 | The poems (1969) |  |
Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects
414
------ Ειην
Ευρησιεπης αναγεισθαι
Προσφορος εν Μοισαν Διφρω:
Τολμα δε και αμφιλαφης Δυναμις
Εσποιτο. ------
Ευρησιεπης αναγεισθαι
Προσφορος εν Μοισαν Διφρω:
Τολμα δε και αμφιλαφης Δυναμις
Εσποιτο. ------
7 Ode to Pity
415
1
O thou, the friend of man assigned,With balmy hands his wounds to bind,
And charm his frantic woe:
When first Distress with dagger keen
Broke forth to waste his destined scene,
His wild unsated foe!
2
By Pella's bard, a magic name,By all the griefs his thought could frame,
Receive my humble rite:
Long, Pity, let the nations view
416
And eyes of dewy light!
3
But wherefore need I wander wideTo old Ilissus' distant side,
Deserted stream and mute?
Wild Arun too has heard thy strains,
And Echo, midst my native plains,
Been soothed by Pity's lute.
4
There first the wren thy myrtles shedOn gentlest Otway's infant head,
To him thy cell was shown;
417
With youth's soft notes unspoiled by art,
Thy turtles mixed their own.
5
Come, Pity, come, by Fancy's aid,Even now my thoughts, relenting maid,
Thy temple's pride design:
Its southern site, its truth complete,
Shall raise a wild enthusiast heat
In all who view the shrine.
6
There Picture's toils shall well relateHow chance or hard involving fate
O'er mortal bliss prevail:
The buskined Muse shall near her stand,
And sighing prompt her tender hand
With each disastrous tale.
7
There let me oft, retired by day,In dreams of passion melt away,
Allowed with thee to dwell:
418
Till, virgin, thou again delight
To hear a British shell!
8 Ode to Fear
Thou, to whom the world unknownWith all its shadowy shapes is shown;
Who see'st appalled the unreal scene,
While Fancy lifts the veil between:
Ah Fear! Ah frantic Fear!
I see, I see thee near.
I know thy hurried step, thy haggard eye!
Like thee I start, like thee disordered fly.
For lo, what monsters in thy train appear!
419
What mortal eye can fixed behold?
Who stalks his round, an hideous form,
Howling amidst the midnight storm,
Or throws him on the ridgy steep
Of some loose hanging rock to sleep;
And with him thousand phantoms joined,
Who prompt to deeds accursed the mind;
And those, the fiends who, near allied,
O'er nature's wounds and wrecks preside;
Whilst Vengeance in the lurid air
Lifts her red arm, exposed and bare,
420
Who lap the blood of sorrow, wait;
Who, Fear, this ghastly train can see,
And look not madly wild like thee?
EPODE
In earliest Greece to thee with partial choice
The grief-full Muse addressed her infant tongue;
The maids and matrons on her awful voice,
Silent and pale, in wild amazement hung.
The grief-full Muse addressed her infant tongue;
The maids and matrons on her awful voice,
Silent and pale, in wild amazement hung.
Yet he, the bard who first invoked thy name,
Disdained in Marathon its power to feel:
For not alone he nursed the poet's flame,
But reached from Virtue's hand the patriot's steel.
Disdained in Marathon its power to feel:
For not alone he nursed the poet's flame,
But reached from Virtue's hand the patriot's steel.
But who is he whom later garlands grace,
Who left awhile o'er Hybla's dews to rove,
With trembling eyes thy dreary steps to trace,
Where thou and Furies shared the baleful grove?
Who left awhile o'er Hybla's dews to rove,
With trembling eyes thy dreary steps to trace,
Where thou and Furies shared the baleful grove?
421
Wrapped in thy cloudy veil the incestuous queen
Sighed the sad call her son and husband heard,
When once alone it broke the silent scene,
And he, the wretch of Thebes, no more appeared.
Sighed the sad call her son and husband heard,
When once alone it broke the silent scene,
And he, the wretch of Thebes, no more appeared.
O Fear, I know thee by my throbbing heart,
Thy withering power inspired each mournful line,
Though gentle Pity claim her mingled part,
Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine!
Thy withering power inspired each mournful line,
Though gentle Pity claim her mingled part,
Yet all the thunders of the scene are thine!
ANTISTROPHE
Thou who such weary lengths hast passed,
Where wilt thou rest, mad nymph, at last?
Say, wilt thou shroud in haunted cell,
Where gloomy Rape and Murder dwell?
Or in some hollowed seat,
'Gainst which the big waves beat,
Hear drowning seamen's cries in tempests brought!
Dark power, with shuddering meek submitted thought
Be mine to read the visions old,
Which thy awakening bards have told:
And, lest thou meet my blasted view,
Hold each strange tale devoutly true;
Ne'er be I found, by thee o'erawed,
In that thrice-hallowed eve abroad,
When ghosts, as cottage-maids believe,
Their pebbled beds permitted leave,
And goblins haunt, from fire or fen
Or mine or flood, the walks of men!
Where wilt thou rest, mad nymph, at last?
Say, wilt thou shroud in haunted cell,
Where gloomy Rape and Murder dwell?
422
'Gainst which the big waves beat,
Hear drowning seamen's cries in tempests brought!
Dark power, with shuddering meek submitted thought
Be mine to read the visions old,
Which thy awakening bards have told:
And, lest thou meet my blasted view,
Hold each strange tale devoutly true;
Ne'er be I found, by thee o'erawed,
In that thrice-hallowed eve abroad,
When ghosts, as cottage-maids believe,
423
And goblins haunt, from fire or fen
Or mine or flood, the walks of men!
