Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/77

Rh To slavish, empty pageants, to adorn A tyrant's walk, and glitter in the eyes Of such as bow the knee; when honour'd urns Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust And storied arch, to glut the coward-rage Of regal envy, strew the public way With hallow'd ruins; when the muse's haunt, The marble porch where wisdom wont to talk With Socrates or Tully, hears no more,740 [sic] Save the hoarse jargon of contentious monks, Or female superstition's midnight pray'r; When ruthless rapine from the hand of time Tears the destroying scythe, with surer blow To sweep the works of glory from their base; Till desolation o'er the grass-grown street Expands his raven-wings, and up the wall, Where senates once the price of monarch's doom'd, Hisses the gliding snake thro' hoary weeds That clasp the mould'ring column; thus defac'd, Thus widely mournful when the prospect thrills Thy beating bosom, when the patriot's tear Starts from thine eye, and thy extended arm In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove To fire the impious wreath on Philip's brow, Or dash Octavius from the trophied car; Say, does thy secret soul repine to taste The