Fragment of a Satire on Satire

If gibbets, axes, confiscations, chains,And racks of subtle torture, if the painsOf shame, of fiery Hell's tempestuous wave,Seen through the caverns of the shadowy grave,Hurling the damned into the murky air5While the meek blest sit smiling; if DespairAnd Hate, the rapid bloodhounds with which TerrorHunts through the world the homeless steps of Error,Are the true secrets of the commonwealTo make men wise and just;...10And not the sophisms of revenge and fear,Bloodier than is revenge...Then send the priests to every hearth and homeTo preach the burning wrath which is to come,In words like flakes of sulphur, such as thaw15The frozen tears...If Satire's scourge could wake the slumbering houndsOf Conscience, or erase the deeper wounds,The leprous scars of callous Infamy;If it could make the present not to be,20Or charm the dark past never to have been,Or turn regret to hope; who that has seenWhat Southey is and was, would not exclaim,'Lash on!' ... be the keen verse dipped in flame;Follow his flight with winged words, and urge25The strokes of the inexorable scourgeUntil the heart be naked, till his soulSee the contagion's spots ... foul;And from the mirror of Truth's sunlike shield,From which his Parthian arrow...30Flash on his sight the spectres of the past,Until his mind's eye paint thereon--Let scorn like ... yawn below,And rain on him like flakes of fiery snow.This cannot be, it ought not, evil still--35Suffering makes suffering, ill must follow ill.Rough words beget sad thoughts, ... and, beside,Men take a sullen and a stupid prideIn being all they hate in others' shame,By a perverse antipathy of fame.40'Tis not worth while to prove, as I could, howFrom the sweet fountains of our Nature flowThese bitter waters; I will only say,If any friend would take Southey some day,And tell him, in a country walk alone,45Softening harsh words with friendship's gentle tone,How incorrect his public conduct is,And what men think of it, 'twere not amiss.Far better than to make innocent ink--