There Still Remains To Mortify A Wit The Many-headed Monster Of The Pit.

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There still remains to mortify a wit
The many-headed monster of the pit.
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
-- Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Epistle i, Book ii, Line 304

Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.
Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise.
Who says in verse what others say in prose.
Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old.
The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.
The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.
Words that wise Bacon or brave Raleigh spoke.
Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.
When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one.

There Still Remains To Mortify A Wit The Many-headed Monster Of The Pit.

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