Poetry Collection

{
  "data": [
    {
      "author": "Edgar Allan Poe",
      "line_count": "56",
      "lines": [
        "By a route obscure and lonely,",
        "Haunted by ill angels only,",
        "Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,",
        "On a black throne reigns upright,",
        "I have reached these lands but newly",
        "From an ultimate dim Thule--",
        "From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,",
        "  Out of SPACE--out of TIME.",
        "",
        "Bottomless vales and boundless floods,",
        "And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,",
        "With forms that no man can discover",
        "For the dews that drip all over;",
        "Mountains toppling evermore",
        "Into seas without a shore;",
        "Seas that restlessly aspire,",
        "Surging, unto skies of fire;",
        "Lakes that endlessly outspread",
        "Their lone waters--lone and dead,",
        "Their still waters--still and chilly",
        "With the snows of the lolling lily.",
        "",
        "By the lakes that thus outspread",
        "Their lone waters, lone and dead,--",
        "Their sad waters, sad and chilly",
        "With the snows of the lolling lily,--",
        "",
        "By the mountains--near the river",
        "Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,--",
        "By the gray woods,--by the swamp",
        "Where the toad and the newt encamp,--",
        "By the dismal tarns and pools",
        "  Where dwell the Ghouls,--",
        "By each spot the most unholy--",
        "In each nook most melancholy,--",
        "",
        "There the traveller meets aghast",
        "Sheeted Memories of the past--",
        "Shrouded forms that start and sigh",
        "As they pass the wanderer by--",
        "White-robed forms of friends long given,",
        "In agony, to the Earth--and Heaven.",
        "",
        "For the heart whose woes are legion",
        "'Tis a peaceful, soothing region--",
        "For the spirit that walks in shadow",
        "'Tis--oh, 'tis an Eldorado!",
        "But the traveller, travelling through it,",
        "May not--dare not openly view it;",
        "Never its mysteries are exposed",
        "To the weak human eye unclosed;",
        "So wills its King, who hath forbid",
        "The uplifting of the fringed lid;",
        "And thus the sad Soul that here passes",
        "Beholds it but through darkened glasses.",
        "",
        "By a route obscure and lonely,",
        "Haunted by ill angels only.",
        "",
        "Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,",
        "On a black throne reigns upright,",
        "I have wandered home but newly",
        "From this ultimate dim Thule."
      ],
      "title": "Dreamland"
    },
    {
      "author": "Alexander Pope",
      "line_count": "443",
      "lines": [
        "IN TWO DIALOGUES.",
        "",
        "DIALOGUE I.",
        "",
        "_Fr_. Not twice a twelvemonth you appear in print,",
        "And when it comes, the court see nothing in 't.",
        "You grow correct, that once with rapture writ,",
        "And are, besides, too moral for a wit.",
        "Decay of parts, alas! we all must feel--",
        "Why now, this moment, don't I see you steal?",
        "'Tis all from Horace; Horace long before ye",
        "Said, 'Tories call'd him Whig, and Whigs a Tory;'",
        "And taught his Romans, in much better metre,",
        "'To laugh at fools who put their trust in Peter.'",
        "",
        "But, Horace, sir, was delicate, was nice;",
        "Bubo observes, he lash'd no sort of vice:",
        "Horace would say, Sir Billy served the crown,",
        "Blunt could do business, Huggins knew the town;",
        "In Sappho touch the failings of the sex,",
        "In reverend bishops note some small neglects,",
        "And own, the Spaniard did a waggish thing,",
        "Who cropp'd our ears, and sent them to the king.",
        "His sly, polite, insinuating style",
        "Could please at court, and make Augustus smile:",
        "An artful manager, that crept between",
        "His friend and shame, and was a kind of screen.",
        "But, faith, your very friends will soon be sore;",
        "Patriots there are, who wish you'd jest no more--",
        "And where's the glory? 'twill be only thought",
        "The great man never offer'd you a groat.",
        "Go see Sir Robert--",
        "",
        "_P_.            See Sir Robert!--hum--",
        "And never laugh--for all my life to come?",
        "Seen him I have, but in his happier hour",
        "Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power;",
        "Seen him, uncumber'd with the venal tribe,",
        "Smile without art, and win without a bribe.",
        "Would he oblige me? let me only find,",
        "He does not think me what he thinks mankind.",
        "Come, come, at all I laugh he laughs, no doubt;",
        "The only difference is, I dare laugh out.",
        "",
        "_F_. Why, yes: with Scripture still you may be free;",
        "A horse-laugh, if you please, at honesty;",
        "A joke on Jekyl, or some odd old Whig",
        "Who never changed his principle, or wig:",
        "A patriot is a fool in every age,",
        "Whom all Lord Chamberlains allow the stage:",
        "These nothing hurts; they keep their fashion still,",
        "And wear their strange old virtue, as they will.",
        "",
        "If any ask you, 'Who's the man, so near",
        "His prince, that writes in verse, and has his ear?'",
        "Why, answer, Lyttleton, and I'll engage",
        "The worthy youth shall ne'er be in a rage:",
        "But were his verses vile, his whisper base,",
        "You'd quickly find him in Lord Fanny's case.",
        "Sejanus, Wolsey, hurt not honest Fleury,",
        "But well may put some statesmen in a fury.",
        "",
        "Laugh then at any, but at fools or foes;",
        "These you but anger, and you mend not those.",
        "Laugh at your friends, and, if your friends are sore,",
        "So much the better, you may laugh the more.",
        "To vice and folly to confine the jest,",
        "Sets half the world, God knows, against the rest;",
        "Did not the sneer of more impartial men",
        "At sense and virtue, balance all again.",
        "Judicious wits spread wide the ridicule,",
        "And charitably comfort knave and fool.",
        "",
        "_P_. Dear sir, forgive the prejudice of youth:",
        "Adieu distinction, satire, warmth, and truth!",
        "Come, harmless characters that no one hit;",
        "Come, Henley's oratory, Osborn's wit!",
        "The honey dropping from Favonio's tongue,",
        "The flowers of Bubo, and the flow of Yonge!",
        "The gracious dew of pulpit eloquence,",
        "And all the well-whipt cream of courtly sense,",
        "That first was Hervy's, Fox's next, and then",
        "The senate's, and then Hervy's once again.",
        "Oh come, that easy, Ciceronian style,",
        "So Latin, yet so English all the while,",
        "As, though the pride of Middleton and Bland,",
        "All boys may read, and girls may understand!",
        "Then might I sing, without the least offence,",
        "And all I sung should be the nation's sense;",
        "Or teach the melancholy Muse to mourn,",
        "Hang the sad verse on Carolina's urn,",
        "And hail her passage to the realms of rest,",
        "All parts perform'd, and all her children bless'd!",
        "So--satire is no more--I feel it die--",
        "No gazetteer more innocent than I--",
        "And let, a-God's-name! every fool and knave",
        "Be graced through life, and flatter'd in his grave.",
        "",
        "_F_. Why so? if satire knows its time and place,",
        "You still may lash the greatest--in disgrace:",
        "For merit will by turns forsake them all;",
        "Would you know when exactly when they fall.",
        "But let all satire in all changes spare",
        "Immortal Selkirk, and grave Delaware.",
        "Silent and soft, as saints remove to heaven,",
        "All ties dissolved, and every sin forgiven,",
        "These may some gentle ministerial wing",
        "Receive, and place for ever near a king!",
        "There, where no passion, pride, or shame transport,",
        "Lull'd with the sweet nepenthe of a court;",
        "There, where no father's, brother's, friend's disgrace",
        "Once break their rest, or stir them from their place:",
        "But past the sense of human miseries,",
        "All tears are wiped for ever from all eyes;",
        "No cheek is known to blush, no heart to throb,",
        "Save when they lose a question, or a job.",
        "",
        "_P_. Good Heaven forbid that I should blast their glory,",
        "Who know how like Whig ministers to Tory,",
        "And when three sovereigns died, could scarce be vex'd,",
        "Considering what a gracious prince was next.",
        "Have I, in silent wonder, seen such things",
        "As pride in slaves, and avarice in kings;",
        "And at a peer, or peeress, shall I fret,",
        "Who starves a sister, or forswears a debt?",
        "Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast;",
