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ON HIS GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM COMPOSED OF MARBLES, SPARS, GEMS, ORES, AND MINERALS - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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ON HIS GROTTO AT TWICKENHAM

COMPOSED OF MARBLES, SPARS, GEMS, ORES, AND MINERALS

These lines were enclosed in a letter to Bolingbroke, dated September 3, 1740.

  • Thou who shalt stop where Thames’ translucent wave
  • Shines a broad mirror thro’ the shadowy cave;
  • Where ling’ring drops from min’ral roofs distil,
  • And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill;
  • Unpolish’d gems no ray on pride bestow,
  • And latent metals innocently glow;
  • Approach. Great Nature studiously behold!
  • And eye the mine without a wish for gold.
  • Approach; but awful! lo! the Ægerian grot,
  • Where, nobly pensive, St. John sate and thought;
  • Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,
  • And the bright flame was shot thro’ Marchmont’s soul.
  • Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor,
  • Who dare to love their country, and be poor.