Well I know thee, gentle shade!
That tuneful voice, that eagle eye.
Quick bring me flowers that ne'er shall fade, The laurel wreath that ne'er shall die;
With every honour deck his funeral bier, For he to every Grace and every Muse was dear!
The listening Dryad, with attention still, On tiptoe oft would near the poet steal, To hear him sing upon the lonely hill
Of all the wonders of th' expanded vale, The distant hamlet, and the winding stream, The steeple shaded by the friendly yew, Sunk in the wood the sun's departing gleam,
The gray-robed landscape stealing from the view.
*Or wrapt in solemn thought, and pleasing woe, O'er each low tomb he breathed his pious strain, A lesson to the village swain,
And taught the tear of rustic grief to flow!
+ But soon with bolder note, and wilder flight, O'er the loud strings his rapid hand would run: Mars hath lit his torch of war,
Ranks of heroes fill the sight!
Hark! the carnage is begun!
And see the furies through the fiery air
O'er Cambria's frighten'd land the screams of horror bear!
Now led by playful Fancy's hand
O'er the white surge he treads with printless feet,
To magic shores he flies, and fairy land,
Imagination's blest retreat.
Here roses paint the crimson way, No setting sun, éternal May,
Wild as the priestess of the Thracian fane, When Bacchus leads the madd'ning train, His bosom glowing with celestial fire, To harmony he struck the golden lyre;
* This alludes to Mr. Gray's Elegy written in a Country Church-yard.
+ The Bard, a Pindaric Ode.
The Progress of Poetry, a Pindaric Ode."
To harmony each hill and valley rung! The bird of Jove, as when Apollo sung, To melting bliss resign'd his furious soul, With milder rage his eyes began to roll,
The heaving down his thrilling joys confest, Till by a mortal's hand subdued he sunk to rest.
* O, guardian angel of our early day,
Henry thy darling plant must bloom no more! By thee attended, pensive would he stray,
Where Thames soft-murmuring laves his winding shore. Thou bad'st him raise the moralizing song,
Through life's new seas the little bark to steer; The winds are rude and high, the sailor young; Thoughtless, he spies no furious tempest near, Till to the poet's hand the helm you gave, From hidden rocks an infant crew to save!
+ Ye fiends who rankle in the human heart, Delight in woe, and triumph in our tears, Resume again
Prepare the iron scourge, prepare the venom'd dart, Adversity no more with lenient air appears : The snakes that twine about her head Again their frothy poison shed;
For who can now her whirlwind flight control, Her threatening rage beguile?
He who could still the tempest of her soul, And force her livid lips to smile, To happier seats is fled! Now seated by his Thracian sire,
At the full feast of mighty Jove
To heavenly themes attunes his lyre, And fills with harmony the realms above!
TO THE MEMORY OF MR. GRAY.
Extracted from the third book of Mason's English Garden.'
CLOSED is that curious ear, by death's cold hand, That mark'd each error of my careless strain With kind severity; to whom my muse Still loved to whisper, what she meant to sing In louder accent; to whose taste supreme She first and last appeal'd, nor wish'd for praise, Save when his smile was herald to her fame. Yes, thou art gone; yet friendship's falt'ring tongue Invokes thee still; and still, by fancy soothed, Fain would she hope her Gray attends the call. Why then, alas! in this my fav'rite haunt, Place 1 the urn, the bust, the sculptured lyre,* Or fix this votive tablet, fair inscribed With numbers worthy thee, for they are thine? Why, if thou hear'st me still, these symbols sad Of fond memorial? Ah! my pensive soul! He hears me not, not ever more shall hear The theme his candour, not his taste approved. Oft, "smiling as in scorn," oft would he cry, "Why waste thy numbers on a trivial art, That ill can mimic even the humblest charms Of all majestic Nature?" at the word His eye would glisten, and his accents glow With all the Poet's frenzy," Sov'reign queen! Behold, and tremble, while thou viewest her state Throned on the heights of Skiddaw: call thy art To build her such a throne; that art will feel
How vain her best pretensions. Trace her march`
Mr. Gray died July 31st, 1771. This book was begun a few months after. The three following lines allude to a rustic alcove the author was then building in his garden, in which he placed a medallion of his friend, and an urn; a lyre over the entrance with the motto from Pindar, which Mr. Gray had prefixed to his Odes, ΦΩΝΑΝΤΑ ΣΥΝΕΤΟΙΣΙ, and under it, on a tablet, this stanza taken from the first edition of his Elegy written in a Country Church-yard.
Here scatter'd oft, the loveliest of the year,
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found; The redbreast loves to build and warble here, And little footsteps lightly print the ground.
Amid the purple crags of of Borrowdale; And try like those to pile thy range of rock In rude tumultuous chaos. See! she mounts Her Naiad car, and, down Lodore's dread cliff Falls many a fathom, like the headlong bard My fabling fancy plunged in Cornway's flood; Yet not like him to sink in endless night : For, on its boiling bosom, still she guides Her buoyant shell, and leads the wave along : Or spreads it broad, a river or a lake, As suits her pleasure; will thy boldest song E'er brace the sinews of enervate art To such dread daring? will it ev❜a direct Her hand to emulate those softer charms That deck the banks of Dove, or call to birth The bare romantic crags, and copses green, That sidelong grace her circuit, whence the rills, Bright in their crystal purity, descend
To meet their sparkling queen? around each fount The hawthorns crowd and knit their blossom'd sprays To keep their sources sacred. Here, even here, Thy art, each active sinew stretch'd in vain, Would perish in its pride. Far rather thou Confess her scanty power, correct, control, Tell her how far, nor farther, she may go; And rein with reason's curb fantastic taste." Yes, I will hear thee, dear lamented shade, And hold each dictate sacred. What remains Unsung shall so each leading rule select As if still guided by thy judgment sage; While, as still modell'd to thy curious ear, Flow my melodious numbers; so shall praise, If aught of praise the verse I weave may claim, From just posterity reward my song.
ON THE DEATH OF MR. GRAY.
FAIR are the gardens of the Aonian mount, And sweet those blooming flow'rs
Which paint the Maiden's bow'rs; And clear the waters of the gurgling fount: Swift they wind through chequer'd allies; Huddling down to th' open valleys;
Where the quick ripple in the sunbeams plays, Turning to endless forms each glance of twinkling blaze.
O'er the gay scene th' enamour'd inmates roam;
And gather fresh ideas as they rise From Nature's manifold supplies. Alas! for whom !
Many a gleam of sprightly thought, Many a sad and sable mood, Whether from dazzling lustre brought,
Or nursed by shades of darksome wood, Keep death-like silence on their native shore, Since he, that gave them speech, is heard no more. Flown is the spirit of Gray
Like common breath to mingle with the air : Yet still those Goddesses' peculiar care, That breathe harmonious lay.
Retired to yonder grassy mound
In leaves of dusky hue encompass'd round, They bid their plaintive accents fill
The covert hollows of the bosom'd hill : With liquid voice and magic hand
Calliope informs the band:
Hush'd are the warblers of the grove, attentive to the
"Soft and slow
Let the melting measures flow,
Nor lighter air disturb majestic woe. And thou, sage Priestess* of our holy fire, Who saw'st the Poet's flame expire,
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