Page:The Progress of Poetry - Madan (1783).djvu/9

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A common ear, perhaps, or vulgar heart,These lays may please, the labour'd work of Art;Far other strains delight the polish'd mind,The ear well-judging, and the taste refin'd.To blend, in heavenly numbers, strength and fire,An Addison will ask, a Pope require;Genius alone can force like theirs bestow,As stars unconscious of their brightness glow.
Hail Greece! from whence the spark etherial came,That wide o'er earth diffus'd its sacred flame:There the first laurel form'd a deathless shade,And sprung immortal for thy Homer's head;There the great Bard the rising wonder wrought,And plann'd the Iliad in his boundless thought;By no mean steps to full perfection grew,But burst, at once, refulgent on the view.

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