or Lyric The proffer'd joy I ne'er refuse ;

Thy breath to Eliza's no fragrance hath in't,

Of Lyric l'oetry. "Tis oft-times troublesome to chuse.

And but dull is thy bloom to her cheek's blushing tint. Poetry.
Lov'st thou, my friend ? I love at sight:

Yet, alas ! my fair flow'r, that bloom will decay,
Drink'st thou ? this bumper does thee right. And all thy lov'd beauties soon wither away;
At random with the stream I flow,

Tho' plack'd by her hand, to whose touch we must own,
And play my part where'er I go.

Harsh and rough is the cygnet's most delicate down :"
Great God of Sleep, since we must be

Thou too, snowy hand; nay, I mean not to preach ;
Oblig'd to give some hours to thee,

But the rose, lovely moralist, suffer to teach.

“ Extol not, fair maiden, thy beauties o'er mine;
Invade me not till the full bowl
Glows in my cheek, and warms my

soul,

They too are short-liv'd, and they too must decline ;

And small, in conclusion, the diff'rence appears,
Be that the only time to snore,

In the bloom of few days, or the bloom of few years !
When I can love and drink no more :

But remember a virtue the rose bath to boast,
Short, very short, then be thy reign;
For I'm in haste to live again.
Its fragrance remains when its beauties are lost !"

I 26
But 0! if melting in my arms,

We come now to those odes of the more florid and Odes more

figurative kind, of which we have many in our language forid and In some soft dream, with all her charms, The nymph belov'd should then surprise,

that deserve particular commendation. Mr Warton's figurative.

Ode to Fancy has been justly admired by the best judges;
And grant what waking she denies;
Then prithee, gentle Slumber, stay ;

for though it has a distant resemblance of Milton's

l'Allegro and Il Penseroso, yet the work is original; the
Slowly, ah slowly, bring the day :
Let no rude noise my bliss destroy ;

thoughts are mostly new and various, and the language

and numbers elegant, expressive, and harmonious.
Such sweet delusion's real joy.

O parent of each lovely muse,
125
Sappho.
We bave mentioned Prior as an imitator of Anacreon;

Thy spirit o'er my soul diffuse !
but the reader has by this time had a sufficient specimen O'er all my artless songs preside,
of Anacreontics. The following Answer to Cloe jealous, My footsteps to thy temple guide !
which was written when Prior was sick, has much of

To offer at thy turf-built shrine the elegant tenderness of Sappho.

In golden cups no costly wine,

No murder'd fatling of the flock,
Yes, fairest proof of beauty's power,

But flow’rs and honey from the rock.
Dear idol of my panting heart,

O nymph, with loosely flowing hair,
Nature points this my fatal bour :

With buskin'd leg, and bosom bare ;
And I have liv'd : and we must part.

Thy waist with myrtle-girdle bound,
While now I take my last adieu,

Thy brows with Indian feathers crown'd;
Heave thou no sigh, nor shed a tear ;

Waving in thy snowy hand
Lest yet my half-clos’d eye may view

An all-commanding magic wand,
On earth an object worth its care.

Of pow'r to bid fresh gardens blow
From jealousy's tormenting strife

'Mid cheerless Lapland's barren snow:
For ever be thy bosom freed;

Whose rapid wings tby flight convey,
That nothing may disturb thy life,

Through air, and over earth and sea ;
Content I hasten to the dead.

While the vast various landscape lies
Yet when some better-fated youth

Conspicuous to thy piercing eyes.
Shall with his am'rous parly move thee,

O lover of the desert, hail !
Reflect one moment on his truth

Say, in what deep and pathles vale,
Wbo, dying, thus persists to love thee.

Or on what hoary mountain's side,

'Midst falls of water, you reside; There is much of the softness of Sappho, and the

Midst broken rocks, a rugged scene, sweetness of Anacreon and Prior, in the following ode,

With green and grassy dales between ; which is ascribed to the unfortunate Dr Dodd; and

'Midst forests dark of aged oak, was written in compliment to a lady, who, being sick,

Ne’er echoing with the woodman's stroke; had sent the author a moss rose-bud, instead of making

Where never human art appear'd, his family a visit. This piece is particularly to be

Nor ev'n one straw-roof'd cott was rear'd; esteemed for the just and striking moral with which it

Where Nature seems to sit alone,
is pointed.

