The navigable wave is led

Through towns; or marshes, late o'erspread

With putrid pools, and useless, now
Productive made, admit the plough:
Or streams, from culture that surrounds
Diverted, flow in certain bounds;

All earthly things must have an end,
Nor only language can contend

With Fate. Words may, however old,

Revive; as many that unfold

Our daily thoughts, not long remain,

If powerful Custom so ordain,

Call'd to prescribe the bounds, and teach

The universal rules of speech.

Vicinas urbes alit, et grave sentit aratum :
Seu cursum mutavit iniquum frugibus amnis,
Doctus iter melius: mortalia cuncta peribunt,
Necdum sermonum stet honos, et gratia vivax.
Multa renascentur, quæ jam cecidere; cadentque
Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula; si volet usus,
Quem penès arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi.

What measure the relation needs,
' Of heaven's, or earth's heroic deeds
Milton points out, unless I err;
Though some a different verse prefer.
But judges do not disagree

On that which sooths in Elegy.
2 A stanza that four equal lines,
Framed of five feet, distinctly joins,
With rhymes alternate, pleases most.
Critics that would its fitness boast

For other strains, through the repute
Of bards' relinquish'd their dispute.

4

* Pope well, for satire, Spleen alarm'd

4

With his own iron couplets arm'd;

Res

I

gestæ regumque ducumque, et tristia bella Quo scribi possent numero, monstravit Homerus. 2 Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primùm, Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos, Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiserit auctor, Grammatici certant, et adhuc 3 sub judice lis est. * Archilochum 5 proprio rabies armavit Iambo.

'Which verse the drama chose to quit,
Experience proving 'twas unfit

To enforce belief of feign'd distress;
And still to copy manners less,

That, all their nicer grace to save,
Exactest imitation crave.

To sing of peaceful deeds, or one
In battle brave as Ammon's son;
Or, to the skies, in lasting lays,

The Passsions, Virtues, Arts, to raise ;
'Or joys with which the bosom glow'd
Of frolic Youth, has waked the Ode.
Why, if I fail to keep apart
The styles peculiar to each art,

'Hunc socci cepere pedem, grandesque cothurni, Alternis aptum sermonibus, et populares Vincentem strepitus et natum rebus agendis. Musa dedit fidibus divos puerosque deorum, Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primum 3 Et juvenum curas, et libera vina referre.

Descriptas servare vices, operumque colores,

Grace foreign to the work my aim,
A poet's honour do I claim?

Why scorn, the silly title sought

1

Of genius, knowledge, if untaught?

'No genuine comic bard would choose
The cumbrous clog of verse to use:
Nor would he write with tragic force,
Who, in the language of discourse,
Guilt's dread by shadowy shapes increased,
Display'd' Macbeth's terrific feast.

Styles Nature ne'er together link'd

Eternally be kept distinct!

Yet 'tis in Comedy no fault,

If even her voice she should exalt ;

Cur ego, si

si nequeo ignoroque, poeta salutor? Cur nescire, pudens pravè, quàm discere malo? 1 Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult. Indignatur item privatis et prope socco

2

Dignis carminibus narrari cœna Thyestæ.
Singula quæque locum teneant sortita decenter.
Interdum tamen et vocem Comoedia tollit,

And, with genteel vexation warm,

'Lord Townly is still heard to storm.
Nor always Tragedy alike

With swelling diction seeks to strike:
'Wolsey and Buckingham, now lost
Their hopes, and proud ambition cross'd,
Must simply give their feelings vent,

To drop the minister content,

If to claim pity they presume,

Or fix attention on their doom.

Works should not only strike, but please,

Conducted with all Nature's ease;

And without violence, where'er

They choose, the willing reader bear.

Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore;
Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri.
* Telephus aut 3 Peleus, cum pauper et exul uterque
Projicit ampullas, et sesquipedalia verba,

Si curat cor spectantis tetigisse loquelâ.

Non satis est pulchra esse poëmata; dulcia sunto, Et quocunque volent, animum auditoris agunto,