Classic Poem

From C ORNWAL'S Foreland to the Cliffs of Dover ,
O're hilly C AMBRIA , and all E NGLANDover ,
Thy Muse hath borne me; and (in foure dayes) showne
More goodly Prospects, then I could have knowne
In foure yeares Travailes; If I had not thus
Beene mounted, on thy winged P EGASUS .
The famous Rivers, the delightsome Fountaines;
The fruitfull Vallies, the steepe-rising Mountaines;
The new-built Towres, the ancient-ruin'd Walls;
The wholsome Baths, the bedds of Mineralls;
The nigh-worne Monuments of former Ages;
The Workes of Peace, the Marks of Civil-rages;
The Woods, the Forrests, and the open Plaines,
With whatsoe're this spacious Land containes ,
For Profit, or for Pleasure: I o're-looke ,
( As from one Station) when I read thy Booke.
Nor doe mine eyes from thence behold alone,
Such Things, as for the present there are done;
( Or Places, as this day, they doe appeare )
But Actions past, and Places as they were
A hundred Ages since , as well as now .
Which, he that wearies out his feet to know,
Shall never finde, nor yet so cheape attaine
(With so much ease and profit) halfe that gaine.
Good-speed befall Thee; who hast wag'd a Taske,
That better Censures, and Rewards doth aske ,
Then these Times have to give. For, those that should
The honor of true P OESY uphold ,
Are (for the most part) such as doe preferre
The fawning Lynes of every Pamphleter,
Before the best-writ P OEMS . And their sight
Or cannot, or else dares not, eye the Flight
Of free borne N UMBERS ; least bright V IRTUE'S fame ,
Which flies in those, reflect on Them, their shame.
Tis well; thy happy Judgement, could devise,
Which way, a man this Age might Poetize,
And not write S AIYRS : Or else, so to write
That scape thou mayst, the clutches of Despight.
For, through such Woods, and Rivers, trips thy M USE ,
As, will or loose, or drowne him, that pursues.
Had my Invention ( which I know too weake )
Enabled been, so brave a Flight to make;
( Should my unlucky Penn have overgone
So many a Province, and so many a Towne)
Though I to no mans wrong had gone astray,
I had been pounded on the Kings hye way .
But thou hast better Fortune, and hast chose
So brave a P ATRON , that thou canst not lose
By this Adventure. For, in Him, survives
His Brother H ENRIE'S Virtues: and hee lives
To be that Comfort to thy M USE , which Hee
Had nobly (e're his death) begun to be.
Yet, overmuch presume not, that these Times,
Will therefore value thy Heroick Rymes,
According to their Merit. For, although,
Hee, and some fewe, the worth of them shall know:
This is their F ATE . ( And some unborne, will say ,
Ispake the Truth; what e're men thinke to Day)
Ages to come, shall hugg thy P OESY ,
As we our deare Friends Pictures, when they dye.
Shose that succeed us , D RAYTONS Name shall love ,
And, so much this laborious P EECE approove;
That such as write heereafter, shall to trim
Their new Inventions, pluck it limbe from limbe.
And our great-Grandsonnes Childrens-children may,
(Yea shall) as in a Glasse, this I SLE survay ,
As wee now see it: And as those did to,
Who lived many hundred yeares agoe.
For, when the Seas shall eat away the Shore,
Great Woods spring up, where Plaines were heretofore ;
High Mountaines leveld with low Vallyes lye;
And Rivers runne where now the ground is drie:
This P OEME shall grow famous, And declare
What old-Things stood, where new-Things shall appeare .
And hereunto his N AME subscribeth He,
Who shall by this P RÆDICTION , live with Thee.