From one unus'd in pomp of words to raise...

By Washington Allston

From one unus'd in pomp of words to raise

A courtly monument of empty praise,

Where self, transpiring through the flimsy pile,

Betrays the builder's ostentatious guile,

Accept, oh West, these unaffected lays,

Which genius claims and grateful justice pays.

Still green in age, thy vig'rous powers impart

The youthful freshness of a blameless heart;

For thine, unaided by another's pain,

The wiles of envy, or the sordid train

Of selfishness, has been the manly race

Of one who felt the purifying grace

Of honest fame; nor found the effort vain

E'en far itself to love thy soul-ennobling art.