,
Mock the grave frenzy of the chemic fool.
But know, ye Fair, a point conceald with art,
The sylphs and gnomes are but a woman's heart:
The graces stand in sight; a satyr-train
Peeps o'er their head, and laughs behind the scene.

In Fame's fair temple, o'er the boldest wits, Inshrin'd on bigb the sacred Virgil sits ; And sits in measyrés such as Virgil's Muse, To place thee near him might be fond to clioose : How might he tune the alternate reed with thee, Perhaps a Strephon thou, a Daphnis he; While some old Damon, o'er the vulgar wise, Thinks he deserves, and thon deserv'st the prize! Rapt with the thought, my fancy seeks the plains, And turns me shepherd while I hear the strains. Indulgent nurse of every tender gale, Parent of flowrets, old Arcadia, hail ! Here in the cool my limbs at ease 1 spread, Here let thy poplars whisper o'er my head; Still slide thy waters, soft among the trees, Thy aspin quiver in a breathing breeze! Smile, all ye vallies, in eternal spring, Be hush'd ye winds, while Pope and Virgit sing. In English lays, and all sublimely great, Thy Homer warms with all his ancient heat; He shines in council, thunders in the fight, And flames with every sense of great delight. Long has that poet reign'd, and long unknown, Like monarchs sparkling on a distant throne; In all the majesty of Greek retir’d, Himself unkgown, his mighty pame admir'd; His language failing, wrapt him round with night; Thine, rais'd by thee, recals the work to light. So wealthy mines, that ages long before Fed the large realms around with golden ore, When chok'd by sinking banks, no more appear, And shepherds only say, 'The mines were here;' Should some rich youth (if Nature warms his heart, And all his projects stand inform'd with art)

Here clear the caves, there ope the leading vein, The mines detected flame with gold again.

How vast, how copious, are thy new designs ! How every music varies in thy lines ! Still, as I read, I feel my bosom beat, And rise in raptures by another's heat. Thus in the wood, when summer dress'd the days, While Windsor lent us tuneful hours of ease, Our ears the lark, the thrush, the turtle bless'd, And Philomela sweetest o'er the rest : The shades resound with song—0, softly tread, While a whole season warbles round my head.

This to my friend; and when a friend inspires, My silent barp its master's band requires, Shakes off the dust, and makes these rocks resound; For Fortupe plac'd me in unfertile ground; Far from the joys that with my soul agree, From wit, from learning-very far from thee. Here moss-grown trees expand the smallest leaf; Here half an acre's corn is half a sheaf; Here hills with naked heads the tempest meet, Rocks at their sides, and torrents at their feet; Or lazy lakes, unconscious of a flood, Whose dull brown Naiads ever sleep in mud: Yet here content can dwell, and learned ease, A friend delight me, and an author please ; Ev'n here I sing when Pope supplies the theme, Show my own love, though not increase his fame.