The powers of Harmony are mute,
And leave the once-delightful plain ;
With heavy wing, I see them beat the air,
Damp'd by the leaden hand of comfortless Despair.

Yet stay, O! stay, celestial pow'rs,
And with a hand of kind regard
Dispel the boist'rous storm that lours
Destructive on the fav'rite bard;

watch with me his last expiring breath,

And snatch him from the arms of dark, oblivious

death.

Hark the fatal Sisters [74] join,

And with Horror's mutt'ring sounds,

Weave the tissue of his line,

While the dreadful spell resounds.
"Hail, ye midnight sisters, hail,
"Drive the shuttle swift along;
"Let your secret charms prevail
"O'er the valiant and the strong,

"O'er the glory of the land,

"O'er the innocent and gay,
"O'er the Muse's tuneful band-

"Weave the fun'ral web of Gray."

[74] The Fatal Sisters, an Ode.

"Tis done, 'tis done the iron hand of pain,
With ruthless fury and corrosive force,
Racks every joint, and seizes every vein :

He sinks, he groans, he falls a lifeless corse.
Thus fades the flow'r nipp'd by the frozen gale,
Tho' once so sweet, so lovely to the eye:
Thus the tall oaks, when boist'rous storms assail,
Torn from the earth, a mighty ruin lie,

Ye sacred sisters of the plaintive verse,

Now let the stream of fond affection flow;
O pay your tribute o'er the slow-drawn hearse,
With all the manly dignity of woe.

Oft when the Curfew tolls its parting knell
With solem pause yon Church-yard's gloom survey,
While Sorrow's sighs and tears of Pity tell
How just the moral of the Poet's lay[75].

O'er his green grave, in Contemplation's guise,
Oft let the pilgrim drop a silent tear :
Oft let the shepherd's tender accents rise,
Big with the sweets of each revolving year:
Till prostrate Time adore his deathless name,
Fix'd on the solid base of adamantine fame.

[75] Elegy in a Country Church-Yard.

NO more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns,
To Britain let the nations homage pay!
She boasts a Homer's fire in Milton's strains,
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of GRAY.

FINIS.

[The articles thus * marked have never appeared
in any other Collection of Mr. Gray's Works.]

SUPPLEMENT.

Comprizing the Posthumous Poems and Frag-
ments of Mr. Gray.

Impromptu, suggested by a View of the Seat
and Ruins of a deceased Nobleman

*The Candidate, or the Cambridge Courtship
Sketch of his own Character