ON MR. POPE AND HIS POEMS.
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ith age decayed, with courts and bus'ness tired,Caring for nothing but what ease required;Too dully serious for the muses' sport,And from the critics safe arrived in port;I little thought of launching forth again, 5Amidst advent'rous rovers of the pen:And after so much undeserved success,Thus hazarding at last to make it less.Encomiums suit not this censorious time,Itself a subject for satiric rhyme; 10Ignorance honoured, wit and worth defamed,Folly triumphant, and ev'n Homer blamed!But to this genius, joined with so much art,Such various learning mixed in ev'ry part,Poets are bound a loud applause to pay; 15Apollo bids it, and they must obey.And yet so wonderful, sublime a thingAs the great Iliad, scarce could make me sing,Except I justly could at once commendA good companion, and as firm a friend, 20One moral, or a mere well-natured deedCan all desert in sciences exceed.'Tis great delight to laugh at some men's ways,But a much greater to give merit praise. ANNE, COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA.[3]
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