OF

DIVINE POES Y

TWO CANTO S.

*Occafioned upon fight of the LIIId Chapter of Ifaiah turned into Verfe by Mrs. Wharton.

POETS

CANTO I.

TS we prize, when in their verfe we find
Some great employment of a worthy mind.

Angels have been inquifitive to know
The fecret, which this oracle does show.
What was to come, Ifaiah did declare;

Which the defcribes, as if she had been there;
Had feen the wounds, which to the reader's view
She draws fo lively, that they bleed anew.
As ivy thrives, which on the oak takes hold:
So, with the Prophet's, may her lines grow old!
If they should die, who can the world forgive,
(Such pious lines!) when wanton Sappho's live?
Who with his breath his image did infpire,
Expects it should foment a nobler fire:

Not love which brutes, as well as men may know;
But love like his, to whom that breath we owe.
Verfe fo defign'd, on that high fubject wrote,

Is the perfection of an ardent thought;

The smoke which we from burning incense raise,
When we complete the facrifice of praise.

In boundless verse the fancy foars too high
For any object, but the Deity.

What mortal can witli Heaven pretend to share
In the fuperlatives of wife and fair!

A meaner fubject when with thefe we grace,
A giant's habit on a dwarf we place..
Sacred fhould be the product of our Mufe,
Like that sweet oil, above all private use;
On pain of death forbidden to be made,
But when it fhould be on the altar laid.
Verfe fhews a rich inestimable vein,

When, dropp'd from heaven, 'tis thither fent again.
Of bounty 'tis that he admits our praise,
Which does not him, but us that yield it, raise.
For, as that Angel up to heaven did rise,
Borne on the flame of Manoah's facrifice:

So, wing'd with praise, we penetrate the sky;
Teach clouds, and stars, to praise him as we fly; .
The whole creation (by our fall made groan !)
His praise to echo, and fufpend their moan.
For that he reigns all creatures should rejoice;
And we with fongs fupply their want of voice.
The Church triumphant, and the Church below,
In fongs of praise their prefent union show:
Their joys are full; our expectation long;
In life we differ, but we join in fong:
Angels and we, affifted by this art,
May fing together, though we dwell apart.

Thus

Thus we reach heaven, while vainer poems must
No higher rife, than winds may lift the duft.
From that they fpring; this, from his breath that gave
To the first duft th' immortal foul we have.

His praise well fung (our great endeavour here)
Shakes off the duft, and makes that breath appear.

CANTO

CANTO II.

E that did first this way of writing grace,
Convers'd with the Almighty face to face:
Wonders he did in facred verfe unfold,

When he had more than eighty winters told:
The writer feels no dire effect of age;
Nor verfe, that flows from fo divine a rage.
Eldeft of Poets, he beheld the light,
When first it triumph'd o'er eternal night :
Chaos he faw; and could distinctly tell
How that confufion into order fell:
As if confulted with, he has expreft
The work of the Creator, and his reft:
How the flood drown'd the first offending race,
Which might the figure of our globe deface.
For new-made earth, fo even and so fair,
Less equal now, uncertain makes the air:
Surpriz'd with heat and unexpected cold,
Early distempers make our youth look old :
Our days fo evil, and fo few, may tell
That on the ruins of that world we dwell.
Strong as the oaks that nourish'd them, and high,
That long-liv'd race did on their force rely,
Neglecting heaven. But we, of shorter date!
Should be more mindful of impendent Fate.

* Mofes.

Το

To worms, that crawl upon this rubbish here,
This span of life may yet too long appear :
Enough to humble, and to make us great,
If it prepare us for a nobler feat.

Which well obferving, he, in numerous lines,
Taught wretched man how fast his life declines:
In whom he dwelt, before the world was made;
And may again retire, when that shall fade.
The lafting Iliads have not liv'd fo long,
As his and Deborah's triumphant fong.
Delphos unknown, no Mufe could them infpire,
But that which governs the celestial choir.
Heaven to the pious did this art revcal;
And from their store fucceeding Poets iteal :
Homer's Scamander for the Trojans fought,
And fwell'd fo high, by her old Kishon taught a
His river scarce could fierce Achilles ftay;
Her's, more fuccefsful, fwept her foes away.
The hoft of heaven, his Phoebus and his Mars,
He arms; inftructed by her fighting stars,
She led them all against the common foe :
But he (mif-led by what he faw below!)
The Powers above, like wretched men, divides,
And breaks their union into different fides.
The nobleft parts which in his Heroes fhine,
May be but copies of that Heroine.
Homer himself and Agamemnon fhe

The writer could, and the commander, be.
Truth the relates, in a fublimer strain

Than all the tales the boldett Grecks could feign :

For