In serious jest, and jesting seriousness,
 I strive to scourge polluting beastliness;
 I invocate no Delian deity,
 No sacred offspring of Mnemosyne;
 I pray in aid of no Castalian Muse,
 No nymph, no female angel, to infuse
 A sprightly wit to raise my flagging wings,
 And teach me tune these harsh discordant strings.
 I crave no sirens of our halcyon times,
 To grace the accents of my rough-hew'd rhymes;
 But grim Reproof, stern Hate of Villainy,
 Inspire and guide a Satire's poesy.
 Fair Detestation of foul odious sin,
 In which our swinish times lie wallowing,
 Be thou my conduct and my Genius,
 My wits-inciting sweet-breath'd Zephyrus.
 O that a Satire's hand had force to pluck
 Some floodgate up, to purge the world from muck!
 Would God I could turn Alpheus river in,
 To purge this Augean oxstall from foul sin!
 Well, I will try; awake, Impurity,
 And view the veil drawn from thy villainy!