[Page 90]

THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM.

1 THE sun revolving on his axis turns,
2 And with creative fire intensely burns;
3 Impell'd the forcive air, our earth supreme,
4 Rolls with the planets round the solar gleam;
5 First Mercury compleats his transient year,
6 Glowing, refulgent, with reflected glare;
7 Bright Venus occupies a wider way,
8 The early harbinger of night and day;
9 More distant still our globe terraqueous turns,
10 Nor chills intense, nor fiercely heated burns;
11 Around her rolls the lunar orb of light,
12 Trailing her silver glories through the night:
13 On the earth's orbit see the various signs,
14 Mark where the sun, our year compleating, shines:
15 First the bright Ram his languid ray improves;
16 Next glaring wat'ry thro' the Bull he moves;
17 The am'rous Twins admit his genial ray;
18 Now burning, thro' the Crab he takes his way;
19 The Lion, flaming, bears the solar power;
20 The Virgin faints beneath the sultry shower.
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21 Now the just Ballance weighs his equal force,
22 The slimy Serpent swelters in his course;
23 The sabled Archer clouds his languid face;
24 The Goat, with tempests, urges on his race;
25 Now in the Water his faint beams appear,
26 And the cold Fishes end the circling year.
27 Beyond our globe the sanguine Mars displays
28 A strong reflection of primoeval rays;
29 Next belted Jupiter far distant gleams,
30 Scarcely enlight'ned with the solar beams;
31 With four unfix'd receptacles of light,
32 He tours majestic thro' the spacious height:
33 But farther yet the tardy Saturn lags,
34 And five attendant luminaries drags;
35 Investing with a double ring his pace,
36 He circles thro' immensity of space.
37 These are thy wond'rous works, first source of good!
38 Now more admir'd in being understood.
Bristol, Dec. 23.
D. B.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM.
Author: Thomas Chatterton
Themes:
Genres: heroic couplet; narrative verse

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Source edition

Chatterton, Thomas, 1752-1770. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse; by Thomas Chatterton, the supposed author of the poems published under the names of Rowley, Canning, &c. London: printed for Fielding and Walker, Pater-Noster Row, MDCCLXXVIII., 1778, pp. 90-91. xxxii,245,[3]p.,plates; 8⁰. (ESTC T39457; OTA K039720.000) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 696 (1)].)

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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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