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The Cave of POPE.

A Prophecy.

By R— D—.
1 WHEN dark oblivion in her sable cloak
2 Shall wrap the names of heroes and of kings;
3 And their high deeds submitting to the stroke
4 Of time shall fall amongst forgotten things:
5 Then (for the Muse that distant day can see)
6 On Thames's bank the stranger shall arrive,
7 With curious wish thy sacred grott to see,
8 Thy sacred grott shall with thy name survive.
9 Grateful posterity, from age to age,
10 With pious hand the ruin shall repair:
11 Some good old man, to each enquiring sage
12 Pointing the place, shall cry, "The Bard liv'd there,
13 "Whose song was musick to the listening ear,
14 "Yet taught audacious vice and folly, shame:
15 "Easy his manners, but his life severe;
16 "His word alone gave infamy or fame.
17 "Sequester'd from the fool and coxcomb-wit,
18 "Beneath this silent roof the Muse he found;
19 "'Twas here he slept inspir'd, or sate and writ;
20 "Here with his friends the social glass went round. "
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21 With aweful veneration shall they trace
22 The steps which thou so long before hast trod;
23 With reverend wonder view the solemn place,
24 From whence thy genius soar'd to nature's God.
25 Then, some small gem, or moss, or shining ore,
26 Departing, each shall [pilfer], in fond hope
27 To please their friends on ev'ry distant shore,
28 Boasting a relick from the cave of POPE.
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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): The Cave of POPE. A Prophecy.
Author: Robert Dodsley
Themes: architecture; buildings; poetry; literature; writing
Genres: prophecy
References: DMI 18315

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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], pp. 346-347. 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.

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