Sonnet To Edward Gibbon, Esq.
On the Publication of his Second and Third Volumes, 1781.
'With proud delight th' imperial founder gazed
On the new beauty of his second Rome,
When on his eager eye rich temples blazed,
And his fair city rose in youthful bloom:
A pride more noble may thy heart assume,
O Gibbon! gazing on thy growing work,
In which, constructed for a happier doom,
No hasty marks of vain ambition lurk:
Thou may'st deride both Time's destructive away,
And baser Envy's beauty-mangling dirk;
Thy gorgeous fabric, planned with wise delay,
Shall baffle foes more savage than the Turk;
As ages multiply, its fame shall rise,
And earth must perish ere its splendour dies.