But ah! 'tis heard no more b

Oh! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit
Wakes thee now? Tho' he inherit

Nor the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban Eagle bear c,
Sailing with supreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air :
Yet oft before his infant eyes would run
Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray
With orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun [10]:
Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way

b But ah! 'tis heard no more

We have had in our language no other odes of the sublime kind, than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's day : for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a man. Mr. Mason, indeed, of late days, has touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in some of his chorusses, above all in the last of Caractacus:

Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread! &c.

c That the Theban Eagle bear. Pindar compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight, regardless of their noise.

[10] This passage seems borrowed from the following in Sir William Temple's Essay on Poetry, in his

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,
Beneath the Good how far-but far above the Great.

Miscellanies. Speaking of the qualities of a poet, " there must be," says he " a sprightly imagination " or fancy, fertile in a thousand productions, ranging "over infinite ground, piercing into every corner, and, " by the light of that true poetical fire, discovering “a thousand little bodies or images in the world, and “similitudesamong them, unseen to common eyes, and "which could not be discovered without the rays of "that sun.”

THE BARD.

A PINDARIC ODE. [11]

[This Ode is founded on a Tradition current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the Bards that fell into his hands to be put to death.]

I. 1.

"RUIN seize thee, ruthless King! [12] "Confusion on thy banners wait;

appears, at the

[11] "The Bard" (says ays Johnson) "first view, to be, as Algarotti and others have re"marked, an imitation of the prophecy of Nereus. Al"garotti thinks it superior to its original, and, if pre"ference depends only on the imagery and animation " of the two poems, his judgment is right. There is in ""The Bard' more force, more thought, and more va" riety."

[12] Of this noble exordium, an anonymous Critic thus eloquently expresses his admiration: "This ab" rupt execration plunges the reader into that sudden " fearful perplexity which is designed to predominate "through the whole. The irresistible violence of the " prophet's passions bears him away, who, as he is " unprepared by a formal ushering-in of the speaker, " is unfortified against the impressions of his poetical "Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, "They mock the air with idle state e. "Helm, nor Hauberk's twisted mail f, "Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail "To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, "From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!" Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride g

Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side h

He wound with toilsome march his long array.

"phrenzy, and overpowered by them, as sudden " thunders strike the deepest."

e They mock the air with idle state!

Mocking the air with colours idly spread.
Shakespeare's King John.

f Helm, nor Hauberk's twisted mail. The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body. and adapted itself to every motion.

gthe crested pride.

The crested adder's pride.

Dryden's Indian Queen.

h As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side. Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that

Stout Glo'ster stood aghast i in speechless trance;
To arms! cried Mortimer k, and couch'd his quiv'-

ring lance.

I. 2.

On a rock, whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Rob'd in the sable garb of woe,

With haggard eyes the Poet stood ;

mountainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speaking of the castle of Conway, built there by King Edward the First, says, "Ad "ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283) "Apud "Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniæ fecit erigo "castrum forte."

i Stout Glo'ster stood aghastGilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son in-law to king Edward.

k To arms! cried Mortimer

Edmund de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. They were both Lords Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the King in this expedition.

F