THE PROGRESS OF POESY. A PINDARIC ODE. [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, aolian lyre, awake. Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp. Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Æolian 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; The laughing flowers, that round them blow, Now the rich stream of Music winds along, Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong, 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. 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, as in its more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. 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. And drop'd 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. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey 1, O'er Idalia's velvet-green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day With antic Sport, and blue-ey'd Pleasures, k Perching on the sceptred hand. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in he same ode. 1 Thee the voice, the dance, obey. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of moion in the body. E 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, [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 short and 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) 66 a tout ensemble of sound, as well as of sense, in poetic"al composition always necessary to its perfection. "What is gone before still dwells upon the ear, and in"sensibly harmonizes 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. [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." II. 1. Man's feeble race what ills await o! Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate! The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse? Night and all her sickly dews, Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, Till down the eastern cliffs afar p Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts of war. o Man's feeble race what ills await! To compensate the real or imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given us by the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night. p Till down the eastern cliffs afar. Or seen the Morning's well-appointed star Cowley. |