Portrait of Stephen Duck, Celebrated Wiltshire Poet, Threshes, Protégé of Queen Caroline, Governor and one-time resident of Duck Island, St James’s Park, c.1730.
(Private Collection)
The following ingenious Piece, we hope, will not be thought improperly placed here
On MR STEPHEN DUCK
O Duck ! prefer’d by Bounteous Queen,
To cackle Verse on Richmond Green:
Wild Duck in Genius! You on high
Soar with bold Wing : our rhyming Fry
Are Tame Ones, and not made to fly.
All glorious Souls, who e’er have been,
Some lesser Beings usher in
One hardly worthy to unloose,
The leathern Thongs that tie thy Shoes,
We judge, did fix his Eye on thee,
In his Duck Island Prophecy …
Extract from Poems on Several Subjects:
Written by STEPHEN DUCK
London 1730