Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/173

I'm sure will never be induced to strain
Your genius, or attempt against your vein.
Yet (this let me advise) if e'er you write,
Let none of your composures see the light
Till they've been thoroughly weighed, and passed the test
Of all those judges who are thought the best;
While in your desk they're locked up from the press,
You've power to correct them as you please;
But when they once come forth to view of all,
Your faults are chronicled, and past recall.
Orpheus, the first of the inspired train,
By force of powerful numbers did restrain
Mankind from rage and bloody cruelty,
And taught the barbarous world civility;
Hence rose the fiction, which the poets framed,
That lions were by's tuneful magic tamed,
And tigers, charmed by his harmonious lays,
Grew gentle, and laid by their savageness.
Hence that which of Amphion too they tell,
The power of whose miraculous lute could call
The well-placed stones into the Theban wall.
Wondrous were the effects of primitive verse,
Which settled and reformed the universe;
This did all things to their due ends reduce,
To public, private, sacred, civil use;
Marriage for weighty causes was ordained,
That bridled lust, and lawless love restrained;
Cities with walls, and rampiers were enclosed,
And property with wholesome laws disposed;
And bounds were fixed of equity and right,
To guard weak innocence from wrongful might.
Hence poets have been held a sacred name,
And placed them with first-rates in the lists of fame.
Next these, great Homer to the world appeared,
Around the globe his loud alarms were heard,
Which all the brave to warlike action fired;
And Hesiod after him with useful skill
Gave lessons to instruct the ploughman’s toil.