That Critic Must Indeed Be Bold

That critic must indeed be bold
Who pits new authors against old.
Only the ancient coin is prized,
The dead alone are canonized:
What was even Shakespeare until then?
A poet scarce compared with Ben:
And Milton in the streets no taller
Than sparkling easy-ambling Waller.
I Waller now walks with rhyming crowd
While Milton sits above the clouds,
Above the stars, his fixt abode,
And points to men their way to God.