Sonnet LXVII: On Doctor Johnson's Unjust Criticisms in His Lives of the Poets

Cou'd aweful Johnson want poetic ear,
Fancy, or judgment?--no! his splendid strain,
In prose, or rhyme, confutes that plea.--The pain
Which writh'd o'er Garrick's fortunes, shows us clear
Whence all his spleen to GENIUS.--Ill to bear
A Friend's renown, that to his own must reign,
Compar'd, a Meteor's evanescent train,
To Jupiter's fix'd orb, proves that each sneer,
Subtle and fatal to poetic Sense,
Did from insidious ENVY meanly flow,
Illumed with dazzling hues of eloquence,
And Sophist-Wit, that labor to o'er-throw
Th' awards of AGES, and new laws dispense
That lift the mean, and lay the MIGHTY low.