Now the rich stream of music winds along, Through verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: Headlong, impetuous, see it pour: The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. I. 2. Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul, And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. And dropp'd his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king The terror of his beak, and light'nings of his eye. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Ver. 13. Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul] Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. Ver. 20. Perching on the sceptred hand] This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Ver. 25. Thee the voice, the dance, obey] Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. O'er Idalia's velvet green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Now in circling troops they meet: Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare: II. I. 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! The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly muse? Ver. 42. Man's feeble race what ills await] To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night, Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, Till down the eastern cliffs afar Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring 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 To cheer the shiv'ring native's dull abode. And oft, beneath the od'rous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, Their feather-cinctur'd chiefs, and dusky loves. Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame, Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame. II. 3. Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Isles, that crown th' Ægean deep, Ver. 54. In climes beyond the solar road] Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations : its connection with liberty, and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welsh fragments, the Lapland and American songs, &c.] "Extra anni solisque vias—” "Tutta lontana dal camin del sole." VIRGIL. PETRARCH. Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves 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, They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast. III. 1. Far from the sun and summer gale, Ver. 66. Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep] Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surry and Sir Thomas Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there. Spenser imitated the Italian writers; Milton improved on them but this school expired soon after the Restoration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has subsisted ever since. GRAY has been long dead, the Poets of the present day rather imitate the Italian and early English Poets than the French. Ver. 84. In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid] Nature's darling," SHAKSPEARE. What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, "This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year: 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, He pass'd 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, Clos'd his eyes in endless night. Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car Wide o'er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of etherial race, [ing pace. With necks in thunder cloath'd, and long-resound Ver. 95. Nor second He, that rode sublime] MILTON. Ver. 99. The living throne, the sapphire blaze] "For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. This was the appearance of the glory of the Lord." EZEK. 1. 20, 26, 28. Ver. 106. With necks in thunder cloath'd] "Hast thou cloathed his neck with thunder?" JOB.-This verse and the foregoing |