Three poets, in one age, one land, were born, And with their verse Britannia's isle adorn: Sublime and beautiful, with humorous vein, COWPER enchanted with his pious strain. MONTGOMERY came, in sweet and sacred mood, His theme was love, "The World before the Flood." Then BERNARD BARTON join'd the tuneful choir, And pour'd sweet numbers from affection's lyre. Long ages passed, before poetic flame From Greece, through Rome, to our own Milton came; But here three poets are at once preferred To claims of which, nor Greece, nor Rome, had heard, Nor can we think they e'er will be surpass'd, 'Till heaven's own harpings fill our ears at last.
