[Lines Spoken by the Ghost of John Dennis at the Devil Tavern] Thomas Gray Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771. Thomas Gray: English poems. Web. Oxford Thomas Gray Archive 2002 pp. []-[]. http://www.thomasgray.org/texts/poems.shtml

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[ Lines Spoken by the Ghost of John Dennis at the Devil Tavern ] From purling streams and the Elysian scene , From groves that smile with never-fading green , I reascend : in Atropos' despite Restored to Celadon and upper light . Ye gods , that sway the regions under ground , Reveal to mortal view your realms profound ; At his command admit the eye of day : When Celadon commands , what god can disobey ? Nor seeks he your Tartarean fires to know , The house of torture and the abyss of woe ; But happy fields and mansions free from pain , Gay meads and springing flowers , best please the gentle swain . That little , naked , melancholy thing , My soul , when first she tried her flight to wing , Began with speed new regions to explore , And blundered through a narrow postern door . First most devoutly having said its prayers , It tumbled down a thousand pair of stairs , Through entries long , through cellars vast and deep , Where ghostly rats their habitations keep , Where spiders spread their webs and owlish goblins sleep . After so many chances had befell , It came into a mead of asphodel : Betwixt the confines of the light and dark It lies , of 'Lysium the St. James's Park . Here spirit-beaux flutter along the Mall , And shadows in disguise skate o'er the iced Canal ; Here groves embowered and more sequestered shades , Frequented by the ghosts of ancient maids , Are seen to rise . The melancholy scene , With gloomy haunts and twilight walks between , Conceals the wayward band : here spend their time Greensickness girls that died in youthful prime , Virgins forlorn , all dressed in willow-green-i , With Queen Elizabeth and Nicolini . More to reveal , or many words to use , Would tire alike your patience and my muse . Believe that never was so faithful found Queen Proserpine to Pluto under ground , Or Cleopatra to her Mark Antony , As Orozmades to his Celadony . P.S. Lucrece for half a crown will show you fun , But Mrs. Oldfield is become a nun . Nobles and cits , Prince Pluto and his spouse , Flock to the ghost of Covent-Garden House : Plays , which were hissed above , below revive , When dead applauded that were damned alive . The people , as in life , still keep their passions , But differ something from the world in fashions . Queen Artemisia breakfasts on bohea , And Alexander wears a ramilie .