VERSES to WILLIAM SHENSTONE, Esq; On receiving a Gilt Pocket-Book. 1751. Richard Jago 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 K104099.005 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 70-72. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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VERSES to WILLIAM SHENSTONE , Esq ; On receiving a Gilt Pocket-Book . 1751. By Mr. JAGO . THESE spotless leaves , this neat array Might well invite your charming quill , In fair assemblage to display The power of learning , wit , and skill : But since you carelessly refuse , And to my pen the task assign ; O ! let your Genius guide my Muse , And every vulgar thought refine . Teach me your best , your best-lov'd art , With frugal care to store my mind ; In this to play the miser's part , And give mean lucre to the wind : To shun the coxcomb's empty noise ; To scorn the villain's artful mask ; Nor trust gay pleasure's fleeting joys , Nor urge ambition's endless task . Teach me to stem youth's boisterous tide ; To regulate its giddy rage ; By reason's aid , my barque to guide Into the friendly port of age : To share what classic culture yields ; Thro' rhetoric's painted meads to roam ; With you to reap historic fields , And bring the golden harvest home : To taste the genuine sweets of wit ; To quaff in humour's sprightly bowl ; The philosophic mean to hit , And prize the dignity of soul . Teach me to read fair Nature's book , Wide-opening in each flowery plain ; And with judicious eye to look On all the glories of her reign . To hail her seated on her throne ; By aweful woods encompass'd round : Or her divine extraction own , Tho' with a wreath of rushes crown'd . Thro' arched walks , o'er spreading lawns , Near solemn rocks , with her to rove : Or court her , 'mid her gentle fauns , In mossy cell , or maple grove . Whether the prospect strain the sight , Or in the nearer landskips charm , Where hills , vales , fountains , woods unite . To grace our sweet Arcadian farm , There let me sit ; and gaze with you , On Nature's works by Art refin'd ; And own , while we their contest view , Both fair , but fairest , thus combin'd !