O thou whose spirit most possessed
The sacred seat of Shakespeare's breast!
By all that from thy prophet broke,
In thy divine emotions spoke,
Hither again thy fury deal,
Teach me but once like him to feel:
His cypress wreath my meed decree,
And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee!
The sacred seat of Shakespeare's breast!
By all that from thy prophet broke,
In thy divine emotions spoke,
Hither again thy fury deal,
Teach me but once like him to feel:
His cypress wreath my meed decree,
And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee!
9 Ode to Simplicity
1
O thou by Nature taughtTo breathe her genuine thought,
In numbers warmly pure and sweetly strong:
424
In Fancy, loveliest child,
Thy babe or Pleasure's, nursed the powers of song!
2
Thou, who with hermit heartDisdain'st the wealth of art,
And gauds and pageant weeds and trailing pall:
But com'st a decent maid
In Attic robe arrayed,
O chaste unboastful nymph, to thee I call!
3
By all the honeyed store425
By all her blooms and mingled murmurs dear;
By her, whose love-lorn woe
In evening musings slow
Soothed sweetly sad Electra's poet's ear:
4
By old Cephisus deep,Who spread his wavy sweep
In warbled wanderings round thy green retreat,
On whose enamelled side
When holy Freedom died
No equal haunt allured thy future feet.
426
5
O sister meek of Truth,To my admiring youth
Thy sober aid and native charms infuse!
The flowers that sweetest breathe,
Though Beauty culled the wreath,
Still ask thy hand to range their ordered hues.
6
While Rome could none esteemBut Virtue's patriot theme,
You loved her hills and led her laureate band:
But stayed to sing alone
To one distinguished throne,
And turned thy face, and fled her altered land.
7
No more, in hall or bower,The passions own thy power,
Love, only love, her forceless numbers mean:
For thou hast left her shrine,
Nor olive more nor vine
Shall gain thy feet to bless the servile scene.
427
8
Though taste, though genius blessTo some divine excess,
Faints the cold work till thou inspire the whole;
What each, what all supply
May court, may charm our eye,
Thou, only thou can'st raise the meeting soul!
9
Of these let others askTo aid some mighty task:
I only seek to find thy temperate vale,
Where oft my reed might sound
To maids and shepherds round,
And all thy sons, O Nature, learn my tale.
10 Ode on the Poetical Character
[1]
As once, if not with light regardI read aright that gifted bard,
428
His loveliest Elfin Queen has blessed)
One, only one, unrivalled fair
Might hope the magic girdle wear,
At solemn tourney hung on high,
The wish of each love-darting eye;
429
As if, in air unseen, some hovering hand,
Some chaste and angel-friend to virgin-fame,
With whispered spell had burst the starting band,
It left unblest her loathed, dishonoured side;
Happier hopeless fair, if never
Her baffled hand with vain endeavour
Had touched that fatal zone to her denied!
Young Fancy thus, to me divinest name,
To whom, prepared and bathed in heaven,
The cest of amplest power is given,
To few the godlike gift assigns
To gird their blest prophetic loins,
And gaze her visions wild, and feel unmixed her flame!
2
The band, as fairy legends say,430
When He, who called with thought to birth
Yon tented sky, this laughing earth,
And dressed with springs and forests tall,
431
Long by the loved Enthusiast wooed,
Himself in some diviner mood,
Retiring, sat with her alone,
And placed her on his sapphire throne,
432
Seraphic wires were heard to sound,
Now sublimest triumph swelling,
Now on love and mercy dwelling;
And she, from out the veiling cloud,
Breathed her magic notes aloud:
And thou, thou rich-haired youth of morn,
And all thy subject life was born!
The dangerous Passions kept aloof,
Far from the sainted growing woof;
But near it sat ecstatic Wonder,
433
And Truth, in sunny vest arrayed,
By whose the tarsel's eyes were made;
All the shadowy tribes of Mind
In braided dance their murmurs joined,
And all the bright uncounted powers,
Who feed on heaven's ambrosial flowers.
Where is the bard, whose soul can now
Its high presuming hopes avow?
Where he who thinks, with rapture blind,
This hallowed work for him designed?
3
High on some cliff to Heaven up-piled,434
Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
And holy genii guard the rock,
Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
While on its rich ambitious head,
An Eden, like his own, lies spread;
I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
By which as Milton lay, his evening ear,
435
Nigh sphered in heaven its native strains could hear:
On which that ancient trump he reached was hung;
Thither oft his glory greeting,
From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,
With many a vow from hope's aspiring tongue,
My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue:
In vain—such bliss to one alone
Of all the sons of soul was known,
And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers,
Have now o'erturned the inspiring bowers,
Or curtained close such scene from every future view.
436
11 Ode, Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746
437
1
How sleep the brave, who sink to restBy all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
2
By fairy hands their knell is rung,By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there!
12 Ode to Mercy
439
STROPHE
O thou, who sitt'st a smiling brideBy Valour's armed and awful side,
Gentlest of sky-born forms and best adored:
Who oft with songs, divine to hear,
Winn'st from his fatal grasp the spear,
And hid'st in wreaths of flowers his bloodless sword!
Thou who, amidst the deathful field,
By godlike chiefs alone beheld,
Oft with thy bosom bare art found,
Pleading for him the youth who sinks to ground:
See, Mercy, see, with pure and loaded hands,
Before thy shrine my country's Genius stands,
And decks thy altar still, though pierced with many a wound!
