Classic Poem

We had been still undone, wrapt in disguise,
Secure, not happy; cunning, but not wise;
War had been our design, int'rest our trade,
We had not dwelt in safety, but in shade,
Hadst thou not hung out light more welcome far
Then wandring Seamen think the Northern Star;
To shew, least we our happiness should misse,
'Tis plac'd in Friendship, Men's (and Angells) bliss.
Friendship! which had a scorn or mask been made,
And still had been derided or betray'd;
At which the Politician still had laugh'd,
The souldier stormed, and the gallant scoff'd,
Or worn, not as a passion, but a plot,
At first pretended, or at last forgot;
Hadst thou not been her great deliverer,
And first discover'd, and then rescu'd her;
And raising what rude malice had flung down,
Unvayled her face, and then restor'd her Crown:
By so august an action to convince,
'Tis greater to support then be a Prince.
O! for a voyce which big as thunder were,
That all mankind thy conqu'ring truths might heare!
Sure the Litigious as amaz'd would stand,
As Fairy Knights touch'd with Cambina's wand
Nations and people would let fall their armes,
Drawn by thy softer and yet stronger charmes:
And what more honour could on thee be hurl'd,
Then to protect a vertue, save a world?
But while Great Friendship thou hast coppyd out,
Th' hast drawn thy self so well, that we may doubt
Which most appeares, thy Candour or thy Art,
Or we ow more unto thy braine or heart;
But this we know, without thy own consent,
Th'hast rear'd thy self a glorious monument;
And that so lasting as all fate forbids,
And will out-live Egyptian Pyramids
Temples and Statues time will eat away,
And Tombs (like theyr inhabitants) decay;
But there Palaemon lives, and so he must
When Marbles crumble to forgotten dust