THE PROGRESS OF POESY. A PINDARIC ODE.* Φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν· ἐς Δὲ τὸ πᾶν ἑρμηνέων Χατίζει. Pindar, Olymp. II. v. 152. I. 1. AWAKE, Æolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. A thousand rills their mazy progress take: VARIATIONS. Ver. 1. Awake, Eolian lyre, awake.] "Awake, my lyre: my glory, wake," Ms. Ver. 2. Rapture] Transport, Ms. NOTES. * When the author first published this and the following Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to subjoin some few explanatory notes; but had too much respect for the understanding of his readers to take that liberty. GRAY. Ver. 1. Awake, Æolian lyre, awake] David's Psalms. GRAY. "Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp," Cowley in his Ode of David, vol. ii. p. 423: And tell thy silent master's humble tale." And Akenside, Ode, I. ii. 4: The laughing flowers that round them blow, 5 NOTES. Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Αἰολὶς μολπή, Αἰολίδες Xopdai, Aloxidwv Tvoal aux, Eolian song, Eolian strings, the breath of the Æolian flute. GRAY.* The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions GRAY. Ver. 3. From Helicon's harmonious springs] Thomson has joined the subject and simile in a passage strongly resembling this (Liberty, ii. v. 257): "In thy full language speaking mighty things, Like a clear torrent close, or else diffus'd A broad majestic stream, and rolling on And see Quinctilian, Inst. xii. 10. 61. "At ille qui saxa devolvat," &c. In Huntingford's Apology for his Monostrophics, p. 80, referred to by Wakefield, several passages of Pindar are pointed out; to which he supposes that Gray alluded, viz. Ol. ii. 62. 229. vii. 12. xii. 6. Ver. 5. The laughing flowers that round them blow] "Albaque de viridi riserunt lilia prato," Petron. cap. 127. "Ridentes calathos," Claud. R. Pros. ii. 139. " Ridenti colocasia fundet acantho," Virg. Ecl. iv. 20; and Achilles Tatius has the expression, τὸ πέταλον τῷ ζεφύρω γελᾶ. Ver. 6. Drink life and fragrance as they flow] "Bibant violaria fontem," Virg. Georg. iv. ver. 32. W. * This note was occasioned by a strange mistake of the Critical Reviewers, who supposed the Ode addressed to the "Harp of Æolus." See Mason's Memoirs, let. 26. sec. 4; and Critical Review, vol. iv. p. 167. And see the Literary Magazine for 1757, p. 422; at p. 466 of the same work, is an Ode to Gray on his Pindaric Odes. Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign : Headlong, impetuous, see it pour : The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. VARIATIONS. Ver. 11. With torrent rapture, see it pour, Ms. 10 NOTES. "And mounting in loose robes the skies Shed light and fragrance as she flies.' Green's Spleen, v. 79. Ver. 7. Now the rich stream, &c.] This couplet seems to have been suggested by some lines of Pope (Hor. Epist. II. ii. 171): "Pour the full tide of eloquence along, Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong.' Wakefield refers to Pope's Cecilia (10) : "While in more lengthen'd notes, and slow, The deep majestic solemn organs blow." Dr. Berdmore of the Charter-House, in his pamphlet on Literary Resemblance, p. 16, supposes that Gray had Horace in his mind: * This latter line of Pope is taken from Prior's Carmen Seculare XXII. written in 1700 ; who in his turn was indebted to Denham : "But her own king she likens to his Thames, With gentle course devolving fruitful streams, Swift without violence, without terror great." In fact, these famous lines of Denham were imitated so often, and by so many writers, as to occasion this admonition, in a poem called Apollo's Edict,' in the Gulliveriana, p. 53: "If Anna's happy reign you praise, Pray, not a word of halcyon days. I. 2. Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. Has curb'd the fury of his car, 15 NOTES. Quod adest, memento Componere æquus.-Cætera fluminis Ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveo Cùm pace delabentis Etruscum In mare: nunc lapides adesos, Stirpesque raptas, et pecus, et domos, Volventis una, non sine montium Clamore, vicinæque silvæ." Od. III. xxix. 32. Ver. 9. Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign] Copied by Whitehead, Ode VII. vol. ii. p. 282: "To warmer suns, and Ceres' golden reign.” Ver. 12. The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar] Dryden's Virg. Georg. i. "And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas resound." Pope's Iliad: "Rocks rebellow to the roar." 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. GRAY. Ver. 15. Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares] "While sullen Cares and wither'd Age retreat," Eusden's Court of Venus, p. 101. "Revengeful Cares, and sullen Sorrows dwell," Dryden's Virgil, vi. 247. Ver. 17. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War] So Dryden, vol. iii. 60. ed. Warton: The God of War Was drawn triumphant on his iron car.' And thence Collins in his Ode to Peace, ver. 4: "When War by vultures drawn afar, To Britain bent his iron car.” And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king 20 NOTES. "Mavortia Thrace," Statii Theb. 1. 201; and " Mars Threcen occupat,” Ovid. Ar. Am. ii. ver. 598. ver. 5: Ver. 19. And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command] Collins, in his Ode to Mercy, "Win'st from his fatal grasp the spear." In Fletcher's Purple Island is a beautiful stanza (vi. 16.) much resembling the image drawn by Gray and Collins : "But see how 'twixt her sister, and her sire, Pleading for grace, and chains of death unloosing, Neat from her lips the melting hony flows, The striking Thunderer recals his blows, And every armed soldier, down his weapon throws." In the Lusus Poetici of Jortin (Hymn to Harmony, p. 45.), published in 1722, is the following couplet, strongly resembling Gray's, and from the same source: "Thou mak'st the God of War forsake the field, And drop his lance, and lay aside his shield.”. See also Ovid. Fasti, iii. v. I: "Bellice, depositis clypeo paullisper et hastâ, Mars, ades." Ver. 20. Perching on the scept'red hand] This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. GRAY. The passage in the first Pythian of Pindar, which Gray has imitated, is the following (ver. 10): ευ - δει δ ̓ ἀνὰ σκάπτω Διὸς αἰετὸς ὡς -κεῖαν πτέρυγ ̓ ἀμφοτέρω θεν καλάξαις, ̓Αρχὸς οἰωνῶν. κελαινώς πιν δ' ἐπὶ οἱ νεφέλαν ̓Αγκύλω κρατὶ, γλεφάρων ̓Αδὺ κλαίστρον, κατέχευας, ὃ δὲ κνώσσων. |