Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/133

 ancient times, those times we fancy wise, Have left on long record of woman's rise, What morals teach it, and what fables hide, What author wrote it, how that author died, All these I sing.In Greece they fram'd the tale; In Greece, 'twas thought a woman might be frail, Ye modern beauties! where the poet drew His softest pencil, think he dreamt of you; And warn'd by him, ye wanton pens, beware How heaven's concern'd to vindicate the fair. The case was Hesiod's; he the fable writ; Some think with meaning, some with idle wit: Perhaps 'tis either, as the ladies please; I wave the contest, and commence the lays.

In days of yore, no matter where or when, 'Twas ere the low creation swarm'd with men, That one Prometheus, sprung of heavenly birth, Our author's song can witness, liv'd on earth. He carv'd the turf to mould a manly frame, And stole from Jove his animating flame. The sly contrivance o'er Olympus ran, When thus the monarch of the stars began.