Majestic on a craggy throne.
The slightest of favours bestow'd by the fair,

Tell me the path, sweet wand'rer! tell,
With rapture we take, and with triumph we wear;

To tliy unknown sequester'd cell,
But a moss-woven rose-bud, Eliza, from thee,

Where woodbines cluster round the door,
A well-pleasing gift to a monarch would be.

Where shells and moss o’erlay the floor,
-Ah ! that illness, too cruel, forbidding should stand, And on whose top an hawthorn blows,
And refuse me the gift from thy own lovely land !

Amid whose thickly-woven bouglas
With joy I receive it, with pleasure will view,

Some nightingale still builds her nest,
Reminded of thee, by its odour and hue :

Each ev’ning warbling thee to rest.
“Sweet rose, let me tell thee, though charming thy bloom, Then Jay me by the haunted stream,
Tho' thy fragrance excels Seba's richest perfume ;

Wrapt in some wild poetic dream ;

Of Lyric
Poetry.

In converse while methinks I rove

When young ey'd Spring profusely throws

Or Lyric With Spenser through a fairy grove ;

From her green lap the pink and rose ;

Poetry.
Till suddenly awak'd, I hear

When the soft turtle of the dale
Strange whisper'd music in my ear ;

To Summer tells her tender tale ;
And my glad soul in bliss is drown'd

When Autumn cooling caverns seeks,
By the sweetly soothing sound !

And stains with wine his jolly cheeks ;
Me, goddess, by the right-hand lead,

When Winter, like poor pilgrim old,
Sometimes through the yellow mead;

Shakes his silver beard with cold;
Where Joy and white-rold Peace resort,

At ev'ry season let my ear
And Venus keeps her festive court ;

Thy solemn whispers, Fancy, bear.
Where Mirth and Youth each ev’ning meet,

O warm enthusiastic maid !
And lightly trip with nimble feet,

Without thy powerful, vital aid,
Nodding their lily-crowned heads,

That breathes an energy divine,
Where Laughter rose-lip'd Hebe leads ;

That gives a soul to ev'ry line,
Where Echo walks steep hills among,

Neer may I strive with lips profane,
List’ning to the shepherd's song.

To utter an unballow'd strain ;
Yet not these flow’ry fields of joy

Nor dare to touch the sacred string,
Can long my pensive mind employ;

Save when with smiles thou bid'st me sing.
Haste, Fancy, from the scenes of Folly,

O hear our pray’r, 0 hither come
To meet the matron Melancholy !

From thy lamented Shakespeare's tomb,
Goddess of the tearful
eye,

On which thou lov'st to sit at eve,
That loves to fold her arms and sigh.

Musing o'er thy darling's grave.
Let us with silent footsteps go

0 queen of numbers, once again
To charnels, and the house of wo;

Animate some chosen swain,
To Gothic churches, vaults, and tombs,

Who, fill'd with unexhausted fire,
Where each sad night some virgin comes,

May boldly smite the sounding lyre ;
With throbbing breast and faded cheek,

Who with some new, unequall'd song,
Her promis'd bridegroom's urn to seek :

May rise above the rhyming throng:
Or to some abbey's mould'ring tow'rs,

O'er all our list’ning passions reign,
Where, to avoid cold wint’ry show'rs,

O’erwhelm our souls with joy and pain ;
The naked beggar shivering lies,

With terror shake, with pity move,
While whistling tempests round her rise,

Rouze with revenge, or melt with love.
And trembles lest the tott'ring wall

O deign t'attend bis evening walk,
Should on ber sleeping infants fall.

With him in groves and grottoes talk ;
Now let us louder strike the lyre,

Teach him to scorn, with frigid art,
For
my
heart glows with martial fire ;

Feebly to touch th' enraptur'd heart;
I feel, I feel, with sudden heat,

Like lightning, let his mighty verse
My big tumultuous bosom beat;

The bosom's inmost foldings pierce ;
The trumpet's clangors pierce my ear,

With native beauties win applause,
A thousand widows sbrieks I hear :

Beyond cold critics studied laws :
Give me another horse, I cry ;

O let each muse's fame increase !
Lo, the base Gallic squadrons fly!

