How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen iambics, but mild anagram:
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
There thou may'st wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways. (203-208)
Dryden takes another shot at the quality of Shadwell's writing, as well as the overall quality of the day's popular literature. He finds acrostic poetry, a literary fad of the day, lacking in substance. "Mac Flecknoe," on the other hand, written in "keen iambics," proves that Dryden, unlike his contemporaries, was a serious, well-versed, and truly literary writer.