A

RECOMMENDATION OF THE STUDY

OF THE REMAINS OF

ANCIENT GRECIAN AND ROMAN

ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE,

AND

PAINTING;

A PRIZE POEM,

RECITED IN THE THEATRE, OXFORD,

IN THE YEAR MDCCCVI.

A

RECOMMENDATION OF THE STUDY

OF THE REMAINS OF

ANCIENT GRECIAN AND ROMAN

ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE,

AND

PAINTING.

[This Compofition was originally reftricted to fifty lines ;-a few relative to Painting have fince been added.]

THOUGH oft in Britain's ifle the breathing buft

To fame confign the patriot-hero's duft,
And conquerors wak'd to mimic life again

In imag'd triumph thunder o'er the main;

Though speaks each mould by Flaxman's genius

wrought,

The glow of fancy, or the stretch of thought;

And grace obeys fair Damer's foft controul
Through many a varied lineament of foul;
Yet, oh! unlike each nobler Grecian form,

With ftrength majestic or with beauty warm,
Where all her mingling charms Expreffion pour'd,
Admir'd by Valour, or by Love ador'd!

Lo! where retiring Venus fhuns the eye, And beauty vies with bashful majesty!

There mortal charms in lovelieft union shine,

And all the Goddess crowns the bright defign.
Thou, too, half-hid beneath thy dripping veil
Of many a moiften'd tress, Urania, hail!

To thee that dubious mien the sculptor gave,

Fearing the shore, though fhrinking from the wave.

Or fee, where, graceful bending o'er, his bow,
The quiver'd God's exulting features glow,
As, trusting to his arm's unerring might,

His look pursues the diftant arrow's flight.

But fhut, oh! fhut the eye, where mid yon fold
Of crefted fnakes Laocoon writhes enroll'd,

And drinks with tortur'd ear his children's cries,
Embittering death's convulfive agonies!

Rife, flumbering Genius, and with throbbing heart Adore these trophies of unrivall❜d art;

Till each fine grace that gifted Masters knew

In fairy vifion floating o'er thy view,

Perfection crown once more the living stone,

And Britain claim a Phidias of her own.

Not fuch the hopes that bless th' enthufiaft's dream, While fad it wanders o'er each faded gleam,

That dimly fhews to Painting's Mufe was given

The fevenfold radiance of refulgent heaven,

When Genius ftole the colours of the fun,

And pour'd them o'er the wreath that Valour won! Then turn the eye, where, fpurning time's controul, Art ftamps on stone the triumphs of the foul: