Classic Poem

What is this world, Avarus cried,
But noise and nonsense, pomp and pride?
Search all the universe around,
No perfect goodness can be found;
Sorrow, and indigence and pain,
On earth have fix'd their lasting reign,
The bad man thrives, the good declines,
Beset with poverty he pines.
Palsy'd with age, the rev'rend head,
Is number'd but as one that's dead:
While striplings, who but just can crawl,
Their fires push rudely from the wall;
And every fool, and every knave,
Conceited, hiss them to the grave.

The Orb that brightens up the skies,
Prolisic shines on fops and flies,
Endues the noxious toad with breath,
And rears the plant whose juice is death.

The moon, pale regent of the night,
But sheds around her borrow'd light,
While villains, who abscond the day,
Uninterrupted rob and slay.

With various ills Creation teems,
The hills, the dales, the woods, the streams.

Th' eternal cause of blood and strife,
The chiefest curse embitt'ring life,
Gold, baneful ore, the hills contain,
And serpents lurk upon the plain;
Tigers and wolves infest the woods,
And sharks and crocodiles the floods;
Devouring locusts fill the air,
To spoil the harvest of the year;
How wretched is this earthly state!
How partial is the will of fate! — — —

As discontented thus he rav'd,
And Heav'n's eternal justice brav'd;
Commission'd from immortal Jove,
His real sentiments to prove,
An Angel came — — Thy murm'ring cease,
Entring, he cry'd — I bring thee peace.
He to whom ev'ry heart is known,
Has sent to claim thee for his own;
Fly this terrene, without delay,
To regions of a purer day,
Whence springs the living fount of joy
Eternal, and without alloy!
Where peace expands her downy wing,
And choiristers celestial sing. —

As when — (permit the simile)
Beneath a lofty branching tree,
From summer suns a pleasing shade,
Some shepherd at his ease is laid,
Sudden dark clouds obscure the skies,
The thunder rolls, the lightning flies;
The tree falls blasted on the plain,
The stroke but just escapes the swain,
Who starting, with uplifted hands,
And frantic looks, confounded stands:
So stood the mortal all confest,
Before his Heav'n descended guest;
A pallid hue o'erspread his face,
His pulse forgot its usual pace;
His trembling joints together smite,
And all is horror and affright.

With faultring voice, and downcast eyes,
At length th' astonish'd wretch replies;

— The Power whose Delegate you are,
My heart for ever must revere;
Yet, oh! my bright seraphic friend,
His kindness for awhile suspend.
While in this vale of tears below,
This thorny journey all must go,
To vex the mind strange passions rise,
Deform'd, unfit to meet the skies;
Dull business takes away our guard,
At present I am unprepar'd;
A little space allow my stay,
And call again another day. —

With thundring voice, and alter'd look,
Justly enrag'd, the Angel spoke:

— Equivocating worm forbear
To murmur at thy station here;
Here center'd, all your wishes tend,
Their ultimate design and end,
Earth-bound, no longer brave the skies
With nonsense and absurdities;
Call Heav'n partial and severe,
Yet hope to stay forever here;
Subdue thy pride, and learn from me,
What Jove has kindly done for thee.

From chaos and the realms of night,
Without distinction, form, or light,
His voice produc'd this fertile earth,
And gave each plant and season birth;
To finish and to crown the whole,
Endow'd with an immortal soul,
With sense and reason to his aid,
In form majestic man was made,
From earth, obedient to his call
He rose conspicious Lord of all.

Yet not for ever here his stay,
This body form'd of mortal clay,
As earth must have in earthly grave,
The soul return to him who gave,
There dwell with spirits ever blest,
In realms of joy, and love, and rest.

Yet in this transitory reign
Man is dissatisfy'd in vain,
Made for his use, behold arise
Yon Orb that gilds the orient skies,
The sun: — How gloriously compleat!
Affording light, affording heat;
Yet by the earth revolving course,
When other worlds receive it's force,
Reflected, an inferior light,
The moon returns her aid by night,
Dun darkness flies from off the plain,
Chas'd by her beams, and starry train.
Immense! his bounties who can tell,
To please sight, hearing, taste and smell;
The pine-top'd mountain, humble hill,
The woodland, dale, and purling rill;
The choral birds salute the ear,
The playful flocks around appear,
And flowers of a thousand hues
Their aromatic sweets diffuse.
Obedient to his dread command
The clouds drop fatness on the land.
The earth, the ocean, and the air,
Teem by his vegetative care;
His vital breath produc'd the spring,
Bids bills rejoice, and valleys sing.

The seasons at his will prevail,
Refreshing shower, or fanning gale,
Producing from the appointed soil,
For thankless man, corn, wine and oil.
These are his works — if understood,
Supremely great! supremely good!
Whate'er springs from the teeming earth,
Or by the genial sun call'd forth,
In nature have their proper use,
Perverted only by abuse.
The serpent, toad, or crocodile,
With all the spawn of slimy Nile,
Have still their proper sphere assign'd,
Are good according to their kind.

The baleful plants, thy reason knows,
Are fatal drugs, are fatal foes:
Yet reason bids thee shun the ill,
To taste is in thy sickle will:
In some degree, their virtue's great,
Protracting, not producing fate.

So the fair vine, whose sprightly juice
Enlivens by a proper use,
Becomes, by taking more, we find,
A maddning poison to the mind.
If the good man the bad oppress,
His goodness still is ne'er the less;
The bad, as bad, will Jove regard,
And virtue find its own reward.

This known, thy murmuring give o'er,
Arraign the will of Fate no more.
With prayer and penitence attone
Thy crimes — and let the world alone.
Confess, unworthy as thou art,
That Jove in all has done his part,
Walk humbly, and as well do thine,
Or justly dread his wrath divine.
He said — and infant from the fight
Sprang upward to the realms of light.