Let 'em Censure: what care I?
The Herd of Criticks I defie.
Let the Wretches know,
I
Regardless of their Grace, or Spight.
No, no: the Fair, the Gay, the
Govern the Numbers of my Song.
All that They approve is sweet:
And All is Sense, that They repeat.
Bid the warbling Nine retire:
Venus,
String thy Servant's Lyre:
Love shall be my endless Theme:
Pleasure shall triumph over Fame:
And when these Maxims I decline,
Apollo, may Thy Fate be Mine:
May I grasp at empty Praise;
And lose the Nymph, to gain the Bays.