        "But shall the dignity of vice be lost?",
        "Ye gods! shall Cibber's son, without rebuke,",
        "Swear like a lord, or Rich out-whore a duke?",
        "A favourite's porter with his master vie,",
        "Be bribed as often, and as often lie?",
        "Shall Ward draw contracts with a statesman's skill?",
        "Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a will?",
        "Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things)",
        "To pay their debts, or keep their faith, like kings?",
        "If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man,",
        "And so may'st thou, illustrious Passeran!",
        "But shall a printer, weary of his life,",
        "Learn from their books to hang himself and wife?",
        "This, this, my friend, I cannot, must not bear:",
        "Vice thus abused, demands a nation's care:",
        "This calls the Church to deprecate our sin,",
        "And hurls the thunder of the laws on gin,",
        "Let modest Foster, if he will, excel",
        "Ten metropolitans in preaching well;",
        "A simple Quaker, or a Quaker's wife,",
        "Outdo Landaff in doctrine,--yea, in life:",
        "Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,",
        "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.",
        "Virtue may choose the high or low degree,",
        "'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me;",
        "Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king,",
        "She's still the same beloved, contented thing.",
        "Vice is undone, if she forgets her birth,",
        "And stoops from angels to the dregs of earth:",
        "But 'tis the fall degrades her to a whore;",
        "Let greatness own her, and she's mean no more:",
        "Her birth, her beauty, crowds and courts confess,",
        "Chaste matrons praise her, and grave bishops bless:",
        "In golden chains the willing world she draws,",
        "And hers the gospel is, and hers the laws,",
        "Mounts the tribunal, lifts her scarlet head,",
        "And sees pale virtue carted in her stead.",
        "Lo! at the wheels of her triumphal car,",
        "Old England's genius, rough with many a scar,",
        "Dragg'd in the dust! his arms hang idly round,",
        "His flag inverted trails along the ground!",
        "Our youth, all liveried o'er with foreign gold,",
        "Before her dance: behind her, crawl the old!",
        "See thronging millions to the pagod run,",
        "And offer country, parent, wife, or son!",
        "Hear her black trumpet through the land proclaim,",
        "That NOT TO BE CORRUPTED IS THE SHAME!",
        "In soldier, churchman, patriot, man in power,",
        "'Tis avarice all, ambition is no more!",
        "See, all our nobles begging to be slaves!",
        "See, all our fools aspiring to be knaves!",
        "The wit of cheats, the courage of a whore,",
        "Are what ten thousand envy and adore!",
        "All, all look up with reverential awe,",
        "At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the law:",
        "While truth, worth, wisdom, daily they decry--",
        "'Nothing is sacred now but villany.'",
        "",
        "Yet may this verse (if such a verse remain)",
        "Show, there was one who held it in disdain.",
        "",
        "DIALOGUE II.",
        "",
        "_Fr_. 'Tis all a libel--Paxton (sir) will say.",
        "",
        "_P_. Not yet, my friend! to-morrow, faith, it may;",
        "And for that very cause I print to-day.",
        "How should I fret to mangle every line,",
        "In reverence to the sins of thirty-nine!",
        "Vice with such giant strides comes on amain,",
        "Invention strives to be before in vain;",
        "Feign what I will, and paint it e'er so strong,",
        "Some rising genius sins up to my song.",
        "",
        "_F_. Yet none but you by name the guilty lash;",
        "Ev'n Guthrie saves half Newgate by a dash.",
        "Spare then the person, and expose the vice.",
        "",
        "_P_. How, sir! not damn the sharper, but the dice?",
        "Come on then, Satire! general, unconfined,",
        "Spread thy broad wing, and souse on all the kind.",
        "Ye statesmen, priests, of one religion all!",
        "Ye tradesmen, vile, in army, court, or hall!",
        "Ye reverend atheists----",
        "",
        "_F_.             Scandal! name them, who?",
        "",
        "_P_. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do.",
        "Who starved a sister, who forswore a debt,",
        "I never named; the town's inquiring yet.",
        "The poisoning dame----",
