[Page 332]
HORACE. Book the 2d. ODE the 10th.
1.
[Page 333]1 RECEIVE, dear friend, the truths I teach,
2 So shalt thou live beyond the reach
3 Of adverse fortunes pow'r;
4 Not always tempt the distant deep,
5 Nor always timorously creep
6 Along the treach'rous shore.
2.
7 He that holds fast the golden mean,
8 And lives contentedly between
9 The little and the great,
10 Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
11 Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
12 Imbitt'ring all his state.
3.
13 The tallest pines feel most the pow'r
14 Of wintry blasts, the loftiest tow'r
15 Comes heaviest to the ground,
16 The bolts that spare the mountains side,
17 His cloud-capt eminence divide
18 And spread the ruin round.
4.
[Page 334]19 The well inform'd philosopher
20 Rejoices with an wholesome fear,
21 And hopes in spite of pain;
22 If winter bellow from the north,
23 Soon the sweet spring comes dancing forth,
24 And nature laughs again.
5.
25 What if thine heav'n be overcast,
26 The dark appearance will not last,
27 Expect a brighter sky;
28 The God that strings the silver bow,
29 Awakes sometimes the muses too,
30 And lays his arrows by.
6.
31 If hindrances obstruct thy way,
32 Thy magnanimity display,
33 And let thy strength be seen,
34 But oh! if Fortune fill thy sail
35 With more than a propitious gale,
36 Take half thy canvass in.
About this text
Author: William Cowper
Themes:
providence
Genres:
translation; imitation; paraphrase
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Cowper, William, 1731-1800. Poems: by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. London: printed for J. Johnson, 1782, pp. 332-334. [4],367,[1]p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T14895; OTA K027775.000) (Page images digitized by the University of California Libraries.)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
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- [THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.] BOOK II. ()
- [THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.] BOOK III. ()
- [THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.] BOOK IV. ()
- [THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.] BOOK V. ()
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