440
ANTISTROPHE
When he whom even our joys provoke,441
And rushed in wrath to make our isle his prey,
Thy form, from out thy sweet abode,
O'ertook him on his blasted road,
And stopped his wheels, and looked his rage away.
I see recoil his sable steeds,
That bore him swift to salvage deeds;
Thy tender melting eyes they own.
O maid, for all thy love to Britain shown,
Where Justice bars her iron tower,
To thee we build a roseate bower,
Thou, thou shalt rule our Queen and share our Monarch's throne!
13 Ode to Liberty
442
STROPHE
Who shall awake the Spartan fife,And call in solemn sounds to life
The youths, whose locks divinely spreading,
Like vernal hyacinths in sullen hue,
At once the breath of fear and virtue shedding,
Applauding Freedom loved of old to view?
What new Alcaeus, Fancy-blest,
443
At Wisdom's shrine awhile its flame concealing,
(What place so fit to seal a deed renowned?)
Till she her brightest lightnings round revealing,
It leaped in glory forth and dealt her prompted wound!
O goddess, in that feeling hour,
When most its sounds would court thy ears,
444
E'er draw thy sad, thy mindful tears.
No, Freedom, no, I will not tell
How Rome, before thy weeping face,
With heaviest sound, a giant-statue, fell,
Pushed by a wild and artless race
From off its wide ambitious base,
When Time his northern sons of spoil awoke,
And all the blended work of strength and grace,
With many a rude repeated stroke
And many a barbarous yell, to thousand fragments broke.
EPODE 2
Yet even, where'er the least appeared,The admiring world thy hand revered;
Still midst the scattered states around
Some remnants of her strength were found;
They saw by what escaped the storm
How wondrous rose her perfect form;
How in the great, the laboured whole,
Each mighty master poured his soul!
For sunny Florence, seat of art,
445
Till they, whom Science loved to name,
(O who could fear it?) quenched her flame.
And lo, an humbler relic laid
In jealous Pisa's olive shade!
See small Marino joins the theme,
Though least, not last in thy esteem;
Strike, louder strike the ennobling strings
To those whose merchant sons were kings;
446
In Adria weds his green-haired bride;
Hail, port of glory, wealth and pleasure,
Ne'er let me change this Lydian measure:
Nor e'er her former pride relate
To sad Liguria's bleeding state.
Ah no! more pleased thy haunts I seek
On wild Helvetia's mountains bleak
(Where, when the favoured of thy choice,
The daring archer, heard thy voice,
Forth from his eyrie roused in dread,
The ravening Eagle northward fled);
447
With those to whom thy stork is dear:
Those whom the rod of Alva bruised,
Whose crown a British queen refused!
The magic works, thou feel'st the strains,
One holier name alone remains;
The perfect spell shall then avail.
Hail nymph, adored by Britain, hail!
ANTISTROPHE
Beyond the measure vast of thought,448
The Gaul, 'tis held of antique story,
Saw Britain linked to his now adverse strand,
No sea between nor cliff sublime and hoary:
He passed with unwet feet through all our land.
To the blown Baltic then, they say,
The wild waves found another way,
Where Orcas howls, his wolfish mountains rounding;
449
A wide wild storm even Nature's self confounding,
Withering her giant sons with strange uncouth surprise.
This pillared earth so firm and wide,
By winds and inward labours torn,
In thunders dread was pushed aside,
And down the shouldering billows borne.
450
The little isles on every side,
Mona, once hid from those who search the main,
Where thousand elfin shapes abide,
And Wight who checks the westering tide,
451
A fair attendant on her sovereign pride:
To thee this blest divorce she owed,
For thou hast made her vales thy loved, thy last abode!
SECOND EPODE
Then too, 'tis said, an hoary pile
Midst the green navel of our isle,
Thy shrine in some religious wood,
O soul-enforcing goddess stood!
There oft the painted native's feet
Were wont thy form celestial meet:
Though now with hopeless toil we trace
Time's backward rolls to find its place;
Whether the fiery-tressed Dane,
Or Roman's self o'erturned the fane,
Or in what heaven-left age it fell,
'Twere hard for modern song to tell.
Yet still, if truth those beams infuse,
Which guide at once and charm the muse,
Beyond yon braided clouds that lie
Paving the light-embroidered sky,
Amidst the bright pavilioned plains,
The beauteous model still remains.
There happier than in islands blest
Or bowers by spring or Hebe dressed,
The chiefs who fill our Albion's story,
In warlike weeds, retired in glory,
Hear their consorted Druids sing
Their triumphs to the immortal string.
Midst the green navel of our isle,
Thy shrine in some religious wood,
O soul-enforcing goddess stood!
There oft the painted native's feet
Were wont thy form celestial meet:
Though now with hopeless toil we trace
Time's backward rolls to find its place;
Whether the fiery-tressed Dane,
Or Roman's self o'erturned the fane,
Or in what heaven-left age it fell,
452
Yet still, if truth those beams infuse,
Which guide at once and charm the muse,
Beyond yon braided clouds that lie
Paving the light-embroidered sky,
Amidst the bright pavilioned plains,
The beauteous model still remains.
There happier than in islands blest
Or bowers by spring or Hebe dressed,
The chiefs who fill our Albion's story,
In warlike weeds, retired in glory,
Hear their consorted Druids sing
Their triumphs to the immortal string.
How may the poet now unfold
What never tongue or numbers told?
