Essay on Poetry.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw
A faultless monster, which the world ne'er saw.
Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.