O bid Britannia rival Greece !
Whence is this rage?--what spirit, say,
To battle burriez me away

The following ode, written by Mr Smart on the 5th
?

of December (being the birth-day of a beautiful young
'Tis Fancy, in her fiery car,

lady), is much to be admired for the variety and har-
Transports me to the thickest war;
There whirls me o'er the hills of slain,

mony of the numbers, as well as for the beauty of the

thoughts, and thie elegance and delicacy of the compli-
Where tumult and destruction reign ;

ment. It has great fire, and yet great sweetness, and is
Where, mad with pain, the wounded steed,
Tramples the dying and the dead;

the happy issue of genius and judgment united.
Where giant Terror stalks around,

Ilail eldest of the monthly train,
With sullen joy surveys the ground,

Sire of the winter drear,
And, pointing to th' ensanguin'd field,

December! in whose iron reign
Shakes his dreadful

Expires the chequer'd year.
shield !

gorgon
O guide me from this horrid scene

Hush all the blust'ring blasts that blow,
To high arch'd walks and alleys green,

And proudly plum'd in silver snow,
Which lovely Laura seeks, to shun

Smile gladly on this blest of days ;
The fervors of the mid-day sun.

The livery'd clouds shall on thee wait,
The pangs of absence, O remove,

And Phoebus shine in all his state
For thou can’st place me near my love ;

With more than summer rays.
Can'st fold in visionary bliss,

Though jocund June may justly boast
And let me think I steal a kiss;

Long days and happy honrs;
While hier ruby lips dispense

Though August be Pomona's host,
Luscious.nectar's quintessence!

And May be crown’d with flow’rs :

Tell

a

a

Of Lyric Tell June his fire and crimson dies,

he seems to have had a psalm of David in his view, Of Lyric Poetry By Harriot's blush, and Harriot's eyes,

which says, that “the heavens declare the glory of God, Poetry. Eclips'd and vanquish’d, fade away;

and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Tell August, thou canst let him see

The spacious firmament on high,
A richer, riper fruit than he,

With all the blue ethereal sky,
A sweeter flow'r than May.
127

And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame,
A pastoral The ensuing ode, written by Mr Collins on the death Their great original proclaim :
and elegiac of Mr Thomson, is of the pastoral and elegiac kind, and TH' unwearied sun, from day to day,
ode.

both picturesque and pathetic. To perceive all the beau- Does his Creator's pow'r display,
ties of this little piece, which are indeed many, we must And publishes to ev'ry land
suppose them to have been delivered on the river Thames The work of an Almighty band.
near Richmond.

Soon as the ev’ning shades prevail,
In yonder

grave a
Druid lies,

The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
Where slowly winds the stealing wave ;

And nightly to the list'ning earth
The year's best sweets shall duteous rise

Repeats the story of her birth:
To deck its poet's silvan grave!

While all the stars that round her burn,
In yon deep bed of whisp’ring reeds

And all the planets in their turn,
* The harp
His airy harp * shall now be laid,

Confirm the tidings as they roll, of Æolus. That he, whose heart in sorrow bleeds,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.
May love through life the soothing shade.

What thio' in solemn silence all
Then maids and youths shall linger here,

Move round the dark terrestrial ball ?
And, while its sounds at distance swell,

What tho' no real voice or sound
Shall sadly seem in pity's ear

Amid their radiant orbs he found ?
To hear the woodland pilgrim's knell.

In reason's ear they all rejoice,
Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore,

And utter forth a glorious voice,
When Thames in summer wreaths is drest,

For ever singing, as they shine,
And oft suspend the dashing oar,

“ The band that made us is divine.”
To bid his gentle spirit rest!

The following pastoral hymn is a version of the 23d
And oft as ease and health retire

Psalm by Mr Addison ; the peculiar beauties of which
To breezy lawn, or forest deep,

have occasioned many translations ; but we have seen
+ Rich-
The friend shall view yon whitening spiret,

none that is so poetical and perfect as this. And in mond And 'mid the varied landscape weep.

justice to Dr Boyce, we must observe, that the music church. But thou, who own'st that earthy bed,

he has adapted to it is so sweet and expressive, that we Ah! what will ev'ry dirge avail ?

know not which is to be most admired, the poet or the,
Or tears, which love and pity shed,

musician.
That mourn beneath the gliding sail ?
Yet lives there one, whose heedless eye,

The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
Shall scorn thy pale shrine glimm’ring near?

