And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail ! Still would her touch the strain prolong;
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, She called on Echo still, through all the song; And where her sweetest theme she chose, A soft responsive voice was heard at every close; And Hope, enchanted, smiled, and waved her golden hair.
And longer had she sung- - but, with a frown,
Revenge impatient rose;
The oak-crowned sisters, and their chaste-eyed queen,
Satyrs and sylvan boys, were seen Peeping from forth their alleys green; Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear;
And Sport leapt up, and seized his beechen spear.
Last came Joy's ecstatic trial: He, with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand addrest ; But soon he saw the brisk-awakening viol,
Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best; They would have thought who heard the strain, They saw, in Tempe's vale, her native maids, Amidst the festal-sounding shades,
To some unwearied minstrel dancing, While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round:
He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down; Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;
And, with a withering look,
The war-denouncing trumpet took, And blew a blast so loud and dread, Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe! And ever and anon he beat
The doubling drum with furious heat; And though sometimes, each dreary pause between, Dejected Pity, at his side,
Her soul-subduing voice applied, Yet still he kept his wild, unaltered mien, While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from his head.
Thy numbers, Jealousy, to naught were fixed, - Sad proof of thy distressful state; Of differing themes the veering song was mixed; And now it courted love, now, raving, called on Hate.
With eyes upraised, as one inspired,
Pale Melancholy sate retired; And from her wild sequestered seat,
In notes by distance made more sweet,
And he, amidst his frolic play,
As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odors from his dewy wings.
O Music! sphere-descended maid, Friend of pleasure, wisdom's aid ! Why, goddess! why, to us denied, Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside? As, in that loved Athenian bower, You learned an all-commanding power, Thy mimic soul, O nymph endeared, Can well recall what then it heard; Where is thy native simple heart, Devote to virtue, fancy, art? Arise, as in that elder time, Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime! Thy wonders, in that godlike age, Fill thy recording sister's page; 'Tis said and I believe the tale- Thy humblest reed could more prevail, Had more of strength, diviner rage, Than all which charms this laggard age,
Poured through the mellow horn her pensive E'en all at once together found,
And, dashing soft from rocks around, Bubbling runnels joined the sound; Through glades and glooms the mingled meas- ure stole ;
Oro'er some haunted stream, with fond delay, Round an holy calm diffusing, Love of peace, and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away.
But O, how altered was its sprightlier tone When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue, Her bow across her shoulder flung, Her buskins gemmed with morning dew, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,- The hunter's call, to faun and dryad known !
Cecilia's mingled world of sound. O, bid our vain endeavors cease; Revive the just designs of Greece! Return in all thy simple state, Confirm the tales her sons relate!
A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY, 1687.
FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began; When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise, ye more than dead!
Then cold and hot and moist and dry In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony, Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.
What passion cannot Music raise and quell? When Jubal struck the chorded shell, His listening brethren stood around, And, wondering, on their faces fell To worship that celestial sound. Less than a God they thought there could not dwell Within the hollow of that shell, That spoke so sweetly and so well. What passion cannot Music raise and quell?
The trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms, With shrill notes of anger,
And mortal alarms,
The double double double beat Of the thundering drum Cries, hark! the foes come; Charge, charge, 't is too late to retreat.
The soft complaining flute
In dying notes discovers The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute.
Sharp violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs, and desperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,
Depth of pains, and height of passion,
For the fair, disdainful dame.
But O, what art can teach, What human voice can reach, The sacred organ's praise?
Notes inspiring holy love, Notes that wing their heavenly ways To mend the choirs above.
Orpheus could lead the savage race; And trees uprooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre;
But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher; When to her organ vocal breath was given, An angel heard, and straight appeared
Mistaking earth for heaven.
As from the power of sacred lays The spheres began to move,
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man! How passing wonder He who made him such! Who centred in our make such strange extremes, From different natures marvellously mixed, Connection exquisite of distant worlds! Distinguished link in being's endless chain ! Midway from nothing to the Deity! A beam ethereal, sullied, and absorpt ! Though sullied and dishonored, still divine! Dim miniature of greatness absolute ! An heir of glory! a frail child of dust! Helpless immortal! insect infinite!
A worm a God! - I tremble at myself, And in myself am lost. At home, a stranger, Thought wanders up and down, surprised, aghast, And wondering at her own. How reason reels! O, what a miracle to man is man!
