quote · Legacy record

Pity Religion has so seldom found A skilful guide into poetic ground! The flowers would spring where’er she deigned to stray, And every muse attend her in the way. Virtue, indeed, meets many a rhyming friend, And many a compliment politely penned; But unattired in that becoming vest Religion weaves for her, and half undressed, Stands in the desert, shivering and forlorn A wintry figure, like a withered thorn. The shelves are full, all other themes are sped; Hackneyed and worn to the last flimsy thread, Satire has long since done his best, and curs’d; And loathsome ribaldry has done his worst; Fancy has sported all her powers away In tales and trifles, and in children’s play; And ’tis the sad complaint, and almost true, Whate’er we write, we bring forth nothing new. ’Twere new, indeed, to see a bard all fire, Touched with a coal from Heaven, assume the lyre And tell the world, still kindling as he sung, With more than mortal music on his tongue, That he who died below, and reigns above, Inspires the song, and that His name is Love.

Pity Religion has so seldom found A skilful guide into poetic ground! The flowers would spring where’er she deigned to stray, And every muse attend her in the way. Virtue, indeed, meets many a rhyming friend, And many a compliment politely penned; But unattired in that becoming vest Religion weaves for her, and half undressed, Stands in the desert, shivering and forlorn A wintry figure, like a withered thorn. The shelves are full, all other themes are sped; Hackneyed and worn to the last flimsy thread, Satire has long since done his best, and curs’d; And loathsome ribaldry has done his worst; Fancy has sported all her powers away In tales and trifles, and in children’s play; And ’tis the sad complaint, and almost true, Whate’er we write, we bring forth nothing new. ’Twere new, indeed, to see a bard all fire, Touched with a coal from Heaven, assume the lyre And tell the world, still kindling as he sung, With more than mortal music on his tongue, That he who died below, and reigns above, Inspires the song, and that His name is Love.

Approximate author period: c. 1765 AD · early modern