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