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Take pains the genuine meaning to explore,
There sweat, there strain, tug the laborious oar;
Search every comment that your care can find,
Some here, some there, may hit the poet's mind.

— Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon Essay on Translated Verse (1684)

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More quotes by Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon

Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense.

Essay on Translated Verse (1684)

Abstruse and mystic thoughts you must express
With painful care, but seeming easiness;
For truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress.

The first great work (a task performed by few)
Is that yourself may to yourself be true.

'Tis I that call, remember Milo's end,
Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend.

The press, the pulpit, and the stage,
Conspire to censure and expose our age.

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