While flow'ry dreams my foul employ;
While turtle-wing'd the laughing hours
Lead hand in hand the feftal pow'rs,
Lead Youth and Love, and harmless Joy.
Broke from the fetters of his native land,
Devoting fhame and vengeance to her lords,
With louder impulfe, and a threat'ning hand,
The Lesbian patriot fmites the founding chords:
Ye wretches, ye perfidious train,
Ye curft of Gods and free-born men,
Ye murd'rers of the laws,
Tho' now you glory in your luft,
Tho' now you tread the feeble neck in dust, Yet time and righteous JOVE will judge your dreadful cause.
But lo, to SAPPHO's mournful airs
Defcends the radiant queen of love;
She fmiles, and asks what fonder cares
Her fuppliant's plaintive measures move:
Why is my faithful maid distrest?
Who, SAPPHO, wounds thy tender breast ?
* ALCEUS of Mitylene, the capital of Lefbos, who fled from his native city to escape the oppreffion of those who had inflav'd it, and wrote against them in his exile those noble invectives which are so much applauded by the ancient critics.
Say, flies he?Soon he shall pursue:
Shuns he thy gifts?He too fhall give:
Slights he thy forrows?He fhall grieve,
And bend him to thy haughtieft vow.
But, O MELPOMENE, for whom
Awakes thy golden fhell again?
What mortal breath fhall e'er presume
To echo that unbounded ftrain?
Majestic, in the frown of years,
Behold, the Man of Thebes appears:
For fome there are, whose mighty frame
The hand of JOVE at birth endow'd
With hopes that mock the gazing crowd;
As eagles drink the noontide flame.
While the dim raven beats his weary wings,
And clamours far below.--Propitious Mufe,
While I fo late unlock thy hallow'd springs,
And breathe whate'er thy ancient airs infuse,
To polish Albion's warlike ear
This long-loft melody to hear,
Thy sweetest arts imploy;
As when the winds from fhore to shore,
Thro' Greece thy lyre's perfuafive language bore,
Till towns, and isles, and seas return'd the vocal joy.
But oft amid the Græcian throng,
The loofe-rob'd forms of wild defire
With lawless notes intun'd thy fong,
To fhameful fteps diffolv'd thy quire.
O fair, O chaste, be ftill with me
From fuch profaner difcord free :
While I frequent thy tuneful fhade,
No frantic fhouts of Thracian dames,
No fatyrs fierce with favage flames
Thy pleafing accents fhall invade.
Queen of the lyre, in thy retreat
The fairest flow'rs of Pindus glow;
The vine afpires to crown thy feat,
And myrtles round thy laurel grow.
Thy ftrings attune their varied strain,
To ev'ry pleasure, every pain,
Which mortal tribes were born to prove,
And ftrait our passions rise or fall,
As at the wind's imperious call
The ocean fwells, the billows move.
When midnight liftens o'er the flumb'ring earth,
Let me, O Mufe, thy folemn whifpers hear:
When morning fends her fragrant breezes forth,
With airy murmurs touch my op'ning ear.
And ever watchful at thy fide,
Let wifdom's awful fuffrage guide
The tenour of thy lay:
To her of old by JOVE was giv❜n
To judge the various deeds of earth and heav'n; 'Twas thine by gentle arts to win us to her sway.
Oft as from ftri&ter hours refign'd
I quit the maze where fcience toils,
Do thou refresh my yielding mind
With all thy gay, delufive fpoils.
But, O indulgent, come not nigh
The bufy steps, the jealous eye
Of gainful care, and wealthy age,
Whofe barren fouls thy joys difdain,
And hold as foes to reafon's reign
Whome'er thy lovely haunts engage.
With me, when mirth's confenting band
Around fair friendship's genial board
Invite the heart-awakening hand,
With me falute the Teian chord..
Or if invok'd at fofter hours,
O feek with me the happy bow'rs
That hear DIONE's gentle tongue;
To beauty link'd with virtue's train,
To love devoid of jealous pain,
There let the Sapphic lute be ftrung.
envy and from death to claim
A hero bleeding for his native land;
Or when to nourish freedom's veftal flame,
I hear my genius utter his command,
Nor Theban voice, nor Lesbian lyre
From thee, O Mufe, do I require,
While my prophetic mind,
Conscious of pow'rs she never knew,
Aftonish'd grafps at things beyond her view,
Nor by another's fate hath felt her own confin'd.
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