[Page 208]

An INSCRIPTION.

Quercus loquitur. O YE!

1 WHO by retirement to these sacred groves
2 Impregnate fancy, and on thought divine
3 Build harmony — If sudden glow your breast
4 With inspiration, and the rapt'rous song
5 Bursts from a mind unconscious whence it sprang:
6 — Know that the sisters of these hallow'd haunts,
7 Dryad or Hamadryad, tho' no more
8 From Jove to man prophetick truths they sing;
9 Are still attendant on the lonely bard,
10 Who step by step these silent woods among
11 Wanders contemplative, lifting the soul
12 From lower cares, by every whisp'ring breeze
13 Tun'd the poetick mood; and fill the mind
14 With truths oracular, themselves of old
15 Deign'd utter from the Dodonean shrine.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): An INSCRIPTION. Quercus loquitur. O YE!
Author: Nicholas Herbert
Themes: imagination; poetry; literature; writing; nature
Genres: blank verse; inscription
References: DMI 22762

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. III. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], p. 208. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.003) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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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.