Poems on Several Occasions With Anne Boleyn to King Henry VIII. An Epistle. By Mrs. Elizabeth Tollet. The Second Edition |
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To Mrs. Elizabeth Blackler, playing on the Harpsichord.
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 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
To Mrs. Elizabeth Blackler, playing on the Harpsichord.
ODE.
I.
While our charm'd Eyes with Wonder gazeOn her, whose Beauty is her meanest Praise,
What sudden Harmony of Sound!
Descending Heav'n is all around!
Some unseen Pow'r! it can be only such,
No mortal Touch
Can with such Rapture strike the Mind:
Such heav'nly Awe with Pleasure join'd.
See! every Faculty with Transport fill'd:
The active Blood forgets its Course,
Flows back, and trembles at its Source;
And ev'ry heaving Pulse is still'd.
See! ev'ry Sense in sweet Oblivion lye;
And Thought admits a Pause in Ecstasy.
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II.
See! how the trembling Strings her Hand obey:'Tis she! 'tis she who deals around
The magick Properties of Sound;
The vary'd Passions own her pow'rful Sway.
Corroding Grief! and gloomy Care!
Black Melancholy! wild Despair!
Far from this chearful Scene be gone,
Back to your dismal, hateful Cell:
There fix your arbitrary Throne,
Where Darkness and Confusion dwell.
Before the Pow'r of Harmony
The vanquish'd Dæmons wing their Flight,
To spacious Realms of genuine Night:
There plunge their sullen Heads and murm'ring lye.
While new-born Joys around impart
A quicker Pulse to ev'ry Heart;
And bid the busy Spirits flow,
Diffusing Life and Gladness as they go:
When sprightly Measures break the Trance,
And Motion now renews her interrupted Dance.
III.
What Praise is thine, harmonious Maid?What Thanks for all thy Wonders shall be pay'd?
Yet what the Sister-Art can give
Disdain not, Fairest! to receive:
The Sister-Art can save from Death
The Pow'r of skilful Hands and tuneful Breath.
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Nor with rude Transport interrupt her Strain:
She strikes the vocal Strings again,
And Praise itself becomes Detraction here.
See! the Musicians of the Sky
Descending fill the shining Air;
And see! they hover o'er the Fair,
And hang, with silent Rapture on her Harmony.
Her Harmony, which well may show
To all above, as well as all below,
That what was Art before is Inspiration now.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |