Light they disperse, and with them go By vain Prosperity receiv'd, Wisdom in sable garb array'd, Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound, With leaden eye that loves the ground, With Justice, to herself severe, Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess, lay thy chast’ning hand ! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, Not circled with the vengeful band With screaming Horror's fun'ral cry, Thy form benign, oh goddess, wear, Thy milder influence impart, Thy philosophic train be there To soften, pot to wound my heart. The gen'rous spark extinct revive, Teach me to love, and to forgive, Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a Mai. DRAWN BY RICHARD WESTALL R.A. ENGRAVED BY GEORGE CORBOULD: PUBLISHED BY JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY; DEC.1.1820. THE PROGRESS OF POESY. A PINDARIC ODE. Φωνάντα συνετοίσιν ες PINDAR. I. 1. A thousand rills their mazy progress take: Ver. 1. Awake, Æolian lyre, awake] « Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp.” David's PSALMS. VARIATION.- Awake, my lyre: my glory, wake.” Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Αίοληΐς μολπή, Αιόλιδες χορδαί, Αιολίδων πνοαι αυλών, Eolian song, Æolian strings, the breath of the Æolian flate. The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which give 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. Now the rich stream of music winds along, I. 2. And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Temper'd to thy warbled lay. Ver. 13. Oh! Sou'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 initation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Ver. 25. Thee the voice, the dance, obey] Power of barınony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. |