MARCELLUS, since the ardours of my strain
To thy young eyes and kindling fancy, gleam
With somewhat of the vivid hues, that stream
From Poesy’s bright orb, each envious stain
Shed by dull critics, venal, vex’d and vain,
Seems recompens’d at full;—and so would seem
Did not maturer sons of Phœbus deem
My verse Aonian.—Thou, in time, shalt gain,
Like them, amid the letter’d world, that sway,
Which makes encomium fame;—so thou adorn,
Extend, refine and dignify thy lay,
And indolence, and syren pleasure scorn;
Then, at high noon, thy Genius shall display
The splendours promised in its shining morn.