How learn delighted and amazed,
What hands unknown that fabric raised?
Even now before his favoured eyes,
In Gothic pride it seems to rise!
Yet Græcia's graceful orders join
Majestic through the mixed design.
The secret builder knew to choose
Each sphere-found gem of richest hues;
Whate'er heaven's purer mould contains,
When nearer suns emblaze its veins;
There on the walls the patriot's sight
May ever hang with fresh delight,
And, graved with some prophetic rage,
Read Albion's fame through every age.
What never tongue or numbers told?
How learn delighted and amazed,
453
Even now before his favoured eyes,
In Gothic pride it seems to rise!
Yet Græcia's graceful orders join
Majestic through the mixed design.
The secret builder knew to choose
Each sphere-found gem of richest hues;
Whate'er heaven's purer mould contains,
When nearer suns emblaze its veins;
There on the walls the patriot's sight
May ever hang with fresh delight,
And, graved with some prophetic rage,
Read Albion's fame through every age.
Ye forms divine, ye laureate band,
That near her inmost altar stand!
Now soothe her, to her blissful train
Blithe Concord's social form to gain:
Concord, whose myrtle wand can steep
Even Anger's blood-shot eyes in sleep:
Before whose breathing bosom's balm
Rage drops his steel and storms grow calm;
Her let our sires and matrons hoar
Welcome to Britain's ravaged shore,
Our youths, enamoured of the fair,
Play with the tangles of her hair;
Till in one loud applauding sound,
The nations shout to her around:
‘O how supremely art thou blest,
Thou, lady, thou shalt rule the West!’
That near her inmost altar stand!
Now soothe her, to her blissful train
Blithe Concord's social form to gain:
Concord, whose myrtle wand can steep
454
Before whose breathing bosom's balm
Rage drops his steel and storms grow calm;
Her let our sires and matrons hoar
Welcome to Britain's ravaged shore,
Our youths, enamoured of the fair,
Play with the tangles of her hair;
Till in one loud applauding sound,
The nations shout to her around:
‘O how supremely art thou blest,
Thou, lady, thou shalt rule the West!’
14 Ode, to a Lady on the Death of Colonel Ross in the Action of Fontenoy
457
1
While, lost to all his former mirth,Britannia's Genius bends to earth
And mourns the fatal day;
While stained with blood he strives to tear
Unseemly from his sea-green hair
The wreaths of cheerful May;
2
The thoughts which musing Pity paysAnd fond Remembrance loves to raise,
Your faithful hours attend:
Still Fancy, to herself unkind,
Awakes to grief the softened mind,
And points the bleeding friend.
458
3
By rapid Scheldt's descending waveHis country's vows shall bless the grave,
Where'er the youth is laid:
That sacred spot the village hind
With every sweetest turf shall bind,
And Peace protect the shade.
4
Blest youth, regardful of thy doom,Aerial hands shall build thy tomb,
With shadowy trophies crowned:
459
To sigh thy name through every grove
And call his heroes round.
5
The warlike dead of every age,Who fill the fair recording page,
Shall leave their sainted rest:
And, half-reclining on his spear,
Each wondering chief by turns appear
To hail the blooming guest.
6
Old Edward's sons, unknown to yield,Shall crowd from Crecy's laurelled field,
And gaze with fixed delight:
Again for Britain's wrongs they feel,
Again they snatch the gleamy steel,
And wish the avenging fight.
460
7
But lo! where, sunk in deep despair,Her garments torn, her bosom bare,
Impatient Freedom lies!
Her matted tresses madly spread,
To every sod which wraps the dead
She turns her joyless eyes.
8
Ne'er shall she leave that lowly ground,Till notes of triumph bursting round
Proclaim her reign restored;
Till William seek the sad retreat
And, bleeding at her sacred feet,
Present the sated sword.
9
If, weak to soothe so soft an heart,These pictured glories nought impart
461
If yet, in Sorrow's distant eye,
Exposed and pale thou see'st him lie,
Wild War insulting near;
10
Where'er from time thou court'st relief,The Muse shall still, with social grief,
Her gentlest promise keep:
Even humble Harting's cottaged vale
Shall learn the sad repeated tale,
And bid her shepherds weep.
15 Ode to Evening
463
May hope, chaste Eve, to soothe thy modest ear,
Like thy own solemn springs,
Thy springs and dying gales,
O nymph reserved, while now the bright-haired sun
Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,
With brede ethereal wove,
O'erhang his wavy bed;
464
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,
Or where the beetle winds
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:
Now teach me, maid composed,
To breathe some softened strain,
Whose numbers stealing through thy darkening vale
May not unseemly with its stillness suit;
As musing slow, I hail
Thy genial loved return!
For when thy folding star arising shows
465
The fragrant Hours, and elves
Who slept in flowers the day,
And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge,
And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still,
The Pensive Pleasures sweet,
Prepare thy shadowy car.
Then lead, calm vot'ress, where some sheety lake
Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallowed pile,
466
Reflect its last cool gleam.
But when chill blustering winds or driving rain
Forbid my willing feet, be mine the hut
That from the mountain's side
Views wilds and swelling floods,
And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires,
And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dusky veil.
While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,
467
While Summer loves to sport
Beneath thy lingering light;
While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves,
Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,
Affrights thy shrinking train,
And rudely rends thy robes;
So long, sure-found beneath the sylvan shed,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipped Health,
Thy gentlest influence own,
And hymn thy favourite name!
