He Dithyrambos and love passions writ.
The Regal Prophet was a true-born poet,
As to the life his well-tuned metres show it;
Composed to music by that holy man,
290Ere Hopkins and Sternhold knew how to scan.
Hence, chicken-augurs, with your crooked staves,
Whose rash conjectures crown and dig us graves.
A lofty fancy, steepèd in the fount
Of Pegasus, an higher pitch can mount.
Sibylline oracles did speak in verse;