"Fair Hieroglyphic"

We know (see The Big Book of Monsters p. 7) that for centuries hieroglyphics were unreadable—but the point is, they were famously unreadable. Like a metaphor for illegibility. Here, for example, is a brief passage from Edward Young’s long religious poem Night Thoughts (1745):

…On yon cerulean plain,
In exultation to their God, and thine,
They dance, they sing eternal jubilee,
Eternal celebration of His praise.
But, since their song arrives not at our ear,
Their dance perplex’d exhibits to the sig...