If ought of oaten stop,2 or pastoral song, 1 rustics, peasants *This song, which flows almost like an improvisation, Collins constructed from the scene in Cymbeline IV. ii, 215-229, in which Guiderius and Arviragus speak over the body of their sister Imogen, who is disguised as Fidele and O nymph reserved, while now the bright-haired whom they suppose to be dead: sun Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts, 2 musical pipe suffered losses in the War of the Austrian "Although less popular than The Deserted Village and Gray's Elegy, the Ode to Evening is yet like them in embodying in exquisite form sights, sounds, and feelings of such permanent beauty that age cannot wither them nor cus tom stale."-W. C. Bronson. See also Eng. Lit., 219-220. No children run to lisp their sire's return, Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, How jocund did they drive their team afield! 8 Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 9 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 10 The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.* 16 Th' applause of listening senates to command, 17 Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, 18 The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, 19 Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, Fart from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 11 Can storied urn2 or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can honour's voice provokes the silent dust, Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death? 12 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 13 But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 14 Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 15 Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 20 Yet even these bones from insult to protect, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. 21 Their name, their years, spelt by th' unlettered The place of fame and elegy supply: 22 For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing lingering look behind? 23 On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some village Hampden, that with dauntless 6 i. e., write flattering THE PROGRESS OF POESY A PINDARIC ODE* I. 1 Awake, Æolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. A thousand rills their mazy progress take: roar. I. 2 Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, On Thracia's hills the Lord of War2 Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feathered king3 eye. I. 3 Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Tempered to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet-green4 2 Mars 3 Jove's eagle 1 The lyre, said to have been made by Hermes from a tor- 4 In Cyprus, sacred to toise shell. Venus (Cytherea). The odes of Pindar, the most renowned lyric poet of ancient Greece, were mostly constructed in symmetrical triads, each triad containing a strophe, antistrophe, and epode, or turn, counter-turn, and after-song. Metrically the strophes and antistrophes all corresponded exactly throughout, and likewise the epodes. The livelier odes were written in what was known as the Eolian mood, in contrast to the graver Dorian mood and the more tender Lydian measures. Gray has borrowed freely from Pindar, even translating a portion of the first Pythian Ode. The following is a condensation of Gray's notes to his own poem: I. 1. The various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches.-I. 2. Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul.-I. 3. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. II. 1. Poetry given to mankind to compensate the real and imaginary ills of life.-II. 2. Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations.II. 3. Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England.-III. 1. 2. 3. Shakespeare. Milton, Dryden. The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day With antic Sports, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay. II. 1. Man's feeble race what ills await, And death, sad refuge from the storms of fate! Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse? Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, II. 2 In climes beyond the solar road, Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom Every shade and hallowed fountain Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour III. 1 Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was nature's darling laid, Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! Of horror that, and thrilling fears, Nor second he, that rode sublime He passed the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,7 Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car, III. 3 Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. holy But ah! 'tis heard no more Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves. O lyre divine, what daring spirit Yet oft before his infant eyes would run 7 Ezekiel i. 26 8 "Meant to express the stately march and sound. ing energy of Dryden's rhymes." (Gray). 9 Job xxxix, 19 10 Pindar |