        "",
        "_F_.          You mean----",
        "",
        "_P_.                   I don't.",
        "",
        "_F_.                            You do.",
        "",
        "_P_. See, now I keep the secret, and not you!",
        "The bribing statesman----",
        "",
        "_F_.              Hold, too high you go.",
        "",
        "_P_. The bribed elector----",
        "",
        "_F_.                    There you stoop too low.",
        "",
        "_P_. I fain would please you, if I knew with what;",
        "Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not?",
        "Must great offenders, once escaped the crown,",
        "Like royal harts, be never more run down?",
        "Admit, your law to spare the knight requires,",
        "As beasts of nature may we hunt the 'squires?",
        "Suppose I censure--you know what I mean--",
        "To save a bishop, may I name a dean?",
        "",
        "_F_. A dean, sir? no: his fortune is not made,",
        "You hurt a man that's rising in the trade.",
        "",
        "_P_. If not the tradesman who set up to-day,",
        "Much less the 'prentice who to-morrow may.",
        "Down, down, proud Satire! though a realm be spoil'd,",
        "Arraign no mightier thief than wretched Wild;",
        "Or, if a court or country's made a job,",
        "Go drench a pickpocket, and join the mob.",
        "",
        "But, sir, I beg you (for the love of vice!)",
        "The matter's weighty, pray consider twice;",
        "Have you less pity for the needy cheat,",
        "The poor and friendless villain, than the great?",
        "Alas! the small discredit of a bribe",
        "Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.",
        "Then better, sure, it charity becomes",
        "To tax directors, who (thank God) have plums;",
        "Still better, ministers; or, if the thing",
        "May pinch ev'n there--why lay it on a king.",
        "",
        "_F._ Stop! stop!",
        "",
        "_P._        Must Satire, then, nor rise nor fall?",
        "Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all.",
        "",
        "_F._ Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow.",
        "",
        "_P._ Strike! why the man was hanged ten years ago:",
        "Who now that obsolete example fears?",
        "Ev'n Peter trembles only for his ears.",
        "",
        "_F._ What, always Peter! Peter thinks you mad,",
        "You make men desperate if they once are bad:",
        "Else might he take to virtue some years hence",
        "",
        "_P._ As Selkirk, if he lives, will love the Prince.",
        "",
        "_F._ Strange spleen to Selkirk!",
        "",
        "_P._                     Do I wrong the man?",
        "God knows, I praise a courtier where I can.",
        "When I confess, there is who feels for fame,",
        "And melts to goodness, need I Scarb'rough name?",
        "Pleased, let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove",
        "(Where Kent and nature vie for Pelham's love)",
        "The scene, the master, opening to my view,",
        "I sit and dream I see my Craggs anew!",
        "Ev'n in a bishop I can spy desert;",
        "Secker is decent--Rundel has a heart--",
        "Manners with candour are to Benson given--",
        "To Berkeley, every virtue under heaven.",
        "",
        "But does the court a worthy man remove?",
        "That instant, I declare, he has my love:",
        "I shun his zenith, court his mild decline;",
        "Thus Somers once, and Halifax, were mine.",
        "Oft, in the clear, still mirror of retreat,",
        "I studied Shrewsbury, the wise and great:",
        "Carleton's calm sense, and Stanhope's noble flame,",
        "Compared, and knew their generous end the same:",
        "How pleasing Atterbury's softer hour!",
        "How shined the soul, unconquer'd in the Tower!",
        "How can I Pulteney, Chesterfield, forget,",
        "While Roman spirit charms, and Attic wit:",
        "Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield,",
        "And shake alike the senate and the field:",
        "Or Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne,",
        "The master of our passions, and his own.",
        "Names, which I long have loved, nor loved in vain,",
        "Rank'd with their friends, not number'd with their train:",
        "And if yet higher the proud list should end,",
        "Still let me say,--No follower, but a friend.",
        "",
        "Yet think not Friendship only prompts my lays;",
        "I follow Virtue; where she shines, I praise:",
