1 The stings of Falsehood those shall try, That mocks the tear it forc'd to flow; Lo, in the vale of years beneath The painful family of Death, More hideous than their Queen : This racks the joints, this fires the veins, That numbs the soul with icy hand, To each his suff'rings: all are men, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? Since sorrow never comes too late, ODE IV. TO ADVERSITY. Ziva. Τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ σαντα, τῷ πάθει μαθὼν Évτa nugías exeiv.-ESCHYLUS, in Agamemnone. DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless Power, Thou tamer of the human breast, And purple tyrants vainly groan, With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. When first thy sire to send on earth What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe. Scared at thy frown terrific, fly Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood, Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, And leave us leisure to be good. Light they disperse, and with them go The summer friend, the flatt'ring foe; By vain Prosperity receiv'd, To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd. Wisdom in sable garb array'd Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid With leaden eye, that loves the ground. Still on thy solemn steps attend: Warm Charity, the general friend, With Justice to herself severe, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, Nor circled with the vengeful band (As by the impious thou art seen) With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien, With screaming Horror's funeral cry, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. Thy form benign, Oh Goddess, wear, Thy milder influence impart, Thy philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound my heart. The generous spark extinct revive, What others are to feel, and know myself a man. AWAKE, Eolian lyre awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings, Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong. Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: 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, And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. Has curb'd the fury of his car, a When the Author first published this and the following Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to subjoin some few explanatory notes; but he had too much respect for the understanding of his readers to take that liberty. The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. c Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. And dropp'd his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Temper'd to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet-green The rosy-crown'd Loves are seen On Cytherea's day With antic sports, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare : With arms sublime, that float upon the air, In gliding state she wins her easy way: O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move The bloom of young Desire, and purple light of Love. II. 1. Man's feeble race what ills await, Labour, 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 giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse? Night, and all her sickly dews, Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry: Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts of war. d Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. e 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. fIn 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 od'rous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat Their feather-cinctur'd chiefs, and dusky loves. Glory pursue, and generous Shame, Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. II. S. & Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Isles that crown th' Ægean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves How do your tuneful echoes languish, Ev'ry shade and hallow'd fountain They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast. 'Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations: its connexion with liberty, and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welch Fragments, the Lapland and American songs.] 8 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 Surry, 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. |