While neat old Elzevir is reckon'd better
Than Pirate Hill's brown sheets and scurvy letter.
This blank-verse poem, which may have been suggested by John Philips' "Cider," published in 1708, is written in the mock-heroic strain, and although it has no particular value, shows some sense of humorous exaggeration, of which Gay was presently to show himself a master.
Of happiness terrestrial, and the source
Whence human pleasures flow, sing, Heavenly Muse,
Of sparkling juices, of th' enlivening grape,
Whose quick'ning taste adds vigour to the soul.
Whose sov'reign power revives decaying Nature,
And thaws the frozen blood of hoary age,
A kindly warmth diffusing—youthful fires