16 Ode to Peace
468
[1]
O thou, who bad'st thy turtles bearSwift from his grasp thy golden hair,
And sought'st thy native skies:
When War, by vultures drawn from far,
To Britain bent his iron car,
And bade his storms arise!
2
Tired of his rude tyrannic sway,Our youth shall fix some festive day,
His sullen shrines to burn:
But thou who hear'st the turning spheres,
What sounds may charm thy partial ears,
And gain thy blest return!
3
O Peace, thy injured robes upbind,O rise, and leave not one behind
Of all thy beamy train:
The British lion, goddess sweet,
Lies stretched on earth to kiss thy feet,
And own thy holier reign.
469
4
Let others court thy transient smile,But come to grace thy western isle,
By warlike Honour led!
And, while around her ports rejoice,
While all her sons adore thy choice,
With him for ever wed!
17 The Manners.
An Ode
470
Farewell, for clearer ken designed,
The dim-discovered tracts of mind:
Truths which, from action's paths retired,
My silent search in vain required!
No more my sail that deep explores,
No more I search those magic shores,
What regions part the world of soul,
Or whence thy streams, Opinion, roll:
If e'er I round such fairy field,
Some power impart the spear and shield
At which the wizard Passions fly,
By which the giant Follies die!
The dim-discovered tracts of mind:
Truths which, from action's paths retired,
My silent search in vain required!
471
No more I search those magic shores,
What regions part the world of soul,
Or whence thy streams, Opinion, roll:
If e'er I round such fairy field,
Some power impart the spear and shield
At which the wizard Passions fly,
By which the giant Follies die!
Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen
Arched with the enlivening olive's green:
Where Science, pranked in tissued vest,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dressed,
Comes like a bride so trim arrayed,
To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!
Arched with the enlivening olive's green:
Where Science, pranked in tissued vest,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dressed,
472
To wed with Doubt in Plato's shade!
Youth of the quick uncheated sight,
Thy walks, Observance, more invite!
O thou, who lov'st that ampler range,
Where life's wide prospects round thee change,
And with her mingling sons allied,
Throw'st the prattling page aside:
To me in converse sweet impart
To read in man the native heart,
To learn, where science sure is found,
From Nature as she lives around:
And gazing oft her mirror true,
By turns each shifting image view!
Till meddling Art's officious lore
Reverse the lessons taught before,
Alluring from a safer rule
To dream in her enchanted school;
Thou Heaven, whate'er of great we boast,
Hast blest this social science most.
Thy walks, Observance, more invite!
O thou, who lov'st that ampler range,
Where life's wide prospects round thee change,
And with her mingling sons allied,
Throw'st the prattling page aside:
To me in converse sweet impart
To read in man the native heart,
To learn, where science sure is found,
From Nature as she lives around:
And gazing oft her mirror true,
By turns each shifting image view!
Till meddling Art's officious lore
Reverse the lessons taught before,
Alluring from a safer rule
To dream in her enchanted school;
Thou Heaven, whate'er of great we boast,
473
Retiring hence to thoughtful cell,
As Fancy breathes her potent spell,
Not vain she finds the charmful task;
In pageant quaint, in motley mask,
Behold before her musing eyes
The countless Manners round her rise;
While ever varying as they pass,
To some Contempt applies her glass:
With these the white-robed Maids combine,
And those the laughing Satyrs join!
But who is he whom now she views,
In robe of wild contending hues?
Thou by the Passions nursed, I greet
The comic sock that binds thy feet!
O Humour, thou whose name is known
To Britain's favoured isle alone:
Me too amidst thy band admit,
There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,
(Whose jewels in his crispèd hair
Are placed each other's beams to share,
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loosed attends thy side!
As Fancy breathes her potent spell,
Not vain she finds the charmful task;
In pageant quaint, in motley mask,
Behold before her musing eyes
The countless Manners round her rise;
While ever varying as they pass,
To some Contempt applies her glass:
With these the white-robed Maids combine,
And those the laughing Satyrs join!
But who is he whom now she views,
In robe of wild contending hues?
474
The comic sock that binds thy feet!
O Humour, thou whose name is known
To Britain's favoured isle alone:
Me too amidst thy band admit,
There where the young-eyed healthful Wit,
(Whose jewels in his crispèd hair
475
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loosed attends thy side!
By old Miletus who so long
Has ceased his love-inwoven song;
By all you taught the Tuscan maids,
In changed Italia's modern shades;
By him, whose Knight's distinguished name
Refined a nation's lust of fame,
Whose tales even now, with echoes sweet,
Castilia's Moorish hills repeat;
Or him, whom Seine's blue nymphs deplore,
In watchet weeds on Gallia's shore,
Who drew the sad Sicilian maid,
By virtues in her sire betrayed:
Has ceased his love-inwoven song;
By all you taught the Tuscan maids,
In changed Italia's modern shades;
By him, whose Knight's distinguished name
Refined a nation's lust of fame,
Whose tales even now, with echoes sweet,
476
Or him, whom Seine's blue nymphs deplore,
In watchet weeds on Gallia's shore,
Who drew the sad Sicilian maid,
By virtues in her sire betrayed:
O Nature boon, from whom proceed
Each forceful thought, each prompted deed;
If but from thee I hope to feel,
On all my heart imprint thy seal!
Let some retreating Cynic find
Those oft-turned scrolls I leave behind:
The Sports and I this hour agree
To rove thy scene-full world with thee!
477
If but from thee I hope to feel,
On all my heart imprint thy seal!
