Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903.
SatiresSatires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace Imitated. The Ninth Ode of the Fourth Book of Horace
A Fragment
L
Which sounds the silver Thames along,
Taught on the wings of truth to fly
Above the reach of vulgar song;
In Spenser native muses play;
Nor yet shall Waller yield to time,
Nor pensive Cowley’s moral lay—
Ere Cæsar was or Newton named;
These rais’d new empires o’er the earth,
And those new heav’ns and systems framed.
They had no Poet, and they died.
In vain they schemed, in vain they bled!
They had no Poet, and are dead.