POSTHUMOUS POEMS AND

FRAGMENTS.

ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE.

Left unfinished by Gray. With additions by Mason, distinguished by inverted commas. (I have read something that Mason has done in finishing a half written ode of Gray. I find he will never get the better of that glare of colouring, that dazzling blaze of song,' an expression of his own, and ridiculous enough, which disfigures half his writings. V. Langhorne's Lett. to H. More, i. 23.) See Musa Etonenses, ii. p. 176.

Now the golden morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing,

V. 1. Sophocl. Antig. v. 103, xovoέaç àμέpas ẞλépaρov; and Dyer. Fleece, lib. iii. " Grey dawn appears, the golden morn ascends." Luke.

V. 3. "Vermeil cheek," see Milton. Comus, v. 749.

Luke.

V. 4. " Rorifera mulcens aura, Zephyrus vernas evocat herbas." Senec. Hipp. i. 11. Luke.

V. 8.

Half rob'd appears the hawthorn hedge,
Or to the distant eye displays

Weakly green its budding sprays."

Warton. First of April, i. 180.

See Mant's note on the passage. Add Buchan. Psalm xxiii. Quæ Veris teneri pingit amœnitas." "Hinc nova proles,

p. 36.

V. 9.

Artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per
Ludit."

herbas

Lucret. i. 260.

With vermeil cheek and whisper soft
She wooes the tardy spring:
Till April starts, and calls around
The sleeping fragrance from the ground;
And lightly o'er the living scene
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

New-born flocks, in rustic dance,
Frisking ply their feeble feet;

Forgetful of their wintry trance

The birds his presence greet:
But chief, the sky-lark warbles high
His trembling thrilling extasy;

And, lessening from the dazzled sight,
Melts into air and liquid light.

10

15

Rise, my soul! on wings of fire,
Rise the rapt'rous choir among;

"O'er the broad downs a novel race,
Frisk the lambs with faltering pace."

T. Warton, i. 185. V. 17. Mason informs us, that he has heard Gray say, that Gresset's" Epitre à ma Soeur" gave him the first idea of this ode; and whoever, he says, compares it with the French poem, will find some slight traits of resemblance, but chiefly in the author's seventh stanza. The following lines seem to have been in Gray's remembrance at this place:

"Mon âme, trop long tems flétrie

Va de nouveau s'épanouir;

Et loin de toute rêverie

Voltiger avec le Zéphire,

Occupé tout entier du soin du plaisir d'être," &c. Lucret. v. 282," liquidi fons luminis." Milt. P. L. vii. 362,"drink the liquid light." Luke.

Hark! 'tis nature strikes the lyre,
And leads the gen'ral song:

Warm let the lyric transport flow,
Warm as the ray that bids it glow;
And animates the vernal grove

With health, with harmony, and love.'

Yesterday the sullen year

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly;
Mute was the music of the air,

The herd stood drooping by:
Their raptures now that wildly flow,
No yesterday nor morrow know;
'Tis man alone that joy descries
With forward, and reverted eyes.

Smiles on past misfortune's brow
Soft reflection's hand can trace;

20

25

30

V. 25. Milt. Son. xx. 3. " Help waste a sullen day."

Luke.

V. 31. "Sure he that made us with such large discourse
Looking before and after." Hamlet, act iv. sc. 4.
'Imperat, ante videt, perpendit, præcavit, infit.”
Prudent. p 374. ed Delph.
V. 41. "Where Pleasure's roses void of serpents grow."
Thomson. C. of Ind. c. ii. st. lvii. Luke.
V. 43. Dr. Warton refers to Pope. Essay on Man, ii.
270:

"See some strange comfort every state attend,
And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend:
See some fit passion every age supply:

Hope travels on, nor quits us till we die."
See Casimir Od. :

"Alterno redeunt choro

Risus et gemitus, et madidis prope

And o'er the cheek of sorrow throw
A melancholy grace;

While hope prolongs our happier hour,
Or deepest shades, that dimly lower

And blacken round our weary way,

Gilds with a gleam of distant day.

40

Still, where rosy pleasure leads,
See a kindred grief pursue;
Behind the steps that misery treads,
Approaching comfort view:

The hues of bliss more brightly glow,
Chastis'd by sabler tints of woe;
And blended form, with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of life.

See the wretch, that long has tost
On the thorny bed of pain,

Sicci cum lacrymis joci

Nascuntur mediis gaudia luctibus."

45

50

V. 45. "Here sweet, or strong, may every colour flow; Here let the pencil warm, the colours glow;

V. 49.

Of light and shade provoke the noble strife,
And wake each striking feature into life."

Brown. Essay on Satire, ii. 358.

"O! jours de la convalescence!
Jours d'une pure volupté :

C'est une nouvelle naissance,

Un rayon d'immortalité.

Quel feu! tous les plaisirs ont volé dans mon âme,
J'adore avec transport le céleste flambeau ;
Tout m'intéresse, tout m' enflâme-

Pour moi, l'univers est nouveau.

Les plus simples objects; le chante d'un Fauvette,

At length repair his vigour lost,
And breathe and walk again :
The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening paradise.

Humble quiet builds her cell,

Near the source whence pleasure flows; She eyes the clear crystalline well,

And tastes it as it goes.

'While' far below the madding' crowd 'Rush headlong to the dangerous flood,' Where broad and turbulent it sweeps, And' perish in the boundless deeps.

Mark where indolence and pride,

'Sooth'd by flattery's tinkling sound,'

Go, softly rolling, side by side,

Their dull but daily round:

'To these, if Hebe's self should bring

Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois,
La fraicheur d'une violette;

Milles spectacles, qu'autrefois

On voyoit avec nonchalance,

Transportent aujourd'hui, présentent des appas
Inconnus à l'indifférence,

55

60

65

Et que la foule ne voit pas." Gresset. tom. i. p. 145. V. 55. " Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis." Ovid. Met. i. 135. 66 Nec solem proprium natura, nec aëra fecit." Ovid. Met. vi. 350. "Ne lucem, quoque hanc quæ communis est." Cicero. "Sol omnibus lucet." Pet. Arb. c. 100. "Communis cunctis viventibus aura." Prudent. Sym. ii. 86. The common benefit of vital air." Dryden.