1.
YE fabled Sisters of th’ Aonian Mount,
Who strike the harp, and touch the golden lyre,
Be present here as at Castalia’s fount,
And lend my humble Muse your wings of fire.
2.
How unfrequented are your classic Groves,
Temp’s sweet vale, poetic Arno’s stream;
No Homer tunes the lyre, no Virgil roves,
Inspir’d by you, with fancy’s golden dream.
3.
No Petrarch now in fair Vauclusa’s bowers,
Of Love and Laura ever fondly sings;
No more for Laura smile the op’ning flowers,
No more to Love are tuned the trembling strings.
4.
Celestial Sisters! fair Immortal Nine;
Oh! deign to visit this much favoured land,
Round English brows poetic laurels twine,
A brave, a warlike, and a noble band.
5.
O leave once more your Helicon renew’d,
For fair Britannia’s song inspiring Plains:
Harmonious Pope, with early laurels crown’d,
On Thames’s banks tun’d his melodious strains,
6.
How Milton shines on fair Parnassus’ height!
His daring genius blaz’d on wings of fire:
Where Saints and Seraphim, enthron’d in light,
Tun’d in the Courts of Heav’n the silver lyre.
7.
On Avon’s banks sweet warbl’d Shakspeare’s Song,
Now smooth and flowing, now abrupt and wild;
And as she wander’d Albion’s woods among,
View’d Nature’s Charms, who own’d her fav’rite child.
8.
Here Thomson tun’d his soft melodious lays,
As he, enraptur’d, thro’ the Vallies rov’d;
Here gentle Cowper sang in Virtue’s praise,
Admir’d the landscape, and its Author lov’d.
9.
In Caledonia’s wild, romantic vales,
On her rude cliffs where howls the wintry Storm,
The voice of Song oft floats upon the Gales,
Tho’ cold the Clime, yet Scottish hearts are warm.
10.
Sublimely swift upon the lightning’s wing,
Great Ossian’s genius rifles the northern blast;
Or slow and solemn strikes the hallow’d string,
And brings to view the present, future, past.
11.
Ah! leave ye Nine, each Grecian lov’d retreat,
Parnassus’ mount and Hippocrene’s stream;
In this blest Isle, fair Freedom’s native seat,
The fire of genius darts a steady gleam.
12.
On England’s cultur’d plains let laurels smile,
And bloom resplendent in this Northern clime,
Let Grecian Arts the warlike hours beguile,
And Bards and Poets swell the Song of time.
(Mary Abel Clinckett)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Light Poems, Time Poems, Fairness Poems, Dreams Poems, Flowers Poems, Fire Poems, Smiling Poems, Art Poems, Past Poems, Praise PoemsBased on Keywords: cultur, hippocrene, cowper, thomson, castalia, warbl, vauclusa