60

65

And, while he heaven and earth defied,
Changed his hand, and checked his pride.
He chose a mournful muse,

Soft pity to infuse;

He sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood;

Deserted at his utmost need

By those his former bounty fed ; On the bare earth exposed he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes. 70 With downcast looks the joyless victor sate, Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of chance below: And, now and then, a sigh he stole, And tears began to flow.

75

80

85

The mighty master smiled, to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.

War, he sung, is toil and trouble:
Honour but an empty bubble;

Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:

If the world be worth thy winning,

Think, O think it worth enjoying :

Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee.

90

95

100

105

IIO

115

120

The many rend the skies with loud applause;
So love was crowned, but music won the cause.
The prince, unable to conceal his pain,
Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again;

At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

Now strike the golden lyre again;

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,

And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder.
Hark, hark! the horrid sound

Has raised up his head;

As awaked from the dead,

And, amazed, he stares around.

'Revenge, revenge!' Timotheus cries;

'See the Furies arise;

See the snakes that they rear,

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!
Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,
And unburied remain

Inglorious on the plain :
Give the vengeance due

To the valiant crew.

Behold how they toss their torches on high,
How they point to the Persian abodes,
And glittering temples of their hostile gods.'

125

130

135

140

The princes applaud with a furious joy;

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,

While organs yet were mute,

Timotheus, to his breathing flute

And sounding lyre,

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
At last divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the vocal frame;

The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,

Enlarged the former narrow bounds,

And added length to solemn sounds,

With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.
Let old Timotheus yield the prize,

Or both divide the crown :
He raised a mortal to the skies ;
She drew an angel down.

(1-51) Consult Benjamin Ide Wheeler's "Life of Alexander the Great" to ascertain the prominent traits in Alexander's character. Note the various metres. Comment on Timotheus' tact in touching the lyre in praise of Jove, and then quickly touching it in praise of Bacchus. Alexander killed his dearest friend Clitus at Samarkand in Sogdiana. (52-74) Observe the logical connection between these lines and (38-51). Comment on the fate of Darius, in its moving Alexander to tears. (75-97) These lines are in proper continuity to (52–74). Note how the measures are made to sound voluptuousness. Observe that in the contemplation of Thais, Alexander is in pain. Scan (91-97). (98-125) These lines are in unity of development to the emotion expressed in (75-97). Note the parallelism between Thais and Helen. Persepolis is the scene of the poem. Scan (118-122), (126-141)

་

Analyse fine dexterous and felicitous phrases throughout the poem. This ode has not become popular by reason of lofty thought, but by reason of melodic diction. This ode has been satisfactorily criticised by John Henry Newman, when he says, "Dryden's Alexander's Feast' is a magnificent composition, and has high poetical beauties; but to a refined judgment there is something intrinsically unpoetical in the end to which it is devoted, the praises of revel and sensuality."

The Augustan Age;

Or,

The Classical School Of Queen Anne

1688-1744

Classical writing presents to us conceptions calmly realized in words that exactly define them, conceptions depending for their attraction not on their halo, but on themselves. — Sidney Colvin.

ALEXANDER POPE

1688-1744

Johnson was guilty of no Byronic extravagance, when he told Boswell that

a thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope."— A. W. Ward.

Optional Poems

The Dying Christian To His Soul.

Essay On Criticism.

The Rape Of The Lock.

Elegy To The Memory Of An Unfortunate Lady.
Eloisa To Abelard.

Phrases

Those oft are stratagems which error seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.

Whatever nature has in worth denied,
She gives in large recruits of needful pride.

...

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend, and ev'ry foe.