And feed me with a shepherd's care ;
With him, sweet bard, may fancy die,

His presence shall my wants supply,
And joy desert the blooming year.

And guard me

with

a watchful eye ;
But thou, lorn stream, whose sullen tide

My noon-day walks he shall attend,
No sedge-crown’d sisters now attend,

And all my midnight hours defend.
Now waft me from the green hill's side,

When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Whose cold turf hides the buried friend.

Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
And see, the fairy valleys fade,

To fertile vales and dewy meads
Dim night bas veil'd the solemn view !

My weary wand'ring steps he lçads;
Yet once again, dear parted shade,

Where peaceful rivers soft and slow
Meek nature's child, again adieu !

Amid the verdant landscape flow.
The genial meads, assign'd to bless

Tho' in the paths of death I tread,
Thy life, shall mourn thy early doom ;

With gloomy borrors overspread,
Their binds, and shepherd girls, shall dress,

My stedfast heart shall fear no ill :
With simple bands, thy rural tomb.

For thou, O Lord, art with me still;
Long, long, thy stone and pointed clay

Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
Shall melt the musing Briton's eyes ;

And guide me through the dreadful shade.
() vales and wild woods, shall he say,

Tho' in a bare and rugged way,
In yonder grave your Druid lies!

Through devious lonely wilds I stray, 128

Thy bounty shall my pains beguile : The hymn. Under this species of the ode, notice ought to be ta

The barren wilderness shall smile, ken of those written on divine subjects, and which are

With sudden greens and herbage crown'd; usually called hymns. Of these we have many in our

And streams shall murmur all around.
Janguage, but none perhaps that are so much admired as
Mr Addison's. The beauties of the following hymn are III. We are now to speak of those odes which are the sub-
too well known, and too obvious, to need any commen- of the sublime and noble kind, and distinguished from lime ode.
dation ; we shall only observe, therefore, that in this others by their elevation of thought and diction, as well

,
hymn (intended to display the power of the Almighty) by the variety or irregularity of their numbers as the

frequent

a

129

Sea,”

of Lyric frequent transitions and bold excursions with which they Smiles in the bud, and glistens in the flow'r of lyric Poetry. are enriched.

That crowns each vernal bow'r;

Poetry.
To give the young student an idea of the sudden and Sighs in the gale, and warlles in the throat
frequent transitions, digressions, and excursions, which Of every bird that hails the bloomy spring,
are admitted into the odes of the ancients, we cannot

Or tells bis love in many a liquid note,
do better than refer him to the celebrated song or ode Whilst envious artists touch the rival string,
of Moses; which is the oldest that we know of, and

Till rocks and forests ring;
was penned by that divine author immediately after the Breathes in rich fragrance from the sandal grove,
children of Israel crossed the Red sea.

Or where the precious musk-deer playful rove;
At the end of this song, we are told, that “ Miriam In dulcet juice, from clust'ring fruit distils,
the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her And burns salubrious in the tasteful clove :
hand, and all the women went out after her with tim-

Safe banks and verd'rous hills
brels and with dances, And Miriam answered them,

Thy present influence fills :
Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed glori- In air, in floods, in caverns, woods, and plains,
ously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the Thy will inspirits all, thy sovereign Maya reigns.

Blue crystal vault, and elemental fires,
From this last passage it is plain, that the ancients That in th'ethereal fluid blaze and breathe ;
very early called in music to the aid of poetry; and that Thou, tossing main, whose svaky branches wreathe
their odes were usually sung, and accompanied with This pensile orb with intertwisting gyres ;
their lutes, barps, lyres, timbrels, and other instruments: Mountains, whose lofty spires,
nay, so essential, and in such reputation, was music held Presumptuous, rear their summits to the skies,
by the ancients, that we often find in their lyric poets, And blend their em'rald hue with sapphire light;
addresses or invocations to the harp, the lute, or the - Smooth meads and lawns, that glow with varying
lyre ; and it was probably owing to the frequent use

dyes
made of the last-mentioned instrument with the ode, Of dew-bespangled leaves and blossoms bright,
that this species of writing obtained the name of Lyric

Hence! vanish from my sight
poetry.

