Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/213

Rh This venerable dust I lay, From manuscripts just swept away.

The goblet in my hand I take, For the libation's yet to make: A health to poets! all their days, May they have bread, as well as praise; Sense may they seek, and less engage In papers fill'd with party rage. But if their riches spoil their vein, Ye Muses, make them poor again.

Now bring the weapon, yonder blade, With which my tuneful pens are made. I strike the scales that arm thee round, And twice and thrice I print the wound; The sacred altar floats with red, And now he dies, and now he's dead.

How like the son of Jove I stand, This Hydra stretch'd beneath my hand! Lay bare the monster's entrails here, To see what dangers threat the year: Ye gods! what sonnets on a wench! What lean translations out of French! 'Tis plain, this lobe is so unsound, S prints, before the months go round.

But hold, before I close the scene,