Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE TO TRUTH, by                    
First Line: Descend, fair truth, celestial maid, descend
Last Line: He'd fain divest our sex of common sense.
Alternate Author Name(s): Darwall, Mrs. John
Subject(s): Truth


DESCEND, fair Truth, celestial maid, descend,
And with thy lustre radiate the dark cloud,
Which deep envelopes half
The sapient sons of men.
At thy approach shall the infernal train,
Which now oppress the human breast, depart,
And, in primeval night,
Their fiendlike forms conceal.
There dark Distrust and Incredulity,
Parents of Care, shall fly, when thou resum'st
Thy godlike reign in man's
Deserted, cheerless breast.
Through thy transparent veil, the only charm
I have to boast, let all the world survey
My guileless heart, and trace
Each action to its spring.
If consciousness of cursed hypocrisy,
Or fraud unmanly, which my soul disdains,
Produce one guilty pang,
Let anguish be my lot.
But let me bless the providential hand,
Which kindly formed me female, and denied
Superior genius and superior pride;
Mistaken pride, which all desert confines
To man, and in his breast each virtue shrines,
Though learning's ample field he rules alone,
Nor fears a female near his awful throne:
Unsatiated with empire so immense,
He'd fain divest our sex of common sense.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net