Make you able upon sight
To decide of wrong and right;
Talk with sense whate’er you please on;
Learn to relish truth and reason?
Thus we both shall gain our prize:
I to laugh, and you grow wise.
PALINODIA.
HORACE, BOOK I. ODE XVI.
GREAT sir, than Phœbus more divine,
Whose verses far his rays outshine,
Look down upon your quondam foe;
O! let me never write again,
If e'er I disoblige you, dean,
Should you compassion show.
Take those iambicks which I wrote,
When anger made me piping hot,
And give them to your cook,
To singe your fowl, or save your paste,
The next time when you have a feast;
They'll save you many a book.
To burn them, you are not content;
I give you then my free consent,
To sink them in the harbour:
If not, they'll serve to set off blocks,
To roll on pipes, and twist in locks;
So give them to your barber.
