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[Page 32]
[Inscription] IV.
1 O YOUTHS and virgins: O declining eld:
2 O pale misfortune's slaves: O ye who dwell
3 Unknown with humble quiet; ye who wait
4 In courts, or fill the golden seat of kings:
5 O sons of sport and pleasure: O thou wretch
6 That weep'st for jealous love, or the sore wounds
7 Of conscious guilt, or death's rapacious hand
8 Which left thee void of hope: O ye who roam
9 In exile; ye who through the embattled field
10 Seek bright renown; or who for nobler palms
11 Contend, the leaders of a public cause;
12 Approach: behold this marble. Know ye not
13 The features? Hath not oft his faithful tongue
[Page 33]14 Told you the fashion of your own estate,
15 The secrets of your bosom? Here then, round
16 His monument with reverence while ye stand,
17 Say to each other: "Thi was Shakespear's form;
18 "Who walk'd in every path of human life,
19 "Felt every passion; and to all mankind
20 "Doth now, will ever that experience yield
21 "Which his own genius only could acquire."
About this text
Author: Mark Akenside
Themes:
poetry; literature; writing; fame
Genres:
blank verse; inscription
References:
DMI 27807
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 32-33. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)
Editorial principles
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.
Other works by Mark Akenside
- HYMN TO THE NAIADS. ()
- [Inscription] I. For a GROTTO. ()
- [Inscription] II. For a Statue of CHAUCER at WOODSTOCK. ()
- [Inscription] III. ()
- [Inscription] VI. For a Column at RUNNYMEDE. ()
- ODE I. Allusion to HORACE. ()
- ODE II. On the WINTER-SOLSTICE, M. D.CC.XL. (); ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. M. D.CC.XL. ()
- ODE III. Against SUSPICION. ()
- ODE IV. To a GENTLEMAN whose MISTRESS had married an old Man. ()
- ODE To the Right Honourable FRANCIS Earl of HUNTINGDON. MDCCXLVII. ()
- ODE To the Right Reverend BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of WINCHESTER. ()
- ODE V. Hymn to CHEARFULNESS. The Author Sick. ()
- ODE VI. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination. ()
- ODE VII. To a FRIEND, on the hazard of falling in LOVE. ()
- ODE VIII. On leaving HOLLAND. ()
- ODE IX. To SLEEP. ()
- ODE X. On LYRIC Poetry. ()
- ODE. ()
- [THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. A POEM.] ()