        "Point she to priest or elder, Whig or Tory,",
        "Or round a Quaker's beaver cast a glory.",
        "I never (to my sorrow I declare)",
        "Dined with the Man of Ross, or my Lord Mayor.",
        "Some, in their choice of friends, (nay, look not grave) 100",
        "Have still a secret bias to a knave:",
        "To find an honest man I beat about.",
        "And love him, court him, praise him, in or out.",
        "",
        "_F_. Then why so few commended?",
        "",
        "_P_.                          Not so fierce;",
        "Find you the virtue, and I'll find the verse.",
        "But random praise--the task can ne'er be done;",
        "Each mother asks it for her booby son,",
        "Each widow asks it for 'the best of men,'",
        "For him she weeps, and him she weds again.",
        "Praise cannot stoop, like satire, to the ground;",
        "The number may be hang'd, but not be crown'd.",
        "Enough for half the greatest of these days,",
        "To 'scape my censure, not expect my praise.",
        "Are they not rich? what more can they pretend?",
        "Dare they to hope a poet for their friend?",
        "What Richelieu wanted, Louis scarce could gain,",
        "And what young Ammon wish'd, but wish'd in vain.",
        "No power the Muse's friendship can command;",
        "No power, when Virtue claims it, can withstand:",
        "To Cato, Virgil paid one honest line;",
        "Oh let my country's friends illumine mine!",
        "--What are you thinking?",
        "",
        "_F_.              Faith, the thought's no sin--",
        "I think your friends are out, and would be in.",
        "",
        "_P_. If merely to come in, sir, they go out,",
        "The way they take is strangely round about.",
        "",
        "_F_. They too may be corrupted, you'll allow?",
        "",
        "_P_. I only call those knaves who are so now.",
        "Is that too little? Come then, I'll comply--",
        "Spirit of Arnall! aid me while I lie.",
        "Cobham's a coward, Polwarth is a slave,",
        "And Lyttleton a dark, designing knave,",
        "St John has ever been a wealthy fool--",
        "But let me add, Sir Robert's mighty dull,",
        "Has never made a friend in private life,",
        "And was, besides, a tyrant to his wife.",
        "",
        "But pray, when others praise him, do I blame?",
        "Call Verres, Wolsey, any odious name?",
        "Why rail they then, if but a wreath of mine,",
        "O all-accomplish'd St John! deck thy shrine?",
        "",
        "What! shall each spur-gall'd hackney of the day,",
        "When Paxton gives him double pots and pay,",
        "Or each new-pension'd sycophant, pretend",
        "To break my windows if I treat a friend?",
        "Then wisely plead, to me they meant no hurt,",
        "But 'twas my guest at whom they threw the dirt?",
        "Sure, if I spare the minister, no rules",
        "Of honour bind me, not to maul his tools;",
        "Sure, if they cannot cut, it may be said",
        "His saws are toothless, and his hatchet's lead.",
        "",
        "It anger'd Turenne, once upon a day,",
        "To see a footman kick'd that took his pay:",
        "But when he heard the affront the fellow gave,",
        "Knew one a man of honour, one a knave,",
        "The prudent general turn'd it to a jest,",
        "And begg'd he'd take the pains to kick the rest:",
        "Which not at present having time to do----",
        "",
        "_F_. Hold sir! for God's-sake where 'a the affront to you?",
        "Against your worship when had Selkirk writ?",
        "Or Page pour'd forth the torrent of his wit?",
        "Or grant the bard whose distich all commend",
        "'In power a servant, out of power a friend,'",
        "To Walpole guilty of some venial sin;",
        "What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in?",
        "",
        "The priest whose flattery bedropp'd the crown,",
        "How hurt he you? he only stain'd the gown.",
        "And how did, pray, the florid youth offend,",
        "Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend?",
        "",
        "_P_. Faith, it imports not much from whom it came;",
        "Whoever borrow'd, could not be to blame,",
        "Since the whole house did afterwards the same.",
        "Let courtly wits to wits afford supply,",
        "As hog to hog in huts of Westphaly;",
        "If one, through Nature's bounty, or his lord's,",
        "Has what the frugal, dirty soil affords,",
        "From him the next receives it, thick or thin,",
        "As pure a mess almost as it came in;",
        "The blessed benefit, not there confined,",
