Collins, William (1721-1759)

An Epistle: Addressed to Sir Thomas Hanmer, on his Edition of Shakespeare's Works

London

Printed for M. Cooper

1743

The wounded heart may be supported by songs and healed by morals

O more than all in powerful genius blest,
Come, take thine empire o'er the willing breast!
Whate'er the wounds this youthful heart shall feel,
Thy songs support me and thy morals heal!
There every thought the poet's warmth may raise,
There native music dwells in all the lays.
O might some verse with happiest skill persuade
Expressive Picture to adopt thine aid!
What wondrous drafts might rise from every page!
What other Raphaels charm a distant age!
(ll. 101-10, pp. 396-7)

Body::Injury

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Published anonymously in London by Mary Cooper and originally titled Verses Humbly Addres'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer. Collected in The Poetical Works (1781). Text from The Poems (1969).

See Verses Humbly Address'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer. on His Edition of Shakespear's Works. by a Gentleman of Oxford (London, Printed for M. Cooper, 1743). <Link to ECCO>

Reading The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, and Oliver Goldsmith, ed. Roger Lonsdale (London and New York: Longman and Norton: 1972).

11/21/2003