The Rolliad, in Two Parts / Probationary Odes for the Laureatship & Political Eclogues

O! green-rob'd Goddess of the hallow'd shade,

Daughter of Jove, to whom of yore

Thee, lovely maid, Latona bore,

Chaste virgin, Empress of the silent glade!

Where shall I woo thee?-Ere the dawn,

While still the dewy tissue of the lawn

Quivering spangles to the eye,

And fills the soul with Nature's harmony!

Or 'mid that murky grove's monastic night,

The tangling net-work of the woodbine's gloom,

Each zephyr pregnant with perfume--

Or near that delving dale, or mossy mountain's height,

When Neptune struck the scientific ground.

From Attica's deep-heaving side,

Why did the prancing horse rebound,

Snorting, neighing all around,

With thund'ring feet and flashing eyes-

Unless to shew how near allied

Bright science is to exercise!

If then the horse to wisdom is a friend,

Why not the hound? why not the horn?

While low beneath the furrow sleeps the corn,

Nor yet in tawny vests delight to bend!

For Jove himself decreed,

That DIAN, with her sandal'd feet,

White ankled Goddess pure and fleet,

Should with every Dryad lead,

By jovial cry o'er distant plain,

To England's Athens, Brunswick's sylvan train!