AWAKE, Æolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. Var. V. 1. "Awake, my lyre: my glory, wake." ms. V. 2. Rapture] Transport. Ms. * When the author first published this and the following Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to subjoin some few explanatory notes; but had too much respect for the understanding of his readers to take that liberty. Gray. V. 1. "Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp." David's Psalms. Gray. Awake, awake, my lyre, And tell thy silent master's humble tale." Cowley. Ode of David, vol. ii. p. 423. Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Αἰολις μολπὴ, Αἰολίδες χορδαὶ, Αἰολίδων πνοαὶ avλv, Eolian song, Eolian strings, the breath of the Eolian flute. Gray.' The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which gives 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; This note was occasioned by a strange mistake of the Critical Reviewers, who supposed the Ode addressed to the " Harp of. Eolus." See Mason. Memoirs, let. 26. sec. 4.; and Crit. Rev. vol. iv. p. 167. And the Literary Magaz. 1757, p. 422; at p. 466 of the same work, is an Ode to Gray on his Pindaric Odes. From Helicon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take: and its more rapid and irresistible course when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. Gray. V. 3. Thomson has joined the subject and simile in a passage strongly resembling this: In thy full language speaking mighty things, And see Quinctil. Inst. xii. 10. 61. devolvat," &c. Liberty, ii. 257. "At ille qui saxa In Huntingford, Apology for his Monostrophics, p. 80, referred to by Wakefield, several passages of Pindar are pointed out, to which he supposes that Gray alluded, viz. Ol. ii. 62. 229. vii. 12. xii. 6. V. 4 “The melting voice through mazes running.” Milt. L'Allegro, 142. 5 Luke. V. 5. "Albaque de viridi riserunt lilia prato," Petron. cap. 127. "Ridenti colocasia fundet acantho," Virg. Ecl. iv. 20; and Achilles Tatius has the expression, Tò TÉTαλOV T❤ Sepúρw yeλã. See Burm. ad Ovid. v. ii. p. 1023. V. 6. Bibant violaria fontem," Virg. Georg. iv. ver. W. 32. "And mounting in loose robes the skies Shed light and fragrance as she flies." Green. Spleen, v. 79. V. 7. This couplet seems to have been suggested by some lines of Pope. Hor. Epist. II. ii. 171: "Pour the full tide of eloquence along, Wakefield refers to Pope. Cecilia, 10: "While in more lengthen'd notes, and slow, The deep majestic solemn organs blow." Dr. Berdmore of the Charter-House, in his pamphlet on Literary Resemblance, p. 16, supposes that Gray had Horace in his mind. Od. III. xxix. 32. Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: Headlong, impetuous, see it pour; 10 The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. I. 2. Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War Var. V. 11." With torrent rapture, see it pour." Ms. 15 V. 9. Shenstone. Inscr. "Verdant vales and fountains bright." Luke. V. 10" Immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore." Hor. Od. iv. 2. 8. V. 12. "And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas resound," Dryden. Virg. Georg. i. "Rocks rebellow to the roar," Pope. Iliad. V. 13. Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. Gray. V. 14. Milton. Comus, 555, "A soft and solemn-breathing sound." See Todd's note. 66 V. 15. "While sullen Cares and wither'd Age retreat," Eusden. Court of Venus, p. 101. Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell," Dryden. Virgil, Æn. vi. 247. “Care shuns thy soft approach, and sullen flies away," Dryden. Ceyx, vol. iv. p. 33, the same expression occurs in many other poets. V. 17. "The God of War Was drawn triumphant on his iron car." And Collins in his Ode to Peace, ver. 4: "When War by vultures drawn afar, "Mavortia Thrace," Statii Ach. 1. 201, Theb. vii. 34, and "Mars Thracen occupat," Ovid. Ar. Am. ii. ver. 588. Virg. En. iii. 35. " Gradivumque patrem Geticis qui præsidet arvis." v. Bentl. on Hor. Od. i. xxv. 19. Has curb'd the fury of his car, And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Temper'd to thy warbled lay. Var. V. 23. Dark] Black. MS. V. 19. "Winn'st from his fatal grasp the spear," Collins. Ode to Mercy, ver. 5. 20 25 In the Lusus Poetici of Jortin (Hymn to Harmony, p. 45.), published in 1722, is the following couplet, strongly resembling Gray's, and from the same source: "Thou mak'st the God of War forsake the field, And drop his lance, and lay aside his shield." See also Ovid. Fasti, iii. v. 1: 66 Bellice, depositis clypeo paulisper et hasta, Mars, ades." Claudiani Præf. in Rufin. lib. ii. “Thirsty blade," Spers. F. Q. i. v. xv. V. 20. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Gray. Pyth. i. ver. 10; and see D. Stewart. Philos. Essays, p. 373. For an error in the imagery of this line, see Class. Journ. No. xiii. p. 285. V. 21. 66 Every fowl of tyrant wing, V. 22. H. Walpole, in describing the famous Boccapadugli eagle, of Greek sculpture, says: "Mr. Gray has drawn the flagging wing.' See Works, vol. ii. p. 463. Philips (Past. 5.) She hangs her flagging wings;" Luke. Add A. Behn on the D. of Buckingham, v. Works, v. ii. p. 208 "Now with their broken notes and flagging wing;" See Wakef. on Virg. Georg. iv. 137; G. Steevens quotes Ronsard, Ode xxii. ed. 1632, fol. V. 25. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. Gray. V. 26. "Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay," O'er Idalia's velvet-green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen On Cytherea's day; With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, 30 Now in circling troops they meet: Var. V. 30. Sport] Sports. мS. V. 34. In cadence] The cadence. MS. Fletcher. P. Island, c. ix. s. iii. and Lycidas, 32. Luke. V. 27. "At length a fair and spacious green he spide, Like calmest waters, plain; like velvet, soft." Fairfax. Tasso, xiii. 38. "She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet-green." Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. p. 128. This expression, it is well known, has met with reprehension from Dr. Johnson; who appears by his criticism to have supposed it first' introduced by Gray. It was numbered, however, among the absurd expressions of Pope, by the authors of the Alexandriad, (some of the heroes of the Dunciad,) see p. 288. It occurs in a list of epithets and nouns which Pope had used, and which these authors held up to ridicule. V. 30. V. 31. "I'll charm the air to give a sound, "In friskful glee, their frolics play,' Thoms. Spring. Luke. V. 32. Wakefield refers to Callimachi Hymn. Dian. 3. and Hom. II. Σ. 593. V. 35. Μαρμαρυγὰς θηεῖτο ποδῶν· θαύμαζε δὲ θυμῷ. Hom. Od. 9. ver. 265. Gray. "Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves Of aspin tall." Thoms. Spring, 157. W. 1 Shakespeare has, "Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds," Hen. V. act i. sc. 2. |