The Poem is a free translation, or rather, perhaps, imitation, of the twentieth Ode of the second Book of HORACE. We have taken the liberty to subjoin the passages of which the parallel is the most striking. A BIT OF AN ODE TO MR. FOX.[82] I. On[83] grey goose quills sublime I’ll soar To metaphors unreach’d before, That scare the vulgar reader: With style well form’d from Burke’s best books— From rules of grammar (e’en HORNE TOOKE’S) A bold and free Seceder. II. I[84] whom, dear Fox, you condescend To call your “Honourable Friend,” Shall live for everlasting: That[85] Stygian Gallery I’ll quit, Where printers crowd me, as I sit Half-dead with rage and fasting. III. I[86] feel! the growing down descends, Like goose-skin, to my fingers’ ends— Each nail becomes a feather: My cropp’d head[87] waves with sudden plumes, Which erst (like Bedford’s, or his groom’s) Unpowder’d, braved the weather.[88] IV. I mount, I mount into the sky, “Sweet[89] bird,” to[90] _Petersburg_ I’ll fly; Or, if you bid, to _Paris_; Fresh missions of the _Fox and Goose_ Successful Treaties may produce; Though PITT in all miscarries. V. Scotch,[91] English, Irish _Whigs_ shall read The Pamphlets, Letters, Odes I breed, Charm’d with each bright endeavour: _Alarmists_[92] tremble at my strain, E’en[93] PITT, made candid by champaign, Shall hail ADAIR “_the clever_”. VI. Though criticism assail my name, And luckless blunders blot my fame,[94] O![95] make no needless bustle; As vain and idle it would be To waste one pitying thought on me, As to[96] “unPLUMB a RUSSELL”.[97] [LYRICS OF HORACE, BOOK II., ODE XX. TRANSLATED BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM. Borne on no weak or vulgar wing, Upward through air, two-form’d, I’ll spring; Nor longer grovel here, but soar Where Envy shall pursue no more. Not I, from humble lineage sprung, Not I, dear Patron, whom thy tongue Summons to fame, will fear to die, Or bound by Styx’s fetters lie. A rougher skin my legs assume; My upward limbs the cygnet’s plume Invests; my shoulders, fingers feel The feathery softness o’er them steal.