ODE.

1.

If from servile hope or love

I may prove

But so happy to be thought for

Such a one, whose greatest ease

Is to please,

Worthy Sir, I have all I sought for.

2.

For no itch of greater name,

Which some claim

By their verses, do I show it

To the world; nor to protest,

’Tis the best;

These are lean faults in a poet.

3.

Nor to make it serve to feed

At my need;

Nor to gain acquaintance by it;

Nor to ravish kind Atturneys

In their journies;

Nor to read it after diet.

4.

Far from me are all these aims;

Frantic claims,

To build weakness on and pity;

Only to yourself, and such

Whose true touch

Makes all good, let me seem witty.