Let some retreating Cynic find
Those oft-turned scrolls I leave behind:
The Sports and I this hour agree
To rove thy scene-full world with thee!
18 The Passions.
An Ode for Music
480
When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions oft to hear her shell
Thronged around her magic cell,
Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,
Possessed beyond the muse's painting;
By turns they felt the glowing mind,
Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined.
Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,
Filled with fury, rapt, inspired,
From the supporting myrtles round
They snatched her instruments of sound,
And as they oft had heard apart
Sweet lessons of her forceful art,
Each, for madness ruled the hour,
Would prove his own expressive power.
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions oft to hear her shell
Thronged around her magic cell,
Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,
Possessed beyond the muse's painting;
By turns they felt the glowing mind,
Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined.
Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,
Filled with fury, rapt, inspired,
From the supporting myrtles round
They snatched her instruments of sound,
And as they oft had heard apart
Sweet lessons of her forceful art,
Each, for madness ruled the hour,
Would prove his own expressive power.
First Fear his hand, its skill to try,
Amid the chords bewildered laid,
And back recoiled, he knew not why,
Even at the sound himself had made.
Amid the chords bewildered laid,
And back recoiled, he knew not why,
Even at the sound himself had made.
Next Anger rushed, his eyes on fire,
In lightnings owned his secret stings,
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hand the strings.
481
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hand the strings.
With woeful measures wan Despair
Low sullen sounds his grief beguiled,
A solemn, strange and mingled air,
'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.
Low sullen sounds his grief beguiled,
A solemn, strange and mingled air,
'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.
But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,
What was thy delightful measure?
Still it whispered promised pleasure,
And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!
Still would her touch the strain prolong,
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,
She called on Echo still through all the song;
And, where her sweetest theme she chose,
A soft responsive voice was heard at every close,
And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.
What was thy delightful measure?
Still it whispered promised pleasure,
And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!
Still would her touch the strain prolong,
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,
She called on Echo still through all the song;
And, where her sweetest theme she chose,
A soft responsive voice was heard at every close,
And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair.
And longer had she sung—but with a frown,
Revenge impatient rose;
He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down,
And with a withering look,
The war-denouncing trumpet took,
And blew a blast so loud and dread,
Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe.
And ever and anon he beat
The doubling drum with furious heat;
And though sometimes each dreary pause between,
Dejected Pity at his side
Her soul-subduing voice applied,
Yet still he kept his wild unaltered mien,
While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head.
Revenge impatient rose;
482
And with a withering look,
The war-denouncing trumpet took,
And blew a blast so loud and dread,
Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe.
And ever and anon he beat
The doubling drum with furious heat;
And though sometimes each dreary pause between,
Dejected Pity at his side
Her soul-subduing voice applied,
Yet still he kept his wild unaltered mien,
While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head.
Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fixed,
Sad proof of thy distressful state,
Of differing themes the veering song was mixed,
And now it courted Love, now raving called on Hate.
With eyes up-raised, as one inspired,
Pale Melancholy sat retired,
And from her wild sequestered seat,
In notes by distance made more sweet,
Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul:
And dashing soft from rocks around,
Bubbling runnels joined the sound;
Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,
Or o'er some haunted stream with fond delay,
Round an holy calm diffusing,
Love of peace and lonely musing,
In hollow murmurs died away.
Sad proof of thy distressful state,
Of differing themes the veering song was mixed,
And now it courted Love, now raving called on Hate.
483
Pale Melancholy sat retired,
And from her wild sequestered seat,
In notes by distance made more sweet,
Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul:
And dashing soft from rocks around,
Bubbling runnels joined the sound;
Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,
Or o'er some haunted stream with fond delay,
Round an holy calm diffusing,
Love of peace and lonely musing,
In hollow murmurs died away.
But O how altered was its sprightlier tone!
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew,
Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,
The hunter's call to faun and dryad known!
The oak-crowned sisters and their chaste-eyed queen,
Satyrs and sylvan boys were seen,
Peeping from forth their alleys green;
Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear,
And Sport leapt up and seized his beechen spear.
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew,
484
The hunter's call to faun and dryad known!
The oak-crowned sisters and their chaste-eyed queen,
Satyrs and sylvan boys were seen,
Peeping from forth their alleys green;
Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear,
And Sport leapt up and seized his beechen spear.
Last came Joy's ecstatic trial,
He with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand addressed,
But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol,
Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best.
They would have thought, who heard the strain,
They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids,
Amidst the festal sounding shades,
To some unwearied minstrel dancing,
While as his flying fingers kissed the strings,
Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round:
Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound,
And he, amidst his frolic play,
As if he would the charming air repay,
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.
He with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand addressed,
But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol,
Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best.
They would have thought, who heard the strain,
They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids,
Amidst the festal sounding shades,
To some unwearied minstrel dancing,
While as his flying fingers kissed the strings,
Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round:
Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound,
And he, amidst his frolic play,
485
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.
O Music, sphere-descended maid,
Friend of pleasure, Wisdom's aid,
Why, goddess, why to us denied?
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?
As in that loved Athenian bower,
You learned an all-commanding power,
Thy mimic soul, O nymph endeared,
Can well recall what then it heard.
Where is thy native simple heart,
Devote to virtue, fancy, art?
Arise as in that elder time,
Warm, energic, chaste, sublime!
Thy wonders in that god-like age
Fill thy recording Sister's page—
'Tis said, and I believe the tale,
Thy humblest reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
Even all at once together found,
Caecilia's mingled world of sound—
O bid our vain endeavors cease,
Revive the just designs of Greece,
Return in all thy simple state!
