I.—1.
Awake, Aeolian lyre! awake,
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings;
From Helicon’s harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take;
The laughing flowers, that round them blow,
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along,
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,
Through verdant vales and Ceres’ golden
reign;
Now rolling down the steep amain,
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,
Enchanting Shell!
the sullen Cares
And frantic Passions hear
thy soft control.
On Thracia’s hills the
Lord of War
Has curb’d the fury
of his car,
And dropp’d his thirsty
lance at thy command:
Perching on the sceptred hand
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the
feather’d king
With ruffled plumes and flagging
wing:
Quench’d 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 India’s
velvet green
The rosy-crowned
Loves are seen,
On Cytherea’s day,
With antic Sports and blue-eyed
Pleasures
Frisking light in frolic measures:
Now pursuing,
now retreating,
Now in circling troops they
meet;
To brisk notes
in cadence beating,
Glance their many-twinkling
feet.
Slow-melting strains their
Queen’s approach declare
Where’er
she turns, the Graces homage pay;
With arms sublime, that float
upon the air,
In gliding state
she wins her easy way:
O’er her warm cheek
and rising bosom move
The bloom of young Desire and purple light
of Love.
II.—1.
Man’s feeble race what
life 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.