O sweet, illustrious Minstrel! is the song Thy genius fosters and thy taste approves, Which even apathy to feeling moves, And wakes reflection to the sense of wrong: And such to Bards of other times belong, For oh! their theme of Poesy reproves The vicious; and from Virtue fair removes Guilt ever baneful, and temptation strong. Such thrilling rapture runs through every vein, (For thought congenial breathes in every line,) As o'er thy page enamour'd I recline, That turns to pleasure all the past of pain, And brings a fancied happiness again, Which unenjoy'd were, but for pow'rs like thine. Jan. 1814.
