"WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed. But dearly must we prize thee; we who find WORDSWORTH. The Ode commences with an Address to the Divine Providence, that regulates into one vast harmony all the events of time, however calamitous some of them may appear to mortals. The second Strophe calls on men to suspend their private joys and sorrows, and devote them for a while to the cause of human nature in general. The first Epode speaks of the Empress of Russia, who died of an apoplexy on the 17th of November, 1796; having just concluded a subsidiary treaty with the Kings combined against France. The first and second Antistrophe describe the Image of the Departing Year, &c. as in a vision. The second Epode prophesies, in anguish of spirit, the downfall of this country. I. PIRIT who sweepest the wild harp of It is most hard, with an untroubled ear Yet, mine eye fixed on Heaven's unchanging clime, This Ode was composed on the 24th, 25th, and 26th days of December, 1796; and was first published on the last day of that year. With inward stillness, and submitted mind; Ere yet the entered cloud foreclosed my sight, II. Hither, from the recent tomb, From distemper's midnight anguish ; And thence, where poverty doth waste and languish ; Or where, his two bright torches blending, Love illumines manhood's maze; Or where o'er cradled infants bending Ye Woes! ye young-eyed Joys! advance! By Time's wild harp, and by the hand Raises its fateful strings from sleep, And each domestic hearth, Haste for one solemn hour; And with a loud and yet a louder voice, Still echoes the dread Name, that o'er the earth Justice and Truth! They too have heard thy spell They too obey thy name, Divinest Liberty! III. I marked Ambition in his war-array! I heard the mailed Monarch's troublous cry- Stunned by Death's twice mortal mace, The insatiate hag shall gloat with drunken eye! Ye that gasped on Warsaw's plain! 'Mid women's shrieks and infants' screams! Sudden blasts of triumph swelling, Oft, at night, in misty train, Rush around her narrow dwelling! The exterminating fiend is fled- Mighty armies of the dead, Dance like death-fires round her tomb! Then with prophetic song relate, Each some tyrant-murderer's fate! IV. Departing Year! 'twas on no earthly shore With many an unimaginable groan Thou storied'st thy sad hours! Silence ensued, Deep silence o'er the ethereal multitude, Whose locks with wreaths, whose wreaths with glories shone. Then, his eye wild ardours glancing, The Spirit of the Earth made reverence meet, V. Throughout the blissful throng, Hushed were harp and song: Till, wheeling round the throne the Lampads seven, (The mystic Words of Heaven) Permissive signal make; The fervent Spirit bowed, then spread his wings and spake! "Thou in stormy blackness throning By the Earth's unsolaced groaning, Strange, horrible, and foul! By what deep guilt belongs To the deaf Synod, full of gifts and lies!' For ever shall the thankless Island scowl, |