The fond1 complaint my song disprove

And justify the laws of Jove.

Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse?

Night and all her sickly 2 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.4

II. II.

In climes beyond the solar road,

Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,
The Muse has broke the twilight gloom

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 6 chiefs, and dusky loves. 7
Her track, where'er the goddess roves,

Glory pursue and generous Shame,

The unconquerable mind, and Freedom's holy flame.

II. III.

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,

Isles, that crown the Ægean deep,

1 Signifies foolish as well as loving. The former meaning is the most suitable here.

2 As well as its more common signification, it implies causing sickIt is used in this sense in this passage.

ness.

3 A frequent Homeric epithet of the sun.

4 The beams of the rising sun are hostile to night.

5 The polar regions.

6 Wearing a belt adorned with feathers.

7 Dark-skinned brides or sweethearts.

8 A town in Phocis in Greece, famous as containing the oracular shrine of Apollo.

Fields that cool Ilissus 1 laves

Or where Mæander's 2 amber waves
In lingering labyrinths creep,

How do your tuneful echoes languish,
Mute, but to the voice of anguish !
Where each old poetic mountain
Inspiration breathed around;
Every shade and hallowed fountain
Murmured deep a solemn sound ;
Till the sad Nine 3 in Greece's evil hour,

Left their Parnassus 4 for the Latian plains.
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power, 5
And scorn Vice," that revels in her chains.
When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,

They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast.

III. I.

Far from the sun and summer-gale,

7

In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon strayed,
To him the mighty mother 8 did unveil
Her awful face: the dauntless child
Stretched forth his little arms, and smiled.
"This pencil take," she said, "whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year :

1 A river of Athens. The Kephisus was the name of the sister stream, and both are frequently referred to in Grecian poetry and history.

2 A river of Phrygia and Cara. From the winding course of this river, the proper name has been naturalised into English, and changed with a verb descriptive of "Motion in flexures."

3 The nine Muses.

4 A mountain in the neighbourhood of Delphi, and one of the most favoured haunts of the Muses. Latian Plains-Refers to Rome and its poets. The brightest names in Roman song flourished at a period long after the Muse had forsaken Greece.

5 The government of Rome under the Emperors.

6 Greece after her subjection to Rome.

7 Shakspeare.

8 Anμýrnρ (Dêmeter), Cybele, the goddess of earth and of nature.

Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy!
This can unlock the gates of joy;

Of horror that, and thrilling fears,

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears."

III. II.

Nor second he,1 that rode sublime
Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy,
The secrets of the abyss to spy.

He passed the flaming bounds of place and time:
The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze,

He saw; but, blasted with excess of light,

Closed his eyes in endless night.

Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car

Wide o'er the fields of Glory bear

Two coursers 2 of ethereal race

With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding

pace.

III. III.

Hark, his hands the lyre explore!

Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er,

Scatters from her pictured urn

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

But ah! 'tis heard no more

Oh! Lyre divine, what daring spirit

Wakes thee now? Though he inherit

Nor the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban eagle 3 bear
Sailing with supreme dominion

Through the azure deep of air :

1 Milton, the poet, represents him as equal, not inferior, to Shakspeare.

2 The two lines of the heroic couplet.

3 Pindar, see "Olymp." ii. 159. Aïòs πpòs öρvíða letov. Pindar compares himself to an eagle, and his enemies to ravens, that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight regardless of their noise.

Yet oft before his infant eyes would run
Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray,
With orient hues, unborrowed of the sun.

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

Beneath the Good how far! but far above the Great.

THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN.

FROM THE WELSH.

[The hero of the ode was king of North Wales from 1120 to 1137. This translation was also rendered about the year 1769. The conflict described in the text is the battle of Tal y Moelvre, which was fought about 1157. The original is by a bard of the name of Gwalchmai.]

OWEN's praise demands my song,
Owen swift and Owen strong;
Fairest flower of Roderic's stem,
Gwyneth's 1 shield and Britain's gem.
He nor heaps his brooded stores,
Nor on all profusely pours;
Lord of every regal art,

Liberal hand, and open heart.

Big 2 with hosts of mighty name,
Squadrons three against him came;
This the force of Eirin 3 hiding,
Side by side as proudly riding,
On her shadow long and gay
Lochlin ploughs the watery way;
There the Norman sails afar
Catch the winds, and join the war ;
Black and huge along they sweep,
Burthens of the angry deep.

1 North Wales.

3 See note 8, p. 37.

2 Pregnant.

4 Denmark.

D

Checked by the torrent-tide of blood,
Backward Meinai 3 rolls his flood;
While, heaped his master's feet around,
Prostrate warriors gnaw the ground.
Where his glowing eyeballs turn,
Thousand banners round him burn.4
Where he points his purple 5 spear,
Hasty, hasty Rout is there,
Marking with indignant eye
Fear to stop, and shame to fly.
There Confusion, Terror's child,
Conflict fierce, and Ruin wild,
Agony, that pants for breath,
Despair and honourable Death.

1 The red dragon is the device of Cadwalladar. Mona, the island of Anglesey.

2 Tal y Moelvre of introductory note. The modern village of Moelfra. 3 Menäi, now noted for its tubular bridge.

4 Flash like flame.

5 From the stains of blood.