Consistency

Should painter attach to a fair human head The thick, turgid neck of a stallion, Or depict a spruce lass with the tail of a bass, I am sure you would guy the rapscallion. Believe me, dear Pisos, that just such a freak Is the crude and preposterous poem Which merely abounds in a torrent of sounds, With no depth of reason below 'em. 'T is all very well to give license to art,-- The wisdom of license defend I; But the line should be drawn at the fripperish spawn Of a mere _cacoethes scribendi_. It is too much the fashion to strain at effects,-- Yes, that's what's the matter with Hannah! Our popular taste, by the tyros debased, Paints each barnyard a grove of Diana! Should a patron require you to paint a marine, Would you work in some trees with their barks on? When his strict orders are for a Japanese jar, Would you give him a pitcher like Clarkson? Now, this is my moral: Compose what you may, And Fame will be ever far distant Unless you combine with a simple design A treatment in toto consistent.