Confirm the tales her sons relate!
Friend of pleasure, Wisdom's aid,
Why, goddess, why to us denied?
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?
As in that loved Athenian bower,
You learned an all-commanding power,
Thy mimic soul, O nymph endeared,
Can well recall what then it heard.
Where is thy native simple heart,
Devote to virtue, fancy, art?
Arise as in that elder time,
Warm, energic, chaste, sublime!
Thy wonders in that god-like age
Fill thy recording Sister's page—
'Tis said, and I believe the tale,
Thy humblest reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
Even all at once together found,
Caecilia's mingled world of sound—
O bid our vain endeavors cease,
Revive the just designs of Greece,
Return in all thy simple state!
Confirm the tales her sons relate!
486
19 Ode Occasioned by the Death of Mr Thomson
488
TO GEORGE LYTTELTON, Esq; THIS ODE IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR
[_]
ADVERTISEMENT
The scene of the following stanzas is supposed to lie on the Thames near Richmond.
Haec tibi semper erunt, et cum solennia vota
reddemus Nymphis, et cum lustrabimus agros. [OMITTED]
------ Amavit nos quoque Daphnis.
VIRG. Bucol. Eclog. v [74–5, 52]
reddemus Nymphis, et cum lustrabimus agros. [OMITTED]
------ Amavit nos quoque Daphnis.
VIRG. Bucol. Eclog. v [74–5, 52]
I
In yonder grave a Druid lies,Where slowly winds the stealing wave!
489
To deck its poet's sylvan grave!
II
In yon deep bed of whispering reedsHis airy harp shall now be laid,
That he, whose heart in sorrow bleeds,
May love through life the soothing shade.
III
Then maids and youths shall linger here,And, while its sounds at distance swell,
Shall sadly seem in Pity's ear
To hear the woodland pilgrim's knell.
IV
Remembrance oft shall haunt the shoreWhen Thames in summer wreaths is dressed,
And oft suspend the dashing oar
To bid his gentle spirit rest!
V
And oft as Ease and Health retire490
The friend shall view yon whitening spire,
And mid the varied landscape weep.
VI
But thou, who own'st that earthy bed,Ah! what will every dirge avail?
Or tears, which Love and Pity shed
That mourn beneath the gliding sail!
VII
Yet lives there one, whose heedless eyeShall scorn thy pale shrine glimmering near?
With him, sweet bard, may Fancy die,
And Joy desert the blooming year.
VIII
But thou, lorn stream, whose sullen tideNo sedge-crowned Sisters now attend,
Now waft me from the green hill's side,
Whose cold turf hides the buried friend!
491
IX
And see, the fairy valleys fade,Dun Night has veiled the solemn view!
—Yet once again, dear parted shade,
Meek Nature's child, again adieu!
X
The genial meads, assigned to blessThy life, shall mourn thy early doom,
Their hinds and shepherd-girls shall dress
With simple hands thy rural tomb.
XI
Long, long, thy stone and pointed clayShall melt the musing Briton's eyes:
‘O! vales and wild woods’, shall he say,
‘In yonder grave your Druid lies!’
492
20 An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, Considered as the Subject of Poetry
[ODE TO A FRIEND ON HIS RETURN &c.]
501
1
H[ome], thou return'st from Thames, whose Naiads longHave seen thee lingering, with a fond delay,
Mid those soft friends whose hearts, some future day,
Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song.
Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth,
502
Together let us wish him lasting truth,
And joy untainted with his destined bride.
Go! nor regardless, while these numbers boast
My short-lived bliss, forget my social name;
But think far off how, on the southern coast,
I met thy friendship with an equal flame!
Fresh to that soil thou turn'st, whose every vale
Shall prompt the poet and his song demand:
To thee thy copious subjects ne'er shall fail;
503
And paint what all believe who own thy genial land.
2
There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill,'Tis Fancy's land to which thou sett'st thy feet;
Where still, 'tis said, the fairy people meet
Beneath each birken shade on mead or hill.
There each trim lass that skims the milky store
To the swart tribes their creamy bowl allots;
By night they sip it round the cottage-door,
While airy minstrels warble jocund notes.
504
How, winged with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly,
When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes,
Or, stretched on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.
Such airy beings awe the untutored swain:
Nor thou, though learned, his homelier thoughts neglect;
Let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain:
These are the themes of simple, sure effect,
That add new conquests to her boundless reign,
And fill with double force her heart-commanding strain.
3
Even yet preserved, how often may'st thou hear,Where to the pole the Boreal mountains run,
Taught by the father to his listening son
Strange lays, whose power had charmed a Spenser's ear.
At every pause, before thy mind possessed,
Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around
505
Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crowned:
Whether thou bidd'st the well-taught hind repeat
The choral dirge that mourns some chieftain brave,
When every shrieking maid her bosom beat,
And strewed with choicest herbs his scented grave;
Or whether, sitting in the shepherd's shiel,
Thou hear'st some sounding tale of war's alarms;
When at the bugle's call, with fire and steel,
The sturdy clans poured forth their bonny swarms,
And hostile brothers met to prove each other's arms.
4
'Tis thine to sing how, framing hideous spells,In Skye's lone isle the gifted wizard seer,
506
Or in the depth of Uist's dark forests dwells;
How they, whose sight such dreary dreams engross,
With their own visions oft astonished droop,
When o'er the watery strath or quaggy moss
They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop.
