random artworks
The Duncaid is a satiric poem by Alexander Pope. Three different versions were published by Pope at three separate times (1728, 1735 and 1743). The poem celebrates Pope's goddess "Dulness" and her agents as they destroy the kingdom of Great Britain through "decay, imbecility and tastelessness."
The bottom of the artwork below quotes the end of the 40 page poem first published in 1728. The last stanza reads:
Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires.
Nor public Flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human Spark is left, nor Glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread Empire, Chaos! is restor'd;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And Universal Darkness buries All.
