But when our country's cause provokes to arms, So when the first bold vessel dar'd the seas, And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound But when thro' all th' infernal bounds, Love, strong as Death, the Poet led O'er all the dreary coasts! Dreadful gleams, Dismal screams, Fires that glow, Shrieks of woe, Sullen moans, Hollow groans, And cries of tortur'd ghosts! Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still, And the pale spectres dance! The Furies sink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurl'd hang list'ning round their heads. By the streams that ever flow, By those happy souls who dwell Restore, restore Eurydice to life! He sung, and hell consented Thus song could prevail O'er death, and o'er hell, A conquest how hard, and how glorious! With Styx nine times round her, Yet music and love were victorious. But soon, too soon, the lover turns his eyes: Beside the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, All alone, Unheard, unknown, He trembles, he glows, Amidst Rhodope's snows: See, wild as the winds, o'er the desert he flies; Hark! Hæmus resounds with the Bacchanals' cries Ah see, he dies! Yet ev❜n in death Eurydice he sung, Eurydice still trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung. Music the fiercest grief can charm, And fate's severest rage disarm : Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please: This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the sound. Her's lift the soul to heav'n. ALEXANDER'S FEAST; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC: AN ODE, In honour of St. Cecilia's Day. [DRYDEN.] "TWAS WAS at the royal feast, for Persia won, By Philip's warlike son: Aloft, in awful state, The god-like hero sate On his imperial throne : His valiant peers were placed around; Their brows with roses and with myrtle bound: So should desert in arms be crown'd. The lovely Thais, by his side, Sat, like a blooming eastern bride, In flow'r of youth and beauty's pride. None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserves the fair.. |