Nor painted Horror, Grief, or Rage, And tore the Leaf from Nature's Book. ODE ODE TO GENIUS. TH I. HOU Child of Nature, Genius ftrong, ; Whom every Mufe endow'd with every Skill, And dipt him in that facred Rill, Whofe filver Streams flow mufical along, Where Phoebus' hallow'dMount refounds with raptur'd Song. II. Forfake not Thou the vocal Choir, Their Breafts revifit with thy genial Fire, Elfe vain the ftudied Sounds of mimic Art, Tickle the Ear, but come not nigh the Heart. Vain every Phrafe in curious Order fet, On each Side leaning on the [ftop-gap] Epithet. Vain the quick Rime still tinckling in the Clofe, While pure Description fhines in meafur'd Profe. Thou bear'ft a-loof, and look'st with high Difdain, Upon the dull mechanic Train; Whose nerveless Strains flag on in languid Tone, Lifeless and lumpifh as the Bag-pipe's drowzy Drone. III. No III. No longer now thy Altars blaze, For when the Oak denies her Stay, No more fhe twifts her Branches round, Where then shall exil'd Genius go? And boaft them of the Poet's Name, Whofe fober Rimes in even Tenour flow; Why fleep the Sons of Genius now?" And thou, blest Bard! around whofe facred Great Pindar's delegated Wreath is hung; [Brow, Arife, and fnatch the Majefty of Song, From Dullness' fervile Tribe, and Arts unhallow'd Throng. * By TASTE, is here meant the modern Affectation of it. TRAN TRANSLATION; A POEM. S UCH is our Pride, our Folly, or our Fate, late.' So Denham fung, who well the Labour knew; 5 10 15 LINE 18. Cowley attacks, &c. Nothing can be more contemptible than the Tranflations and Imitations of Pindar done by Gowley, which yet have had their Admirers. O'er Tibur's Swan the Mufes wept in vain, In bleft Arabia's Plains unfading blow 20 To Northern Climes th' unwilling Guefts convey, 25 The modern Critic, whofe unletter'd Pride, 30 35 LINE 20. See Horace's Epiftles, Satires, and Art of Poetry, done into English by S. Dunster, D. D. Prebendary of Sarum. LINE 21, 22. See their Tranflations of Homer and Virgil. LINE 31. The modern Critic, &c. Les belles traductions (fays Boileau) font des preuves fans replique en faveur des anciens, qu'on leur donne les Racines pout interpretes, & ils fcauront plaire aujourdhui comme autrefois. Certain it is, that the Contempt, in which the Ancients are held by the illiterate Wits of the prefent Age, is in a great Measure owing to the Number of bad Tranflations. LINE 36. See Adams's Profe Tranflation of Sophocles. Concludes |