Classic Poem

And thou! whose sense, whose humor and whose rage
At once can teach, delight, and lash the age,
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy chair,
Praise courts and monarchs, or extol mankind,
Or thy grieved country's copper chains unbind;
Attend whatever title please thine ear,
Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver.
From thy Boeotia, lo! the fog retires,
Yet grieve not thou at what our isle acquires;
Here Dullness reigns, with mighty wings outspread,
And bring the true Saturnian age of lead