Invocation to Poetry
(January Sixteenth)
by John Holland
"But if (fie of such a But!) you be borne so near the dulmaking cataract of Nilus, that you cannot hear the planet-like music of Poetry: if you have so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the skies of Poetry, or rather, by a certain rustical disdain, will become such a mome as to be a Momus of Poetry: then, although I will not wish unto you the asses ears of Midas, nor to be driven by a Poet's verses as Bubonax was to hang himself, nor to be rhymed to death, as is said to be done in Ireland; -yet this much curse I must send you in the behalf of all Poets, that while you live you live in love, and never get favour, for lacking skill of a Sonnet, and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an Epitaph."-Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesie.
Spirit of Truth and Power! or whether yoke'd
With chain harmonious to resounding rhyme;
Or urged, in "winged words," fire-plumed, to climb;
Or by the spell of hallow'd thought invoked--
Thou art the soul's bright messenger sublime;
Or when quick Lyric themes sweet Music wed;
Or the Elegiac bard bewails the dead;
Or Tragic muse instruction wins from crime;
Or Epic genius snatches from dull time,
The glorious memory of heroic deeds--
Blest Poesy! thy inspiration breeds
Such virtuous hope in youth's ingenuous prime,
That oft true fame, as man's ambition free,
Crowns through each stage of life thy faithful devotee.
