Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. Written on a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s Monasticon

Thomas Warton (1728–1790)

DEEM not devoid of elegance the sage,

By Fancy’s genuine feelings unbeguiled,

Of painful pedantry the poring child,

Who turns of these proud domes the historic page,

Now sunk by Time and Henry’s fiercer rage.

Think’st thou the warbling Muses never smiled

On his lone hours? Ingenuous views engage

His thoughts on themes, unclassic falsely styled,

Intent. While cloistered Piety displays

Her mouldering roll, the piercing eye explores

New manners, and the pomp of elder days,

Whence culls the pensive bard his pictured stores.

Nor rough nor barren are the winding ways

Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.