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'Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn :
In yon bright track, that fires the western skies,
They melt, they vanish from my eyes.

But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height
Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll?
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,

Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!
No more our long-lost Arthurk we bewail.

All-hail, ye' genuine kings, Britannia's issue, hail!

III. 2.

Girt with many a baron bold

Sublime their starry fronts they rear;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old

In bearded majesty, appear.

In the midst a form divine!

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line;
Her lion-port," her awe-commanding face,
Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air,
What strains of vocal transport round her play!
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin," hear;
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
Bright Rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings,
Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings.

III. 3.

The verse adorn again

Fierce War, and faithful Love,

And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places.

k It was the common belief of the Welch nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-land, and should return again to reign over Britain.

Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welch should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor.

Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, "And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes.'

n Taliessin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen.

In buskin'd measures move
Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.
A voice, as of the cherub-choir,

Gales from blooming Eden bear;

And distant warblings lessen on my ear,

That lost in long futurity expire.

Fond impious man, think'st thou, yon sanguine cloud,
Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day?
To-morrow he repairs the golden flood,

And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

Enough for me; with joy I see

The different doom our Fates assign.
Be thine Despair, and sceptred Care,

To triumph, and to die, are mine.'

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height,
Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night.

ODE VII.

FOR MUSIC.r

IRREGULAR.

I.

"HENCE, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)

Comus and his midnight-crew,

And Ignorance with looks profound,
And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue,
Mad Sedition's cry profane,

Servitude that hugs her chain,

Nor in these consecrated bowers

Let painted Flatt'ry hide her serpent-train in flowers.

Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain

Dare the Muse's walk to stain,

While bright-eyed Science watches round :

Hence, away, 'tis holy ground!"

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This Ode was performed in the Senate-house at Cambridge, July 1, 1769, at the installation of his Grace Augustus-Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, chancellor of the University.

II.

From yonder realms of empyrean day
Bursts on my ear th' indignant lay:
There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine,

The few, whom Genius gave to shine

Through every unborn age, and undiscover'd clime.
Rapt in celestial transport they,

Yet hither oft a glance from high

They send of tender sympathy

To bless the place, where on their opening soul
First the genuine ardour stole.

"Twas Milton struck the deep-ton'd shell,
And, as the choral warblings round him swell,
Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime,
And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyme.
III.

"Ye brown o'er-arching groves,

That Contemplation loves,

Where willowy Camus lingers with delight!
Oft at the blush of dawn

I trod your level lawn,

Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright

In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,

With Freedom by my side, and soft-eye'd Melancholy."

IV.

But hark! the portals sound, and pacing forth
With solemn steps and slow,

High potentates, and dames of royal birth,

And mitred fathers in long order go:

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Great Edward, with the lilies on his brow

From haughty Gallia torn,

And sad Chatillon,t on her bridal morn

That wept her bleeding love, and princely Clare,

• Edward the Third, who added the fleur de lys of France to the arms of England. He founded Trinity College.

t Mary de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, Comte de St. Paul in France: of whom tradition says, that her husband Audemar de Valentia, earl of Pembroke, was slain at a tournament on the day of his nuptials. She was the foundress of Pembroke College or Hall, under the name of Aula Mariæ de Valentia.

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Elizabeth de Burg, Countess of Clare, was wife of John de Burg, son and heir of the Earl of Ulster, and daughter of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, by Joan of Acres, daughter of Edward the First. Hence the Poet gives her the epithet of "princely." She founded Clare Hall.

And Anjou's" heroine and the paler rose,"
The rival of her crown, and of her woes,
And either Henry there,

The murder'd saint, and the majestic, lord,
That broke the bonds of Rome.
(Their tears, their little triumphs o'er,
Their human passions now no more,
Save charity, that glows beyond the tomb)
All that on Granta's fruitful plain
Rich streams of regal bounty pour'd,
And bad these awful fanes and turrets rise,
To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come;
And thus they speak, in soft accord

The liquid language of the skies.

V.

"What is grandeur, what is power?
Heavier toil, superior pain.
What the bright reward we gain?
The grateful memory of the good.

Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,

The bee's collected treasures sweet,

Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet

The still small voice of Gratitude."

VI.

Foremost, and leaning from her golden cloud,
The venerable Marg'ret see!

"Welcome, my noble son, (she cries aloud)
To this, thy kindred train, and me:
Pleas'd in thy lineaments we trace

"A Tudor's fire, à Beaufort's grace.

"Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry the Sixth, foundress of Queen's College. The Poet has celebrated her conjugal fidelity in the former Ode: V. epode 2d. line 13th.

w Elizabeth Widville, wife of Edward the Fourth (hence called the paler rose, as being of the house of York). She added to the foundation of Margaret of Anjou.

* Henry the Sixth and Eighth. The former the founder of King's, the latter the greatest benefactor to Trinity College.

Countess of Richmond and Derby; the mother of Henry the Seventh, foundress of St. John's and Christ's colleges.

The Countess was a Beaufort, and married to a Tudor: hence the application of this line to the Duke of Grafton, who claims descent from both these families.

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"Lo, Granta waits to lead her blooming band,

Not obvious, not obtrusive, she

No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings;
Nor dares with courtly tongue refin'd
Profane thy inborn royalty of mind:

She reveres herself and thee.

With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow
The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings,

And to thy just, thy gentle hand

Submits the fasces of her sway,

While spirits blest above and men below
Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay.
VIII.

Through the wild waves as they roar
With watchful eye and dauntless mien
Thy steady course of honour keep,
Nor fear the rocks, nor seek the shore:
The star of Brunswick smiles serene,
And gilds the horrors of the deep."

ODE VIII.

THE FATAL SISTERS.

FROM THE NORSE TONGUE.b

Now the storm begins to lower,
(Haste, the loom of hell prepare,)
Iron-sleet of arrowy shower

Hurtles in the darken'd air.

a Lord Treasurer Burleigh was chancellor of the University, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

b To be found in the ORCADES of THORMODUS TORFEUS; HAFNIE, 1697, folio and also in BARTHOLINUS.

VITT ER ORPIT FYRYR VALFALLI, &c.

The design of Mr. Gray in writing this and the three following imitative odes, is given in the Memoirs of his Life. For the better understanding the first of

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