Classic Poem

ODE XXV

1

My Dear Pudora, though the greedie Flame
Has Swallowed all the Inke
Which I (the weake Adorer of thy name)
Once lavisht out, yet thinke
A second Store,
Tooke, from thy Graces, may to better Light
Celebrate thee; I am not bankrupt Quite;
And were I poore
To the Extreame of Ignorance, that Fire
Still liveing, in your Eyes would Heat inspire.

2

Doe not; oh doe not, (Goddes of my Muse)
Thinke I have lost, that Zeale
My former Quill profest; nor thinke I chuse
Of lower Things to tell;
Forbid it, all
My better Fate. Noe; rather may I pine
In my owne Joy, my verse, if my designe
Did ever fall
Unto another object; but I still
Steer'd by your Eyes; Starrs, to direct my Quill.

3

Nor blame some looser Sheets; if (when I lackt
Your Light) my verse might Stray
From the precise Path, which your Steps had track't;
I cannot, dare not Say,
But I have gone
Sometimes aside; yet take, in leiu of All
My follies, this Acknowledgment: tis small
The wrong, I ha' done;
Pardon, where I Nicotiana Sung,
And I dare say, I never did you wrong:

4

For though, in Silvia, I my selfe might please;
Twas but at once, to bring
Under that name, a double Species;
And where I loudest Sing,
With all my Praise,
To honour Her, I but derive a Sparke
From your more radiant Flame, which is the marke,
Of all my Bayes;
But Shee, revolted like her Selfe, can claime
Nothing in all my Poesie, but name.

5

This may Suffice. Great Rectres of my Thought,
Daigne once againe, to smile
On my Endeavours; and I will not doubt
To vindicate our Ile,
From all the blast
Of Envie, or Detraction; I will raise
Huge Monuments of wonder: manye-wayes
Which shall outlast
The rage of Time, and stand the Boast of Fame;
My verse Eternized, in Pudoraes name.