 | The Poetical Works of Mr. William Pattison |  |
212
ODE on LIGHT
By Mr. Taylor of St. John's College.
And God said: Let there be Light, and there was Light,
Gen. i. 3.
Gen. i. 3.
I.
All Hail! illustrious Parent of the Day,Hail! thou of Heaven First-born
To glad Creation at her Dawn,
And gild the growing Harmony.
Source of Ages, Flow of Time,
By Thee the Hours have fledg'd their Wing.
Æras start, and Seasons spring;
From Thee they sprung, by Thee they glide
Light! ever Fleeting, ever Gay,
Light! their Spring, their Lamp, and Guide;
Thou measur'st out their Line,
And chalk'st their destin'd Way.
213
Wearied Wish exceeding,
Ray on Ray succeeding
Will we trace,
Thy furious Bound, thy eager Pace,
If that all forming Summons to appear,
That spoke Thee to exist, and bad Thee canton out the Year.
II.
Say, to what friendly Aid we oweThose Gleams that in the Minds fair Mirrour play?
From what rich Fountain flow
Those ripening Beams of intellectual Day?
By whose fair Pencil is each Image wrought,
That teems to Birth, and burnishes to Thought?
How Fancy every Shape puts on?
How kindling Sparks her Form compose,
And whence the constant-shining Train,
That Mem'ry, or Experience shows?
How Reason's Lamp burns with incessant Toil,
To light the Judgment, and to guide the Will?
214
III.
Yet, where benighted Reason straysIn Faith's un-navigable Ocean lost,
There Heaven a bounteous Light displays,
And steers the scatter'd Vessel to the Coast.
First in the hallow'd Signs,
The glimmering Truth in mystick Notes we trace,
Till gather'd in a full Meridian Blaze,
The swelling Prospect shines.
Thus mimick Colours, on the Canvass laid,
Rise, by Degrees, in nice Distinction spread,
The Light it self displays, and animates the Shade.
IV.
Muse, must the Light of Learning die?Muse, forbid Obscurity;
Lest, what the rolling Flood of Years had swept away,
Rust, and tarnish to Decay;
Muse, the fleeting Hours retrieve,
And bid forgotten Æras live:
215
Swell the Pomp, and crown the Dance,
Hark! the Strings obsequious move;
See! the bounding Fingers rove;
Now the Majestic Epic sails along,
Hail the great Notes, and bless the rising Song!
Now, in sadly-pleasing Strains,
Weeping Elegy complains:
Now, now the giddy Lyre
Gives Life to Sound, and Sense to Wire;
Blending Notes, and Accents changing
In broken Airs, and wild tumultuous Fury ranging:
Distemper'd Darkness rears her lazy Head,
Oblivion quits her gloomy Bed:
Science blooms, and Arts refine,
Letter'd Ages know
In fair Array to glide;
Athens revives where Cam and Isis flow.
| The Poetical Works of Mr. William Pattison | |