Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign; To Now rolling down the steep amain, ΙΟ Headlong, impetuous, see it pour; The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. I. 2 Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, 15 Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares 20 And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War Has curbed the fury of his car, And dropped his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feathered king; The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. I. 3 25 Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Tempered to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet-green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day 30 With antic Sports, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Frisking light in frolic measures; Now pursuing, now retreating, Now in circling troops they meet; To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet. Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare; In gliding state she wins her easy way; The bloom of young Desires, and purple light of Love. II. Man's feeble race what ills await! Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, 35 40 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? Night, and all her sickly dews, Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, 50 He gives to range the dreary sky; Till down the eastern cliffs afar Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war. II. 2 In climes beyond the solar road, Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, The Muse has broke the twilight gloom S 55 To cheer the shivering Native's dull abode. And oft, beneath the odorous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, 60 She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, In loose numbers wildly sweet, Their feathered-cinctured Chiefs, and dusky Loves. Her track, where'er the Goddess roves, Glory pursue, and generous Shame, 65 The unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. II. 3 Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Isles, that crown the Ægean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves 70 In lingering labyrinths creep, 75 How do your tuneful echoes languish, Murmured deep a solemn sound; Till the sad Nine in Greece's evil hour Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast. III. I Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid, To him the mighty Mother did unveil Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy! Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears. III. 2 Nor second He, that rode sublime Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy, The secrets of th' 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 Two Coursers of ethereal race, With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace. III. 3 Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Bright-eyed Fancy hovering o'er Scatters from her pictured urn 110 Thoughts, that breathe, and words, that burn. Oh! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit Through the azure deep of air; 120 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. 5 ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE Now the golden Morn aloft Waves her dew-bespangled wing, Till April starts, and calls around |