In imitation of Pindar.
THE simile's a very useful thing,
This, priests and poets needs must own ;
For when the clock-work of their brain runs down,
A simile winds up the mental spring.
For instance, when a priest does scan
The Fall of Man
And all its consequences dire,
He makes him first a little sportive pig,—
So clean, so innocent, so trig,—
And then an aged sow, deep wallowing in the mire!
Yes, sure the simile's a useful thing ;
Another instance I will bring.
Thou'st seen a cork tost on the rain-swell'd stream,
Now up, now down, now whirl'd round and round,
Yet still 'twould swim,
And all the torrent's fury could not drown't :
So have I seen a forward, empty fop,
Tost in Wit's blanket, ridicul'd, et cetera,
Yet, after all the banter, off he'd hop,
Quite confident in self-sufficiency.
Ah ! had kind heaven,
For a defence,
Allowed me half the brazen confidence
That she to many a cork brained fool bath given !
Note by Ramsay.—“In imitation of Peter Pindar (Dr. Welcot).”
Pindar, born 518 B.C. A Theban. The Prince of Lyric Poets.—Ed.
John Wolcot, M.D., the patronymic of Peter Pindar, a satirical poet, born in 1738, published his works between 1794 and 1807, and were very popular when the above Ode was written. He died 14th January, 1819.—Ed.
[Semple 15]