450 POET-POETRY. 2. I'd rather be a kitten, and cry, mew, 3. Than one of those same metre ballad-mongers. -Who first found out that curse, T" imprison and confine his thoughts in verse, And make his reason to his rhyme submit. SHAKSPEARE. 4. As wine, that with its own weight runs, is best, 5. But those, that write in rhyme, still make BUTLER. BUTLER. BUTLER'S Hudibras. 6. And rhyme the rudder is of verses, BUTLER'S Hudibras. 7. Read, meditate, reflect, grow wise in vain ; Try every help, force fire from every spark; Yet shall you ne'er the poet's power attain, If heaven ne'er stamp'd you with the muses' mark. 8. Then, rising with Aurora's light, The muse invok'd, sit down to write. Enlarge, diminish, interline; Be mindful, when invention fails, To scratch your head, and bite your nails.. AARON HILL. DEAN SWIFT. 9. Thou source of all my bliss, of all my woe, GOLDSMITH. 10. A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. 11. Even copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, POPE'S Essay on Criticism. 12. Married to immortal verse, 13. There is a pleasure in poetic pains, That none but poets know. 14. And I have felt A passion that disturb'd me with the joy 15. 'Tis long disputed, whether poets claim From art or nature their best right to fame; MILTON. WORDSWORTH. WORDSWORTH. Are useless both; but when in friendship join'd, FRANCIS' Horace. 16. But he, the bard of every age and clime, And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind. GIFFORD'S Juvenal. 452 17. POET-POETRY. A theme well fitted to inspire The purest frenzy of poetic fire. JOEL BARLOW. 18. But which deserves the laurel, rhyme or blank? BYRON'S Imitations. 19. Oh! how I hate the nerveless, frigid song, 20. Many are poets who have never penn'd Their inspiration. 21. Not a stone on their turf, or a BYRON. BYRON. line on their graves, BYRON'S Siege of Corinth. 22. In liquid lines, mellifluously bland. BYRON'S Don Juan. 23. To whom the lyre and laurels have been given, BYRON'S Don Juan. 24. Over the harp, from earliest years belov'd, 25. He touch'd his harp, and nations heard, entranc'd; POLLOK'S Course of Time. 26. 'Tis not the chime and flow of words, that move J. G. PERCIVAL. 27. He pour'd his heart's full affluence in song, And good and bad went reconcil'd together. DAWES' Geraldine. 28. As nightingales do upon glow-worms feed, Feeding their souls upon the soft, and sweet, BAILEY'S Festus. 29. Immortal bard! thy name shall be enroll'd SHERBURNE, on Byron. 30. Where sense with sound, and ease with weight, combine In the pure silver of Pope's ringing line; Or where the pulse of man beats loud and strong, 31. But it was love that taught me rhyme, Of words a useless sluggard prove, The New Timon. 32. And, long as poetry shall charm mankind, His flowing numbers will admirers find. C. F. HOFFMAN. J. T. WATSON. 454 POETRY-POLITENESS-POLITICS. 33. Whose song gush'd from his heart H. W. LONGfellow. POETRY. (See POET.) POLITENESS. (See ETIQUETTE.) POLITICS. 1. A politician, Proteus-like, must alter 2. Dull rogues affect the politician's part, 3. Your politicians Have evermore a taint of vanity; As they are greedy to contrive it. MASON. CONGREVE. SIR W. DAVENANT. 4. All would be deem'd, e'en from the cradle, fit To rule in politics, as well as wit; The grave, the gay, the fopling, and the dunce, CHURCHILL. |