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| FAREWELL, too little and too lately known, | |
| Whom I began to think and call my own: | |
| For sure our souls were near allied, and thine | |
| Cast in the same poetic mould with mine. | |
| One common note on either lyre did strike, | 5 |
| And knaves and fools we both abhorred alike. | |
| To the same goal did both our studies drive: | |
| The last set out the soonest did arrive. | |
| Thus Nisus fell upon the slippery place, | |
| While his young friend performed and won the race. | 10 |
| O early ripe! to thy abundant store | |
| What could advancing age have added more? | |
| It might (what nature never gives the young) | |
| Have taught the numbers of thy native tongue | |
| But satire needs not those, and wit will shine | 15 |
| Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line. | |
| A noble error, and but seldom made, | |
| When poets are by too much force betrayed. | |
| Thy generous fruits, though gathered ere their prime, | |
| Still showed a quickness; and maturing time | 20 |
| But mellows what we write to the dull sweets of rhyme. | |
| Once more, hail and farewell! farewell, thou young, | |
| But ah! too short, Marcellus of our tongue! | |
| Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound; | |
| But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around. | 25 |
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