Delusive pictures ! unsubstantial shows ! This ode, or hymn, which some believe was composed My soul absorb’d one only Being knows, by Moses in Hebrew verse, is incomparably better than Of all perceptions one abundant source, any thing the heathen poets bave produced of the kind, Whence ev'ry object, ev'ry moment flows : and is by all good judges considered as a master-piece Suns hence derive their force, of ancient eloquence. The thoughts are noble and sub- Hence planets learn their course; lime: the style is magnificent and expressive: the figures But suns and fading worlds I view no more ; are bold and animated : the transitions and excursions God only I perceive; God only I adore (F). are sudden and frequent : but they are short, and the poet, having digressed for a moment, returns immedi- We come now to the Pindaric ode, which (if we ex- The Pinately to the great object that excited his wonder, and cept the hymns in the Old Testament, the psalms of daric ode, elevated bis soul with joy and gratitude. The images King David, and such hymns of the Hindoos as that fill the mind with their greatness, and strike the imagi- just quoted) is the most exalted part of lyric poetry; nation in a manner not to be expressed.

and was so called from Pindar, an ancient Greek poet, If there be any thing that in sublimity approaches to who is celebrated for the boldness of his flights, the imit, we must look for it in the east, where perhaps we petuosity of his style, and the seeming wildness and irshall find nothing superior to the following Hindoo regularity that runs through his compositions, and which hymn to Narrayna, or the spirit of God," taken, as are said to be the effect of the greatest art. See Pin · Sir William Jones informs us, from the writings of the DAR. ancient Bramins.

The odes of Pindar were held in such high estima

tion by the ancients, that it was fabled, in honour of Spirit of spirits, who, through every part

their sweetness, that the bees, while he was in the cradle,
Of space expanded, and of endless time,

brought boney to his lips : nor did the victors at the
Beyond the reach of lab'ring thought sublime, Olympic and other games think the crown a sufficient
Bad'st proar
into beauteous order start;

reward for their merit, unless their achievements were
Before heav'n was, thou art.

celebrated in Pindar's songs; most wisely presaging,
Ere spheres beneath is roll’d, or spheres above, that the first would decay, but the other would endure
Ere earth in firmamental æther hurg,

for ever.
Thou sat'st alone, till, through thy mystic love, This poet did not always write his odes in the same
Things unexisting to existence sprung,

measure, or with the same intention with regard to their
And grateful descant sung.

being sung. For the ode inscribed to Diagoras (the Omniscient Spirit, whose all-ruling pow'r

concluding stanza of which we inserted at the beginning Bids from each sense bright emanations beam; of this section) is in heroic measure, and all the stanzas Glows in the rainbow, sparkles in the stream, are equal : there are others also, as Mr West observes,

made

130

a

:

(F) For the philosophy of this ode, which represents the Deity as the soul of the world, or rather as the only Being (the to sv of the Greeks), see METAPHYSICS, N° 269. and Philosophy, No 6.

a

a

Of Lurie made up of strophes aad antistrophes, without any epode; beauty, strength, courage, riches, and glory, resulting or Lyric Poetry and some composed of strophes only, of different lengths from his many victories in the games.

Lut lest he Poetry.
and measures': but the greatest part of his odes are di. should be too much putled up with ihese praises, le re-
vided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode ; in order, as minds him at the same time of his mortality, and tells
Mr Congrere conjectures, to their being sung, and ad- bim that his clothing of flesh is perishable, that he
dressed by the performers to disferent parts of tbe au- must e'er long be clothed with earth, the end of all
dience. * They were sung (says he) by a chorus, and things ; and yet, continues he, it is but justice to praise
adapted to the ivre, and sometimes to the lyre and pipe. and celebrate the worthy and deserving, who from good
They consisted oftenest of three stanzas. The first was citizens ouglit to receive all kinds of honour and com-
called the strophe, from the version or circular motion mendation; as Aristagoras, for instance, who hath ren-
of the singers in that stanza from the right hand to the dered both himself and his country illustrious by the
Jeft. The second stanza was called the antistrophe, from many victories be hath obtained, to the number of six-
the contraversion of the chorus; the singers in performing teen, over the neighbouring youth, in the games ex-
that, turning from the left hand to the right, contrary al- bibited in and about his own country. From whence,
ways to their motion in the strophe. The third stanza was

