To ------

Thomas Parnell 1679 (Dublin) – 1718



Thanks to the friend whose happy lines coud cheer
In Derry's oaten soil  frozen air
When to the Citty late I bid farewell
Beneath my firm resolves my scribling fell
The Ghost of my departed Muse you raise
tune her tongue to long forgotten layes
Thus a poor girl by passion overrun
Tires with the folly  forsakes the town
But if her shades present a powrfull swain
She feels ye woman stirr  loves again

Your thoughts are Just your words fall in wth ease
Who woud not be abused in lines like these
Mindless of all the ill they say of me
I read them  admire their poetry
So when a Charming beauty strikes ye heart
We slight the wound to gaze upon ye dart
But oh My friend of writing much beware
If once you're charmd youre fixd for ever there
Fame all abroad  loose desires with in
Intice a giddy creature to the pen
A Cælia soon he getts to whom to write
 the brisk bottle must compleat ye witt
Then every minute of succeeding time
Invents a frolick or creates a whim
Which his leud absent friend must hear in rime
You'll think ( others have been thus undone)
Your reason can the growing passion shun
But did you know its strength youd doubt your own

Your best endeavours on ye law bestow
Rough as it is 'tis proffitable too
Cowel  Blunt have words Cook ye way
to keep the wrangling sons of earth in play
then if your books you use your Clients pay

Stay Muse in paths you never trod you rove
My lean advice does my presumption prove
But Can it shew my fault & not my love
Kindly accept what I in kindness send
think me as I think my self your friend.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
68

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABBCCDXXE FFGGHHAAXEXXXXGDDX XXIII XXXJJ
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,521
Words 302
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 10, 18, 5, 5

Thomas Parnell

Thomas Parnell was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He was the son of Thomas Parnell of Maryborough, Queen's County now Port Laoise, County Laoise}, a prosperous landowner who had been a loyal supporter of Cromwell during the English Civil War and moved to Ireland after the restoration of the monarchy. Thomas was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and collated archdeacon of Clogher in 1705. He however spent much of his time in London, where he participated with Pope, Swift and others in the Scriblerus Club, contributing to The Spectator and aiding Pope in his translation of The Iliad. He was also one of the so-called "Graveyard poets": his 'A Night-Piece on Death,' widely considered the first "Graveyard School" poem, was published posthumously in Poems on Several Occasions, collected and edited by Alexander Pope and is thought by some scholars to have been published in December of 1721 (although dated in 1722 on its title page, the year accepted by The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature; see 1721 in poetry, 1722 in poetry). It is said of his poetry 'it was in keeping with his character, easy and pleasing, ennunciating the common places with felicity and grace. more…

All Thomas Parnell poems | Thomas Parnell Books

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