Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/171

In works of bulk and length we now and then
May grant an author to be overseen;
Homer himself, how sacred e'er he is,
Yet claims not a pretence to faultlessness.
Poems with pictures a resemblance bear;
Some, best at distance, shim a view too near;
Others are bolder, and stand off to sight;
These love the shade, those choose the clearest light,
And dare the survey of the skilfullest eyes;
Some once, and some ten thousand times will please.
Sir, though yourself so much of knowledge own
In these affairs, that you can learn of none,
Yet mind this certain truth which I lay down:
Most callings else do deference allow,
Where ordinary parts, and skill may do;
I've known physicians who respect might claim,
Though they ne'er rose to Willis's^[1] great fame;
And there are preachers who have great renown,
Yet ne'er come up to Sprat, or Tillotson;
And counsellors, or pleaders in the Hall,
May have esteem and practice, though they fall
Far short of smooth-tongued Finch in eloquence.
Though they want Selden's learning, Vaughan's sense;
But verse alone does of no mean admit;
Whoe'er will please, must please us to the height;
He must a Cowley or a Flecknoe^[2] be,
For there's no second-rate in poetry.
A dull insipid writer none can bear,
In every place he is the public jeer,
And lumber of the shops and stationer.
No man that understands to make a feast,
With a coarse dessert will offend his guest,

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1. Dr. Willis was the most celebrated physician of his day. Lower, with whom Oldham was intimate, was his pupil and friend, and succeeded him in his practice.
2. The Irish priest immortalized by Dryden's satire. A curious sketch of him appears in Marvel's poems.