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The Works of William Mason

... In Four Volumes

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ODE IV. ON EXPECTING TO RETURN TO CAMBRIDGE, 1747.
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30

ODE IV. ON EXPECTING TO RETURN TO CAMBRIDGE, 1747.

I. 1.

While Commerce, riding on thy refluent tide,
Impetuous Humber! wafts her stores
From Belgian or Norwegian shores
And spreads her countless sails from side to side;
While, from yon crowded strand,
Thy genuine sons the pinnace light unmoor,
Break the white surge with many a sparkling oar,
To pilot the rich freight o'er each insidious sand;

I. 2.

At distance here my alien footsteps stray,
O'er this bleak plain unblest with shade,
Imploring Fancy's willing aid
To bear me from thy banks of sordid clay:

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Her barque the fairy lends,
With rainbow pennants deck'd, and cordage fine
As the wan silkworm spins her golden twine,
And, ere I seize the helm, the magic voyage ends.

I. 3.

Lo, where peaceful Camus glides
Through his ozier-fringed vale,
Sacred Leisure there resides
Musing in his cloyster pale.
Wrapt in a deep solemnity of shade,
Again I view fair Learning's spiry seats,
Again her ancient elms o'erhang my head,
Again her votary Contemplation meets,
Again I listen to Æolian lays,
Or on those bright heroic portraits gaze,
That, to my raptur'd eye, the classic page displays.

II. 1.

Here, though from childhood to the Muses known,
The Lyric Queen her charms reveal'd;
Here, by superior influence held
My soul enchain'd, and made me all her own.
Re-echo every plain!
While, from the chords she tun'd, the silver voice
Of heav'n-born harmony proclaims the choice
My youthful heart has made to all Aonia's train.

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II. 2.

Here too each social charm that most endears:
Sincerity with open eye,
And frolic Wit, and Humour sly,
Sat sweetly mix'd among my young compeers.
When, o'er the sober bowl,
That but dispell'd the mind's severer gloom,
And gave the budding thought its perfect bloom,
Truth took its circling course and flow'd from soul to soul.

II. 3.

Hail ye friendly faithful few!
All the streams that Science pours,
Ever pleasing, ever new,
From her ample urn be yours.
When, when shall I amid your train appear,
O when be number'd with your constant guests,
When join your converse, when applauding hear
The mental music of accordant breasts?
Till then, fair Fancy! wake these favourite themes,
Still kindly shed these visionary gleams,
Till suns autumnal rise, and realize my dreams.
 

This was also for the first time printed 1797. In the interval between the dates of the preceding Ode and of this, the author had been unexpectedly nominated by the Fellows of Pembroke Hall to a vacant Fellowship. See Memoirs of Mr. Gray, vol. iii, p. 70, edit. 1778.