The Scourge of Villainy

  In serious jest, and jesting seriousness,
  I strive to scourge polluting beastliness;
  I invocate no Delian deity,
  No sacred offspring of Mnemosyne;
  I pray in aid of no Castalian Muse,
  No nymph, no female angel, to infuse
  A sprightly wit to raise my flagging wings,
  And teach me tune these harsh discordant strings.
  I crave no sirens of our halcyon times,
  To grace the accents of my rough-hew'd rhymes;
  But grim Reproof, stern Hate of Villainy,
  Inspire and guide a Satire's poesy.
  Fair Detestation of foul odious sin,
  In which our swinish times lie wallowing,
  Be thou my conduct and my Genius,
  My wits-inciting sweet-breath'd Zephyrus.
  O that a Satire's hand had force to pluck
  Some floodgate up, to purge the world from muck!
  Would God I could turn Alpheus river in,
  To purge this Augean oxstall from foul sin!
  Well, I will try; awake, Impurity,
  And view the veil drawn from thy villainy!