The laughing flowers that round them blow, Now the rich stream of music winds along, Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong, Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: Now rolling down the steep amain, Headlong, impetuous, see it pour : The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. I. 2. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul,' Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares. And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War Has curb'd the fury of his car, And dropp'd his thirsty lance at thy command. Perching on the sceptred hand' 1 Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. 2 This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey,' Temper'd to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures Frisking light in frolic measures; Now pursuing, now retreating, Now in circling troops they meet: To brisk notes in cadence beating, Glance their many-twinkling feet. Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare : Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. 1 Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. With arms sublime, that float upon the air, In gliding state she wins her easy way: The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love. II. 1. Man's feeble race what ills await!1 Labor, and Penury, the racks of Pain, Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate ! The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. Say, has he given in vain the heavenly muse? Night and all her sickly dews, Her spectres wan and birds of boding cry, He gives to range the dreary sky; Till down the eastern cliffs afar Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war. To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night. II. 2. In climes beyond the solar road,' Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, To cheer the shivering native's dull abode. And oft, beneath the odorous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, In loose numbers wildly sweet, Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves. Her track, where'er the goddess roves, Glory pursue, and generous Shame, The' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. 1 Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations: its connection with liberty, and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welsh fragments, the Lapland and American songs, &c.] "Extra anni solisque vias-" VIRGIL. "Tutta lontana dal camin del sole." PETRARCH. II. 3. Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,' Isles, that crown the' gean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves In lingering labyrinths creep, How do your tuneful echoes languish, Mute, but to the voice of anguish ! Where each old poetic mountain Every shade and hallow'd fountain Murmur'd deep a solemn sound: Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there. Spenser imitated the Italian writers; Milton improved on them: but this school expired soon after the Restoration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has subsisted ever since. GRAY has been long dead: the Poets of the present day rather imitate the Italian and early English Poets than the French. |