Some object clothed in Fancy's loveliest hues—
To strengthen nature, or to chasten art,
To mend the manners or exalt the heart.
So thought the man whom you must judge to-night;
And as he thought, he boldly dared to write.
Not new the subject of his first-born rhyme;
But one adorn'd by bards of elder time;—
Bards with the grandest sentiments inspired—
Bards that in rapture he has still admired;
And tried to imitate, with ardour warm,