A NIGHT-PIECE; OR, MODERN PHILOSOPHY. ODE III. Christopher Smart Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T42626 K041581.000 Smart, Christopher, 1722-1771. Poems on several occasions: By Christopher Smart, A. M. Fellow of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge. London printed for the author, by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, MDCCLII. 1752 pp. 12-14. [16],230p.,plates; 4⁰.

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A NIGHT-PIECE ; OR , MODERN PHILOSOPHY . ODE III . Dicetur meritâ nox quoque noeniâ . HOR. 'TWAS when bright Cynthia with her silver car , Soft stealing from Endymion's bed , Had call'd forth ev'ry glitt'ring star , And up th' ascent of heav'n her brilliant host had led . Night , with all her negro train , Took possession of the plain ; In an hearse she rode reclin'd , Drawn by screech-owls slow and blind : Close to her , with printless feet , Crept Stillness , in a winding sheet . Next to her deaf Silence was seen , Treading on tip toes over the green ; Softly , lightly , gently she trips , Still holding her fingers seal'd to her lips . You could not see a sight , You could not hear a sound , But what confess'd the night , And horror deepen'd round . Beneath a myrtle's melancholy shade , Sophron the wise was laid : And to the answ'ring wood these sounds convey'd : While others toil within the town , And to Fortune smile or frown , Fond of trifles , fond of toys , And married to that woman , Noise ; Sacred Wisdom be my care , And fairest Virtue , Wisdom's heir . His speculations thus the sage begun , When , lo ! the neighbouring bell In solemn sound struck one : — He starts — and recollects — he was engag'd to Nell . Then up he sprang nimble and light , And rapp'd at fair Ele'nor's door ; He laid aside virtue that night , And next morn por'd in Plato for more .