An Ode to Himself

Where dost thou careless lie Buried in ease and sloth? Knowledge that sleeps, doth die And this security, It is the common moth That eats on wits and arts, and that destroys them both.

Are all the Aonian springs Dried up? lies Thespia waste? Doth Clarius’ harp want strings, That not a nymph now sings; Or droop they as disgraced, To see their seats and bowers by chattering pies defaced?

If hence thy silence be, As ’tis too just a cause, Let this thought quicken thee: Minds that are great and free Should not on fortune pause; ’Tis crown enough to virtue still, her own applause.

What though the greedy fry Be taken with false baits Of worded balladry, And think it poesy? They die with their conceits, And only piteous scorn upon their folly waits.

Then take in hand thy lyre; Strike in thy proper strain; With Japhet’s line aspire Sol’s chariot, for new fire To give the world again: Who aided him, will thee, the issue of Jove’s brain.

And, since our dainty age Cannot endure reproof, Make not thyself a page To that strumpet the stage; But sing high and aloof, Safe from the wolf’s black jaw, and the dull ass’s hoof.