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