Poetical recreations consisting of original poems, songs, odes, &c. with several new translations : in two parts / part I, occasionally written by Mrs. Jane Barker, part II, by several gentlemen of the universities, and others.

To my Friends against POETRY.

DEar Friends, if you'll be rul'd by me, Beware o'th' Charms of Poetry; And meddle with no fawning Muse, They'll but your harmless Loves abuse. Though to Orinda they were ty'd, That nought their Friendship cou'd divide; And Cowley's Mistriss had a Flame As pure and lasting as his Fame: Yet now they're all grown Prostitutes, And wantonly admit the Suits Of any Fop, that will pretend To be their Servant or their Friend. Though they to Wit no Homage pay, Nor yet the Laws of Verse obey, ••ut ride poor Six-foot out of breath, ••nd wrack a Metaphor to death; ••ho make their Verse imbibe the crimes, ••nd the lewd Follies too o'th' times; ••ho think all Wit consists in Ranting, ••nd Vertuous Love in wise Gallanting:

And Thousand sorts of Fools, like these, Make Love and Vertue what they please: And yet as silly as they show, Are Favourites o'th' Muses now. Who then would honour such a Shee, Where Fools their happier Rivals be•• We, surely, may conclude there's none, Unless they're drunk with Helicon, Which is a Liquor that can make A Dunce set up for Rhiming Quack: A Liquor of so strange a temper, As can our Faculties all hamper; That whoso drinks thereof is ours'd Unto a constant Rhiming thirst; I know not by what spell of Witch, It strikes the Mind into an itch; Which being scrub'd by praise, thereby Becomes a spreading Leprosie; As hard to cure as Dice or Whore, And makes the Patient too as poor; For Poverty's the certain Fate Which attends a Poet's state.