Page:Poetical sketches reprint (1868).djvu/53

Rh

OLDEN Apollo, that thro' heaven wide

Scatter'st the rays of light, and truth his beams,

In lucent words my darkling verses dight

And wash my earthy mind in thy clear streams,

That wisdom may descend in fairy dreams:

All while the jocund hours in thy train

Scatter their fancies at thy poet's feet;

And when thou yield'st to night thy wide domain,

Let rays of truth enlight his sleeping brain.

For brutish Pan in vain might thee assay

With tinkling sounds to dash thy nervous verse,

Sound without sense; yet in his rude affray,

(For Ignorance is Folly's leasing nurse,

And love of Folly needs none other's curse;)

Midas the praise hath gain'd of lengthen'd ears,

For which himself might deem him ne'er the worse

To sit in council with his modern peers

And judge of tinkling rhymes and elegances terse.