Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/122

 The piece thrown by; the bard again reviews The long-forgotten labours of his muse; Lo! on all sides far diff'rent objects rise, And a new prospect strikes his wond'ring eyes. Warm from the brain, the lines his love engrost, Now in themselves their former selves are lost. Now his own labours he begins to blame, And blushing reads them with regret and shame. He loathes the piece; condemns it; nor can find The genuine stamp, and image of his mind. This thought and that, indignant he rejects; When most secure, some danger he suspects; Anxious he adds, and trembling he corrects. With kind severities, and timely art, Lops the luxuriant growth of ev'ry part, Prunes the superfluous boughs, that wildly stray, And cuts the rank redundancies away. Thus arm'd with proper discipline he stands, By day, by night, applies his healing hands, From ev'ry line to wipe out ev'ry blot, 'Till the whole piece is guiltless of a fault.