507
Their [OMITTED] glance some fated youth descry,
Who, now perhaps in lusty vigour seen
And rosy health, shall soon lamented die.
For them the viewless forms of air obey,
Their bidding heed and at their beck repair.
They know what spirit brews the stormful day,
And heartless, oft like moody madness stare
To see the phantom train their secret work prepare.
[[5.]]
[OMITTED][Stanza]6
[OMITTED][OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
What though far off, from some dark dell espied,
508
Yet turn, ye wanderers, turn your steps aside,
Nor choose the guidance of that faithless light!
For watchful, lurking mid the unrustling reed,
509
And listens oft to hear the passing steed,
And frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes,
If chance his savage wrath may some weak wretch surprise.
7
Ah, luckless swain, o'er all unblest indeed!Whom late bewildered in the dank, dark fen,
Far from his flocks and smoking hamlet then!
To that sad spot his [OMITTED]
On him enraged the fiend, in angry mood,
Shall never look with pity's kind concern,
But instant, furious, rouse the whelming flood
O'er its drowned banks, forbidding all return.
Or, if he meditate his wished escape
To some dim hill that seems uprising near,
510
In all its terrors clad shall wild appear.
Meantime the waterys urge shall round him rise,
Poured sudden forth from every swelling source.
What now remains but tears and hopeless sighs?
His fear-shook limbs have lost their youthly force,
And down the waves he floats, a pale and breathless corse.
8
For him, in vain, his anxious wife shall wait,Or wander forth to meet him on his way;
For him, in vain, at to-fall of the day,
His bairns shall linger at the unclosing gate
511
Her travelled limbs in broken slumbers steep,
With dropping willows dressed, his mournful sprite
Shall visit sad, perhaps, her silent sleep:
Then he, perhaps, with moist and watery hand,
Shall fondly seem to press her shuddering cheek,
And with his blue swoll'n face before her stand,
And, shivering cold, these piteous accents speak:
‘Pursue, dear wife, thy daily toils pursue
At dawn or dusk, industrious as before;
Nor e'er of me one hapless thought renew,
While I lie weltering on the osiered shore,
Drowned by the Kaelpie's wrath, nor e'er shall aid thee more.’
9
Unbounded is thy range; with varied styleThy Muse may, like those feathery tribes which spring
From their rude rocks, extend her skirting wing
Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle,
To that hoar pile which still its ruin shows:
512
Whose bones the delver with his spade upthrows,
And culls them, wondering, from the hallowed ground!
Or thither, where beneath the showery west
The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid;
Once foes, perhaps, together now they rest.
No slaves revere them and no wars invade:
Yet frequent now, at midnight's solemn hour,
The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,
And forth the monarchs stalk with sovereign power
In pageant robes, and wreathed with sheeny gold,
And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold.
513
10
But O, o'er all, forget not Kilda's race,On whose bleak rocks, which brave the wasting tides,
Fair Nature's daughter, Virtue, yet abides!
Go, just as they, their blameless manners trace!
Then to my ear transmit some gentle song
Of those whose lives are yet sincere and plain,
514
And all their prospect but the wintry main.
With sparing temperance, at the needful time,
They drain the sainted spring or, hunger-pressed,
Along the Atlantic rock undreading climb,
And of its eggs despoil the solan's nest.
Thus blest in primal innocence they live,
Sufficed and happy with that frugal fare
Which tasteful toil and hourly danger give.
Hard is their shallow soil, [OMITTED] and bare;
Nor ever vernal bee was heard to murmur there!
515
11
Nor need'st thou blush that such false themes engageThy gentle mind, of fairer stores possessed;
For not alone they touch the village breast,
But filled in elder time the historic page.
There Shakespeare's self, with every garland crowned,
In musing hour his Wayward Sisters found,
And with their terrors dressed the magic scene.
From them he sung, when mid his bold design,
Before the Scot afflicted and aghast,
The shadowy kings of Banquo's fated line,
Through the dark cave in gleamy pageant passed
Proceed, nor quit the tales which, simply told,
Could once so well my answering bosom pierce;
516
The native legends of thy land rehearse;
To such adapt thy lyre and suit thy powerful verse.
12
In scenes like these, which, daring to departFrom sober Truth, are still to Nature true,
And call forth fresh delights to Fancy's view,
The heroic Muse employed her Tasso's art!
How have I trembled when, at Tancred's stroke,
517
When each live plant with mortal accents spoke,
And the wild blast upheaved the vanished sword!
How have I sat, where piped the pensive wind,
To hear his harp by British Fairfax strung.
Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders which he sung!
Hence at each sound imagination glows;
Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows;
518
And fills the impassioned heart and lulls the harmonious ear.
13
All hail, ye scenes that o'er my soul prevail,Ye [OMITTED] firths and lakes which, far away,
Are by smooth Annan filled, or pastoral Tay,
Or Don's romantic springs, at distance, hail!
The time shall come when I perhaps may tread
Your lowly glens, o'erhung with spreading broom,
Or o'er your stretching heaths by Fancy led:
Then will I dress once more the faded bower,
Where Jonson sat in Drummond's [OMITTED] shade;
Or crop from Tiviot's dale each
519
Meantime, ye powers, that on the plains which bore
The cordial youth, on Lothian's plains attend,
Where'er he dwell, on hill or lowly muir,
To him I lose your kind protection lend,
And, touched with love like mine, preserve my absent friend.
| The poems (1969) | |