TO MR GEORGE SANDYS,[1] ON HIS TRANSLATION OF SOME PARTS OF THE BIBLE.
Reading edition
TO MR GEORGE SANDYS,[1] ON HIS TRANSLATION OF SOME PARTS OF THE BIBLE.
1 How bold a work attempts that pen, Which would enrich our vulgar tongue With the high raptures of those men Who, here, with the same spirit sung Wherewith they now assist the choir Of angels, who their songs admire!
2 Whatever those inspirèd souls Were urgèd to express, did shake The aged deep and both the poles; Their num'rous thunder could awake Dull earth, which does with Heaven consent To all they wrote, and all they meant.
3 Say, sacred bard! what could bestow Courage on thee to soar so high? Tell me, brave friend! what help'd thee so To shake off all mortality? To light this torch, thou hast climb'd higher Than he who stole celestial fire.[2]
[1] 'Sandys,' besides his 'Ovid,' which Pope read and relished in his boyhood, versified some of the poetical parts of the Bible. [2] 'Celestial fire': Prometheus.