Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/130
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94
ESSAY on CRITICISM.
In the bright Muse tho' thousand charms conspire,
Her Voice is all these tuneful fools admire;
Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear,
Not mend their minds; as some to Church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
These equal syllables alone require,
Tho' [1]oft' the ear the open vowels tire;
While expletives their feeble aid do join;
And ten low words oft' creep in one dull line;
While they ring round the same unvary'd chimes,
With sure returns of still-expected rhymes.
Where-e'er you find the cooling western breeze,
In the next line, it whispers thro' the trees;
If crystal streams with pleasing murmurs creep,
The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with sleep.
Then, at the last, and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a Thought,
Her Voice is all these tuneful fools admire;
Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear,
Not mend their minds; as some to Church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
These equal syllables alone require,
Tho' [1]oft' the ear the open vowels tire;
While expletives their feeble aid do join;
And ten low words oft' creep in one dull line;
While they ring round the same unvary'd chimes,
With sure returns of still-expected rhymes.
Where-e'er you find the cooling western breeze,
In the next line, it whispers thro' the trees;
If crystal streams with pleasing murmurs creep,
The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with sleep.
Then, at the last, and only couplet fraught
With some unmeaning thing they call a Thought,
A need-