Classic Poem

WISDOM , virtue's sacred fire,
Nymph caelestial touch my lyre;
Goddess harmonize my lay,
Teach me thine all-hallow'd way:
Whether in the gloomy wood;
Whether in the briny flood;
Whether in the flow'ry grove;
Whether in the realms above;
Make me thine attendant still,
Form me Pallas , to thy will.
Lead me to thy happy sphere,
Where vicissitudes the year,
Prove not over: — all is one,
Rolling endless ages on.
Fairer than the fairest face,
Love, and innocence, and grace,
Truth and meek humility,
Stay congenial maid with thee .

Thou, whom mortals should revere,
Wast before the heav'ns were;
Or yon vaulted canopy;
Or the Star-bespangled sky;
'Ere the sun himself, or ought
Was from shapeless Chaos brought,
Be thou mine, I would no gems,
Crowns, or costly diadems,
Pearl, or what the nations boast,
Spreads on sultry Guinea's coast.

Let me count thy beauties o'er,
Laud thee to the sarthest shore;
Tell thy goodness to the poles,
Far as mighty ocean rolls;
Teach the islands of the sea,
Thy unmeasurable sway. — —
Let me woo thee in the bow'r,
At the dawn or ev'ning hour;
In my closet, or the park,
At mid-day or midnight dark;
Let me, (for I long to find
Sweet Minerva in my mind)
Woo thee where Olympus nods,
'Midst the circle of the gods:
Where divinest honors paid,
In the robes of love array'd;
And the pow'rs submit to thee,
Patron of the graces three;
All to WISDOM bend the knee.