says
the

poet, I conclude he would have come off vic-
called the e pode (it may be as being the after-song), which torious even in the Pythian and Olympic games, had

they sung in the middle, neither turning to one hand le not been restrained from engaging in those famous * Vid. Pref. nor the other. But Dr West's * friend is of opinion, lists by the too timid and cautious love of his parents. to Wesl so that the performers also danced one way while they were Upon which he falls into a moral reflection upon the Pindar. singing the strophe, and danced back as they sung the an- vanity of man's hopes and fears; by the former of which

tistrophe, till they came to the same place again, and then they are oftentimes excited to attempts beyond their
standing still they sung the epode. He bas translated a strength, which accordingly issue in their disgrace; as,
passage from the Scholia on Hephestion, in proof of his on the other hand, they are frequently restrained, by
opinion; and observes, that the dancing the strophe and unreasonable and ill-grounded fears, from enterprises, in
antistrophe in the same space of ground, and we may sup- wbich they would in all probability have come off with
pose the same space of time also, shoves why those two honour. This reflection he applies to Aristagoras, by
parts consisted of the same length and nieasure. saying it was very easy to foresee what success he was

As the various measures of Pindar's odes bave been like to meet with, who both by father and mother was
the means of so far misleading some of our moderu poets, descended from a long train of great and valiant men.
as to induce then to call compositions Pindaric odes, But here again, with a very artful turn of flattery to his
that were not written in the method of Pindar, it is ne- father Arcesilas, whom he bad before represented as
cessary to be a little more particular on this head, and strong and valiant, and famous for his victories in the
to give an example from that poet, the more effectually games, he observes that every generation, even of a
to explain his manner; which we shall take from the great and glorious family, is not equally illustrious any
translation of Dr West.

more than the fields and trees are every year equally

fruitful; that the gods had not given mortals any cer-
The eleventh NEMEAS ODE.

tain tokens by which they might foreknow when the
This ode is ascribed to Aristagoras, upon occasion rich years of virtue should succeed; whence it comes to
of his entering on his office of president or governor of pass, that men, out of self-conceit and presumption, are
the island of Tenedos : so that, although it is placed perpetually laying schemes, and forming enterprises,
among the Nemean odes, it has no sort of relation to without previously consulting prudence or wisdom,
those games, and is indeed properly an inauguration ode, whose streams, says be, lie remote and out of the com-
composed to be sung by a chorus at the sacrifices and nion road. From all which he infers, that it is better
the feasts made by Arista goras and his colleagues, in to moderate our desires, and set bounds to our avarice
the town-ball, at the time of their being invested with and ambition ; with which moral precept he concludes
the magistracy, as is evident from many expressions in the ode.
the first strophe and antistrophe.

STROPHE I.
ARGUMENT.

Daughter of Rhea ! thou, whose holy fire
Pindar opens this ode with an io vocation to Vesta Before the awful seat of justice flames !
(the goddess who presided over the courts of justice, and Sister of heaven's almighty sire!
whose statue and altar were for that reason placed in the Sister of Juno, who coequal claims
town-halls, or Prytanæums, as the Greeks called them), With Jove to share the empire of the gods !
beseecbing her to receive favourably Aristagoras and his O virgin Vesta! to thy dread abodes,
colleagues, who were then coming to offer sacrifices to Lo! Aristagoras directs his pace!
ber, upon their entering on their office of Prytans or Receive and near thy sacred sceptre place
magistrates of Tenedos, which office continuing for a Him, and his colleayties, who, with honest zeal,
year, he begs the goddess to take Aristagoras under O'er Tenedos preside, and guard the public weal. -
her protection during that time, and to conduct him to

ANTISTROPHE I.
the end of it without trouble or disgrace. From Ari-

usual in all stagoras, Pindar turns himself in the next place to his And lo! with frequent of'rings, they adore solemn safather Arcesilas, whom he pronounces happy, as well Thee *, first invok'd in every solemn pray’r!

a

* It was