        "Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind;",
        "From tail to mouth, they feed and they carouse:",
        "The last full fairly gives it to the House.",
        "",
        "_F_. This filthy simile, this beastly line",
        "Quite turns my stomach----",
        "",
        "_P_.               So does flattery mine;",
        "And all your courtly civet-cats can vent,",
        "Perfume to you, to me is excrement.",
        "But hear me further--Japhet, 'tis agreed,",
        "Writ not, and Chartres scarce could write or read,",
        "In all the courts of Pindus guiltless quite;",
        "But pens can forge, my friend, that cannot write;",
        "And must no egg in Japhet's face be thrown,",
        "Because the deed he forged was not my own?",
        "Must never patriot then declaim at gin,",
        "Unless, good man! he has been fairly in?",
        "No zealous pastor blame a failing spouse,",
        "Without a staring reason on his brows?",
        "And each blasphemer quite escape the rod,",
        "Because the insult's not on man, but God?",
        "",
        "Ask you what provocation I have had?",
        "The strong antipathy of good to bad.",
        "When truth or virtue an affront endures,",
        "The affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.",
        "Mine, as a foe profess'd to false pretence,",
        "Who think a coxcomb's honour like his sense;",
        "Mine, as a friend to every worthy mind;",
        "And mine, as man, who feel for all mankind.",
        "",
        "_F_. You're strangely proud.",
        "",
        "_P_.                    So proud, I am no slave:",
        "So impudent, I own myself no knave:",
        "So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave.",
        "Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see",
        "Men not afraid of God, afraid of me:",
        "Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne,",
        "Yet touch'd and shamed by ridicule alone.",
        "",
        "O sacred weapon! left for truth's defence,",
        "Sole dread of folly, vice, and insolence!",
        "To all but heaven-directed hands denied,",
        "The Muse may give thee, but the gods must guide:",
        "Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honest zeal;",
        "To rouse the watchmen of the public weal,",
        "To virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall,",
        "And goad the prelate slumbering in his stall.",
        "Ye tinsel insects! whom a court maintains,",
        "That counts your beauties only by your stains,",
        "Spin all your cobwebs o'er the eye of day!",
        "The Muse's wing shall brush you all away:",
        "All his grace preaches, all his lordship sings,",
        "All that makes saints of queens, and gods of kings,--",
        "All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press,",
        "Like the last gazette, or the last address.",
        "",
        "When black ambition stains a public cause,",
        "A monarch's sword when mad vain-glory draws,",
        "Not Waller's wreath can hide the nation's scar,",
        "Nor Boileau turn the feather to a star.",
        "",
        "Not so, when, diadem'd with rays divine,",
        "Touch'd with the flame that breaks from Virtue's shrine,",
        "Her priestess Muse forbids the good to die,",
        "And opes the temple of Eternity.",
        "There, other trophies deck the truly brave,",
        "Than such as Anstis casts into the grave;",
        "Far other stars than ---- and ---- wear,",
        "And may descend to Mordington from Stair:",
        "(Such as on Hough's unsullied mitre shine,",
        "Or beam, good Digby, from a heart like thine)",
        "Let Envy howl, while Heaven's whole chorus sings,",
        "And bark at honour not conferr'd by kings;",
        "Let Flattery sickening see the incense rise,",
        "Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies:",
        "Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line,",
        "And makes immortal verse as mean as mine.",
        "",
        "Yes, the last pen for freedom let me draw,",
        "When truth stands trembling on the edge of law;",
        "Here, last of Britons! let your names be read;",
        "Are none, none living? let me praise the dead,",
        "And for that cause which made your fathers shine,",
        "Fall by the votes of their degenerate line.",
        "",
        "_F_. Alas! alas! pray end what you began,",
        "And write next winter more 'Essays on Man.'"
      ],
      "title": "Epilogue to the Satires."
