On a BAY-LEAF, pluck'd from VIRGIL'S Tomb near Naples. 1736. John Hoadly Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
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Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.003 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] pp. 268-269. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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On a BAY-LEAF , pluck'd from VIRGIL'S Tomb near Naples . 1736. By the same . BOLD was the irreligious hand , That could all reverence withstand , And sacrilegiously presume To rob the poet's sacred tomb Of so much honourable shade , As this , so small a trophy , made ; Could dare to pluck from VIRGIL'S brow The honours Nature did bestow , Pascua . Sweetly the gentle goddess smil'd , And listen'd to her favourite child ; Whether in shepherd's cleanly weed He deftly tun'd his oaten reed , And taught the vocal woods around His Amaryllis to resound ; Rura . Or taught he in a graver strain To cloath the field with waving grain ; And in the marriage-folds to twine The barren elm , and cluster'd vine ; To yoke the lab'ring ox , to breed To the known goal the foaming steed ; And sung the manners , rights , degrees , And labours of the frugal bees ; Duces . Or whether with Aeneas' name He swell'd th' extended cheek of Fame , And all his god-like labours sung , Whence Rome's extended glories sprung ; The goddess smil'd , and own'd she knew Th' original from whence he drew , And grateful she spontaneous gave This living honour to his grave . Hail , thou sweet shade , whose rev'renc'd name Still foremost in the mouth of Fame , Doth preference and value give , And teach this little leaf to live , Methinks secluded from that brow , Where grateful Nature bad it grow , This beauteous green should fade away , And yield to iron-tooth'd decay : But VIRGIL'S name forbids that crime , And blunts the threat'ning scythe of Time .