5 I told my love, I told my love, Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears :— Soon after she was gone from me A traveller came by, Silently, invisibly : He took her with a sigh. W. Blake 10 24. When lovely woman stoops to folly The only art her guilt to cover, CLXXV. 0. Goldsmith 5 Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. A thousand rills their mazy progress take. Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign; Now rolling down the steep amain Headlong, impetuous, see it pour: The rocks and nodding groves re-bellow to the roar. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War And dropt 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. The rosy-crowned Loves are seen BOOK THIRD With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Now in circling troops they meet: To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet. 35 Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare: Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay: 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 40 The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love. 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! 45 The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry He gives to range the dreary sky : Till down the eastern cliffs afar 50 Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war. In climes beyond the solar road Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 55 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 chiefs, and dusky loves. Her track, where'er the goddess roves, Glory pursue, and generous Shame, 60 Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. 65 Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, 70 How do your tuneful echoes languish, Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power, And coward Vice, that revels in her chains. When Latium had her lofty spirit lost, 75 80 They sought, oh Albion! next, thy sea-encircled coast. Far from the sun and summer-gale In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid, 85 What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, To him the mighty Mother did unveil Her awful face: the dauntless child Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled. 'This pencil take' (she said), 'whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year: 90 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.' Nor second He, that rode sublime 95 Upon the seraph-wings of Extasy The secrets of the abyss to spy: He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: The living Throne, the sapphire-blaze Where angels tremble while they gaze, 100 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 of ethereal race, 105 With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace. Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. 110 27. Oh! lyre divine, what daring spirit Yet oft before his infant eyes would run With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun : Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way Beneath the Good how far-but far above the Great. 115 120 T. Gray THE PASSIONS An Ode for Music When Music, heavenly maid, was young, First Fear his hand, its skill to try, Next Anger rush'd, his eyes on fire, In lightnings, own'd his secret stings; In one rude clash he struck the lyre CLXXVIII. 5 10 15 20 |