Stockdale, Percival (1736-1811)

The Poet. A Poem.

1773, 1810

"The bard enjoys ethereal bliss to-day; / Bright are his thoughts, and vigorous is his lay: / To-morrow brings a melancholy scene; / Relaxed, untuned is all the fine machine;"

With all the sufferings of a feeling frame,
Poor is the solace of a deathless name.
The bard enjoys ethereal bliss to-day;
Bright are his thoughts, and vigorous is his lay:
To-morrow brings a melancholy scene;
Relaxed, untuned is all the fine machine;
Fancy no longer strews her glowing flowers,
But sad ideas crowd the dreary hours.
Dead to his poignant pleasures, and his muse,
Life's ills in all their magnitude he views;
The patron's lies, the meteor, public breath,
The pain of malady, the gloom of death.

Machine

Searching "machine" and "fancy" in HDIS (Poetry)

2 entries in ESTC (1773).

Text from The Poetical Works of Percival Stockdale. 2 vols. (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and W. Clarke, By W. Pople, 1810).

See The Poet. A Poem. (London : printed for W. Flexney, opposite Gray’s-Inn-Gate, Holborn, 1773). <Link to ESTC>

12/13/2006