Triumphantly distressed! What joy! what dread! Alternately transported and alarmed!
What can preserve my life? or what destroy? An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave; Legions of angels can't confine me there.
Man's home is everywhere. On ocean's flood, Where the strong ship with storm-defying tether Doth link in stormy brotherhood Earth's utmost zones together, Where'er the red gold glows, the spice-trees wave, Where the rich diamond ripens, mid the flame Of vertic suns that ope the stranger's grave, He with bronzed cheek and daring step doth
He with short pang and slight Doth turn him from the checkered light Of the fair moon through his own forests dancing, Where music, joy, and love
Were his young hours entrancing; And where ambition's thunder-claim Points out his lot,
Or fitful wealth allures to roam, There doth he make his home, Repining not.
TO A SLEEPING CHILD. ART thou a thing of mortal birth Whose happy home is on our earth? Does human blood with life imbue Those wandering veins of heavenly blue That stray along thy forehead fair, Lost mid a gleam of golden hair? O, can that light and airy breath Steal from a being doomed to death? Those features to the grave be sent In sleep thus mutely eloquent ?
Or art thou, what thy form would seem, The phantom of a blesséd dream?
A human shape I feel thou art I feel it at my beating heart,
Those tremors both of soul and sense Awoke by infant innocence ! Though dear the forms by fancy wove, We love them with a transient love; Thoughts from the living world intrude Even on our deepest solitude;
THE wind blew wide the casement, and with It was the loveliest picture! a sweet chil Lay in its mother's arms, and drew its life, In pauses, from the fountain, the white r Part shaded by loose tresses, soft and dark, Concealing, but still showing, the fair reali Of so much rapture, as green shadowing tre With beauty shroud the brooklet. The red Lay close, and, like the young leaf of the fl Were parted, and the cheek upon the breas Wore the same color, rich and warm and fres And such alone are beautiful. Its eye, A full blue gem, most exquisitely set, Looked archly on its world, the little im As if it knew even then that such a wreath Were not for all; and with its playful hand It drew aside the robe that hid its realm, And peeped and laughed aloud, and so it la Its head upon the shrine of such pure joys, And, laughing, slept. And while it slept, the Of the sweet mother fell upon its cheek, - Tears such as fall from April skies, and bri The sunlight after. They were tears of joy And the true heart of that young mother t Grew lighter, and she sang unconsciously The silliest ballad-song that ever yet Subdued the nursery's voices, and brought To fold her sabbath wings above its couch.
FRAGMENT FROM "FANNY."
BUT Fortune, like some others of her sex Delights in tantalizing and tormentin
One day we feed upon their smiles, the next
So strength first made a way;
Is spent in swearing, sorrowing, and repenting. Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure: When almost all was out, God made a stay, Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure, Rest in the bottom lay.
Eve never walked in Paradise more pure
Than on that morn when Satan played the devil With her and all her race. A lovesick wooer Ne'er asked a kinder maiden, or more civil, Than Cleopatra was to Antony
The day she left him on the Ionian sea.
The sun is loveliest as he sinks to rest;
'T WAS whispered in heaven, and muttered in hell,
The leaves of Autumn smile when fading fast; And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell; The swan's last song is sweetest.
On the confines of earth 't was permitted to rest, And the depths of the ocean its presence confessed; 'T was seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder;
'T will be found in the spheres, when riven
Assists at his birth, and attends him in death; 'T was given to man with his earliest breath, Presides o'er his happiness, honor, and health, Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth.
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound, And though unassuming, with monarchs is
In the heaps of the miser 't is hoarded with care, But is sure to be lost in his prodigal heir. Without it the soldier and sailor may roam, But woe to the wretch who expels it from home! In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found, Nor e'er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned. It softens the heart; and, though deaf to the ear, It will make it acutely and instantly hear. But in shade let it rest, like a delicate flower, - O, breathe on it softly; it dies in an hour.
WHEN God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by, Let us (said he) pour on him all we can : Let the world's riches, which disperséd lie, Contract into a span.
FATHER LAND AND MOTHER TONGUE.
OUR Father Land and wouldst thou know Why we should call it Father Land?
It is that Adam here below
Was made of earth by Nature's hand.
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