    },
    {
      "author": "Alexander Pope",
      "line_count": "222",
      "lines": [
        "SWIFT; THE LATTER PART ADDED AFTERWARDS.",
        "",
        "I've often wish'd that I had clear,",
        "For life, six hundred pounds a-year,",
        "A handsome house to lodge a friend,",
        "A river at my garden's end,",
        "A terrace-walk, and half a rood",
        "Of land, set out to plant a wood.",
        "",
        "Well, now I have all this and more,",
        "I ask not to increase my store;",
        "But here a grievance seems to lie,",
        "All this is mine but till I die;",
        "I can't but think 'twould sound more clever,",
        "To me and to my heirs for ever.",
        "",
        "If I ne'er got or lost a groat,",
        "By any trick, or any fault;",
        "And if I pray by reason's rules,",
        "And not like forty other fools:",
        "As thus, 'Vouchsafe, O gracious Maker!",
        "To grant me this and t' other acre:",
        "Or, if it be thy will and pleasure,",
        "Direct my plough to find a treasure:'",
        "But only what my station fits,",
        "And to be kept in my right wits.",
        "Preserve, Almighty Providence!",
        "Just what you gave me, competence:",
        "And let me in these shades compose",
        "Something in verse as true as prose;",
        "Removed from all the ambitious scene,",
        "Nor puff'd by pride, nor sunk by spleen.",
        "",
        "In short, I'm perfectly content,",
        "Let me but live on this side Trent;",
        "Nor cross the Channel twice a-year,",
        "To spend six months with statesmen here.",
        "",
        "I must by all means come to town,",
        "'Tis for the service of the crown.",
        "'Lewis, the Dean will be of use,",
        "Send for him up, take no excuse.'",
        "The toil, the danger of the seas;",
        "Great ministers ne'er think of these;",
        "Or let it cost five hundred pound,",
        "No matter where the money's found,",
        "It is but so much more in debt,",
        "And that they ne'er consider'd yet.",
        "",
        "'Good Mr Dean, go change your gown,",
        "Let my lord know you're come to town.'",
        "I hurry me in haste away,",
        "Not thinking it is levee-day;",
        "And find his honour in a pound,",
        "Hemm'd by a triple circle round,",
        "Checquer'd with ribbons blue and green:",
        "How should I thrust myself between?",
        "Same wag observes me thus perplex'd,",
        "And smiling, whispers to the next,",
        "'I thought the Dean had been too proud,",
        "To jostle here among a crowd.'",
        "Another in a surly fit,",
        "Tells me I have more zeal than wit,",
        "'So eager to express your love,",
        "You ne'er consider whom you shove,",
        "But rudely press before a duke.'",
        "I own, I'm pleased with this rebuke,",
        "And take it kindly meant to show",
        "What I desire the world should know.",
        "",
        "I get a whisper, and withdraw;",
        "When twenty fools I never saw",
        "Come with petitions fairly penn'd,",
        "Desiring I would stand their friend.",
        "",
        "This, humbly offers me his case--",
        "That, begs my interest for a place--",
        "A hundred other men's affairs,",
        "Like bees, are humming in my ears.",
        "'To-morrow my appeal comes on,",
        "Without your help the cause is gone'--",
        "The duke expects my lord and you,",
        "About some great affair, at two--",
        "'Put my Lord Bolingbroke in mind,",
        "To get my warrant quickly sign'd:",
        "Consider, 'tis my first request.'--",
        "Be satisfied, I'll do my best:",
        "Then presently he falls to tease,",
        "'You may for certain, if you please;",
        "I doubt not, if his lordship knew--",
        "And, Mr Dean, one word from you'--",
        "",
        "'Tis (let me see) three years and more,",
        "(October next it will be four)",
        "Since Harley bid me first attend,",
        "And chose me for an humble friend;",
        "Would take me in his coach to chat,",
        "And question me of this and that;",
        "As, 'What's o'clock?' and, 'How's the wind?'",
        "'Who's chariot's that we left behind?'",
        "Or gravely try to read the lines",
        "Writ underneath the country signs;",
        "Or, 'Have you nothing new to-day",
        "From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?'",
        "Such tattle often entertains",
        "My lord and me as far as Staines,",
        "As once a week we travel down",
        "To Windsor, and again to town,",
        "Where all that passes, _inter nos_,",
        "Might be proclaim'd at Charing Cross.",
        "",
        "Yet some I know with envy swell,",
        "Because they see me used so well:",
        "'How think you of our friend the dean?",
        "I wonder what some people mean;",
        "My lord and he are grown so great,",
        "Always together, tête-à-tête:",
        "What, they admire him for his jokes--",
        "See but the fortune of some folks!'",
        "There flies about a strange report",
        "Of some express arrived at court;",
        "I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet,",
