Scared at thy frown terrific, fly Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, The summer friend, the flattering foe; By vain Prosperity received, To her they vow their truth, and are again believed. Wisdom in sable garb arrayed, Immersed in rapturous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid, With leaden eye that loves the ground, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess, lay thy chastening hand! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, Not circled with the vengeful band (As by the impious thou art seen) With thundering voice, and threatening mien, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty: Thy form benign, oh goddess, wear, Thy milder influence impart, Thy philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound, my heart. The generous spark extinct revive Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a Man. THE PROGRESS OF POESY. I. I. Awake, Æolian lyre, awake, And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. A thousand rills their mazy progress take : Now the rich stream of music winds along, Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign: Headlong, impetuous, see it pour ; The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. I. 2. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command. Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king Quenched in dark clouds of slumber lie The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. I. 3. Thee the voice, the dance, obey, Temper'd to thy warbled lay. O'er Idalia's velvet-green The rosy-crowned Loves are seen With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Now in circling troops they meet: Glance their many-twinkling feet. Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare : With arms sublime, that float upon the air, The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love. II. I. Man's feeble race what ills await! Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate! The fond complaint, my song, disprove, And justify the laws of Jove. Say, has he given in vain the heavenly Muse? Night and all her sickly dews, Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, He gives to range the dreary sky; Till down the eastern cliffs afar Hyperion's march they spy, and glittering shafts of war. II. 2. In climes beyond the solar road, Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, The Muse has broke the twilight gloom To cheer the shivering native's dull abode. And oft, beneath the odorous shade Of Chili's boundless forests laid, She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, In loose numbers wildly sweet, Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dusky loves. Her track, where'er the goddess roves, Glory pursue, and generous Shame, The unconquerable Mind, and freedom's holy flame. II. 3. Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Or where Mæander's amber waves How do your tuneful echoes languish, Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast. III. I. Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid, To him the mighty mother did unveil Her awful face: the dauntless child Stretch'd forth his little arms and smiled. 'This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear Richly paint the vernal year : Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy! This can unlock the gates of joy! Of horror that, and thrilling fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.' III. 2. Nor second He, that rode sublime Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy, The secrets of the abyss to spy. He passed the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, He saw; but, blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night. Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car, Wide o'er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of ethereal race With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace. III. 3. Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Bright-eyed Fancy, hovering o'er, Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. Oh lyre divine, what daring spirit Yet oft before his infant eyes would run Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray, With orient hues, unborrowed of the sun : Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the Good how far-but far above the Great. THE BARD. I. I. 'Ruin seize thee, ruthless King! Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail, Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail |