Still on thy solemn steps attend: 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, Not 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 philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound my heart. The gen'rous spark extinct revive, Teach me to love, and to forgive, Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a man. [This highly-finished Ode describes the power and influence as well as the progress of Poetry.] I. 1. AWAKE, Æolian lyre, awake (h), And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. A thousand rills their mazy progress take: (h) Awake, Eolian lyre, awake. Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp. David's Psalms. Pindar styles hjs own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Αἰολίς μολπὴ Αἰολίδες χορδαὶ, Αἰολίδων πνοαι αὐλῶν, olian song, Æolian strings, the breath of the Æolian flute. The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are here united. The various sources of poetry, which give life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; as well in its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with all the pomp of diction, and luxuriant harmony of numbers; as in its more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. The laughing flowers, that round them blow, Now the rich stream of Music winds along, Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: Headlong, impetuous, see it pour: The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar. I. 2. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul (i), Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War Has curb'd the fury of his car, And drop'd his thirsty lance at thy command. (i) Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul. Power of harmony to calm the turbulent passions of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. (k) Perching on the sceptred hand. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey (1), 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-ey'd Pleasures, Frisking light in frolic measures; Now pursuing, now retreating, Now in circling troops they meet: (1) Thee the voice, the dance obey. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. (m) Glance their many-twinkling feet. Μαρμαρυδὰς θηεῖτο ποδῶν· θαύμαζε δὲ θυμῶ. Homer, Od.. Slow melting strains their Queen's approach de clare [5]: Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay [6]. 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 (n). [5] Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare. This, and the five flowing lines which follow, are (as Mr. Mason observes) sweetly introduced by the short and unequal measures that precede them: the whole stanza is indeed a master-piece of rhythm, and charms the ear by its well-varied cadence, as much as the imagery which it contains ravishes the fancy. "There is" (says Mr. Gray, in one of his manuscript papers) " a tout ensemble of sound, as well as of sense, in poetical composition always necessary to its perfection. "What is gone before still dwells upon the ear, and insensibly harmo"nizes with the present line, as in that succession of fleeting notes "which is called Melody." Nothing can better exemplify the truth of this fine observation than his own poetry. 66 [6] This line seems to have been imitated from Dryden's Fable of the Flower and the Leaf: "For wheresoe'er she turn'd her face they bow'd." (n) The bloom of young Desire, and purple light of Love. Παρείησι φῶς ἔρωτα. Phrynicus apud Athenæum. |