        "And catechised in every street.",
        "'You, Mr Dean, frequent the great;",
        "Inform us, will the Emperor treat?",
        "Or do the prints and papers lie?'",
        "Faith, sir, you know as much as I.",
        "'Ah, Doctor, how you love to jest!",
        "Tis now no secret'--I protest",
        "'Tis one to me--'Then tell us, pray,",
        "When are the troops to have their pay?'",
        "And, though I solemnly declare",
        "I know no more than my Lord Mayor,",
        "They stand amazed, and think me grown",
        "The closest mortal ever known.",
        "",
        "Thus in a sea of folly toss'd,",
        "My choicest hours of life are lost;",
        "Yet always wishing to retreat,",
        "Oh, could I see my country-seat!",
        "There, leaning near a gentle brook,",
        "Sleep, or peruse some ancient book,",
        "And there in sweet oblivion drown",
        "Those cares that haunt the court and town.",
        "O charming noons! and nights divine!",
        "Or when I sup, or when I dine,",
        "My friends above, my folks below,",
        "Chatting and laughing all a-row;",
        "The beans and bacon set before 'em,",
        "The grace-cup served with all decorum:",
        "Each willing to be pleased, and please,",
        "And even the very dogs at ease!",
        "Here no man prates of idle things,",
        "How this or that Italian sings,",
        "A neighbour's madness, or his spouse's,",
        "Or what's in either of the Houses:",
        "But something much more our concern,",
        "And quite a scandal not to learn:",
        "Which is the happier or the wiser,",
        "A man of merit, or a miser?",
        "Whether we ought to choose our friends,",
        "For their own worth, or our own ends?",
        "What good, or better, we may call,",
        "And what, the very best of all?",
        "",
        "Our friend Dan Prior told (you know)",
        "A tale extremely _á propos_:",
        "Name a town life, and in a trice,",
        "He had a story of two mice.",
        "Once on a time (so runs the fable)",
        "A country mouse, right hospitable,",
        "Received a town mouse at his board,",
        "Just as a farmer might a lord.",
        "A frugal mouse upon the whole.",
        "Yet loved his friend, and had a soul,",
        "Knew what was handsome, and would do 't,",
        "On just occasion, coúte qui coúte,",
        "He brought him bacon (nothing lean);",
        "Pudding, that might have pleased a dean;",
        "Cheese, such as men in Suffolk make,",
        "But wish'd it Stilton, for his sake;",
        "Yet, to his guest though no way sparing,",
        "He eat himself the rind and paring,",
        "Our courtier scarce could touch a bit,",
        "But show'd his breeding and his wit;",
        "He did his best to seem to eat,",
        "And cried, 'I vow you're mighty neat.",
        "But, lord! my friend, this savage scene!",
        "For God's sake, come, and live with men:",
        "Consider, mice, like men, must die,",
        "Both small and great, both you and I:",
        "Then spend your life in joy and sport,",
        "(This doctrine, friend, I learn'd at court).'",
        "",
        "The veriest hermit in the nation",
        "May yield, God knows, to strong temptation.",
        "Away they come, through thick and thin,",
        "To a tall house near Lincoln's Inn;",
        "('Twas on the night of a debate,",
        "When all their lordships had sat late.)",
        "",
        "Behold the place where, if a poet",
        "Shined in description, he might show it;",
        "Tell how the moonbeam trembling falls,",
        "And tips with silver all the walls;",
        "Palladian walls, Venetian doors,",
        "Grotesco roofs, and stucco floors:",
        "But let it (in a word) be said,",
        "The moon was up, and men a-bed,",
        "The napkins white, the carpet red:",
        "The guests withdrawn had left the treat,",
        "And down the mice sat, _tête-à-tête_.",
        "",
        "Our courtier walks from dish to dish,",
        "Tastes for his friend of fowl and fish;",
        "Tells all their names, lays down the law,",
        "'_Que ça est bon! Ah goutez ça!_",
        "That jelly's rich, this malmsey healing,",
        "Pray, dip your whiskers and your tail in.'",
        "Was ever such a happy swain?",
        "He stuffs and swills, and stuffs again.",
        "'I'm quite ashamed--'tis mighty rude",
        "To eat so much--but all's so good.",
        "I have a thousand thanks to give--",
        "My lord alone knows how to live.'",
        "No sooner said, but from the hall",
        "Rush chaplain, butler, dogs, and all:",
        "'A rat! a rat! clap to the door'--",
        "The cat comes bouncing on the floor.",
        "O for the heart of Homer's mice,",
        "Or gods to save them in a trice!",
        "(It was by Providence they think,",
        "For your damn'd stucco has no chink.)",
        "'An't please your honour, quoth the peasant,",
        "This same dessert is not so pleasant:",
        "Give me again my hollow tree,",
        "A crust of bread, and liberty!'"
      ],
      "title": "Book II. Satire VI. the First Part Imitated in the Year 1714, by Dr"
    }
  ],
  "success": true
}