While Spring shall pour his show'rs, as oft he wont, While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves; And rudely rends thy robes; So long, sure-found beneath the sylvan shed, Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lipped Health, And hymn thy fav'rite name! 1746. 45 50 THE PASSIONS AN ODE FOR MUSIC When Music, heav'nly maid, was young, They snatched her instruments of sound; Each (for madness ruled the hour) Would prove his own expressive pow'r. First Fear his hand, its skill to try, 5 ΙΟ 151 20 Next Anger rushed: his eyes, on fire, In lightnings owned his secret stings; And swept with hurried hand the strings. With woful measures wan Despair 25 Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled; A solemn, strange, and mingled air 'T was sad by fits, by starts 't was wild. But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair, What was thy delightful measure? Still it whispered promised pleasure, 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; A soft responsive voice was heard at ev'ry close, 30 35 And longer had she sung-but with a frown 40 He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down, And though sometimes, each dreary pause between, Her soul-subduing voice applied, 50 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 diff'ring themes the veering song was mixed, And now it courted Love, now raving called on Hate. 55 65 Or o'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, 70 Her buskins gemmed with morning dew, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung, The hunter's call, to faun and dryad known! The oak-crowned sisters, and their chaste-eyed queen, 75 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, 80 First to the lively pipe his hand addrest; But soon he saw the brisk awak'ning viol, Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best. 85 They would have thought, who heard the strain, To some unwearied minstrel dancing, Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round; As if he would the charming air repay, O Music! sphere-descended maid! Thy humblest reed could more prevail, AN ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND CONSIDERED AS THE SUBJECT OF POETRY I H, thou return'st from Thames, whose naiads long Have seen thee ling'ring, with a fond delay, 'Mid those soft friends whose hearts, some future day, Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song. Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth Whom, long endeared, thou leav'st by Lavant's side; Together let us wish him lasting truth, And joy untainted, with his destined bride. 5 My short-lived bliss, forget my social name, II There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill: 'Tis Fancy's land to which thou sett'st thy feet, While airy minstrels warble jocund notes. How, winged with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly, When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes, Or, stretched on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie. Such airy beings awe th' untutored swain, Nor thou, though learn'd, his homelier thoughts neglect; Let thy sweet Muse the rural faith sustain: These are the themes of simple, sure effect, That add new conquests to her boundless reign, And fill, with double force, her heart-commanding strain. 35 III Ev'n yet preserved, how often may'st thou hear, Strange lays, whose pow'r had charmed a Spenser's ear. At ev'ry pause, before thy mind possest, 40 Old runic bards shall seem to rise around, With uncouth lyres, in many-coloured vest, Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crowned: Whether thou bid'st the well-taught hind repeat The choral dirge that mourns some chieftain brave, 45 |