Ha! what forms, with port sublime, High above Misfortune's flood. They seize their harps, they strike the lyre And Snowdon's airy cliffs the heavenly strains resound. In pomp of state, behold they wait, With arms outstretch'd, and aspects kind, The child of Fancy left behind: Forgot the woes of Cambria's fatal day, By rapture's blaze impell'd, they swell the artless lav. Her baleful gifts profusely pours. Behold she comes, the fiend forlorn, Array'd in Horror's settled gloom; And triumphs in th' infernal doom. With frantic fury and insatiate rage She gnaws the throbbing breast and blasts the glow ing page. No more the soft Æolian flute ‡ Breathes through the heart the melting strain The powers of Harmony are mute And leave the once-delightful plain ; With heavy wing, I see them beat the air, Damp'd by the leaden hand of comfortless Despair. *The Bara, an Ode. ↑ Hymn to Adver-ity. Yet stay, O! stay, celestial pow'rs, O watch with me his last expiring breath, And snatch him from the arms of dark, oblivious death. Hark! the Fatal Sisters* join, And with Horror's mutt'ring sounds, Weave the tissue of his line, While the dreadful spell resounds. Hail, ye midnight sisters, hail! 'O'er the glory of the land, O'er the innocent and gay, O'er the Muse's tuneful band Weave the fun'ral web of Gray.' "Tis done, 'tis done-the iron hand of pain, Thus fades the flow'r nipp'd by the frozen gale, Ye sacred sisters of the plaintive verse, The Fatal Sisters, an Ode. Oft when the curfew tolls its parting knell With solemn pause yon Church-yard's gloom survey, O'er his green grave, in Contemplation's guise, EPITAPH ON MR. GRAY'S MONUMENT IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By Mr. Mason. No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns; • Klegy in a Country Church-yard. |