I. 2. Oh sovereign of the willing soul, And frantic passions hear thy soft control. II. 2. In climes beyond the solar road,t And dropped his thirsty lance at thy command: She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, Perching on the sceptred handt Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feathered king The terror of his beak and lightning of his eye. I. 3. Theet the voice, the dance obey, Tempered to thy warbled lay: The rosy-crowned loves are seen, With antic sports and blue-eyed pleasures II. 1. Man's feeble race what ills await !§ And death, sad refuge from the storms of fate! Say, has he given in vain the heavenly muse? Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, war. • Power of harmony to calm the turbulent passions of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. ↑ This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. To compensate the real or imaginary ills of life, the muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day by its cheerful presence to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night. I or seen the morning's well-appointed star, 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. II. 3. Woods that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Fields that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves How do your tuneful echoes languish, Every shade and hallowed fountain Till the sad nine, in Greece's evil hour, coast. III. 1. Far from the sun and summer gale, In thy green lap was nature's darling§ laid, Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest an most uncivilized nations; its connexion with liberty, and the virtues that naturally attend on it. (See the Erse, Norweg", and Welsh Fragments, the Lapland and American Songs, &c, Extra anni solisque vias.- Virgil. Tutta lontana dal camin del sole.-Petrurch, Cant. 2 Progress of poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thoma Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there: Spencer imitated the Italian writers, Milton improved on them.. but this school expired soon after the restoration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has subsisted ever sincs § Shakspeare. III. 2. Nor second he* that rode sublime He passed the flaming bounds of place and time:+ Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car Two coursers of ethereal race,§ ODE VI. THE BARD.-PINDARIC. Advertisement. The following Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward I. when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. I. 1. "RUIN seize thee, ruthless king! With necks in thunder clothed and long resound- Helm nor hauberk'st twisted mail, ing pace. III. 3. Hark! his hands the lyre explore! Thoughts that breathe and words that burn;¶ Yet oft before his infant eyes would run Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant! shall avail I. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air,++) Beneath the good how far-but far above the great. Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. • Milton. flammantia monia mundi.-Lucretius. For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above the firrnament, that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone.-This was the appearance of the glory of the Lord.-Eze kiel, i. 20, 26, 28. ⚫ Mocking the air with colours idly spread. Shaksp. King John. ↑ The hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion. The crested adder's pride.-Dryden's Indian Queen. § Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merio Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy nethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speak. of Dryden's rhyrnes. I Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder 1-Job. We have had in our language no other odes of the sublime kind than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's day; for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and har. mony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great man. Mr. Mason, indeed, of late days, has touched the true hords, and, with a masterly hand, in some of his chorusses above all, in the last of Caractacus; Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread? &c. Mindar compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues flight regardless of their noise. ing of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward L says, Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward. Edmund de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. They bach were Lord Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition. The image was taken from a well known picture of Ra. phael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Eze kiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed original one at Florence, the other at Paris. 11 Shone Ake a meteor streaming to the wind. Milton's Paradise Lost 'Hark how each giant oak and desert cave Amazement in his van, with flight combined, To high-born Hoel's harp or soft Llewellyn's lay. No pitying heart, no eye, afford I. 3. "Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, That hushed the stormy main; Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: Mountains! ye mourn in vain Modred, whose magic song A tear to grace his obsequies! Is the sable warriort fled? Thy son is gone; he rests among the dead. Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topped head. While proudly riding o'er the azure realm, On dreary Arvon's* shore they lie, Smeared with gore and ghastly pale; I see them sit; they linger yet, Avengers of their native land; With me in dreadful harmony they join, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth on the prow and pleasure at the helm, prey. II. 3. 'Fill high the sparkling bowl,§ Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast. Fell thirst and famine scowl A baleful smile upon the baffled guest. And weaves with bloody hands the tissue of thy Lance to lance and horse to horse? line." II. 1. 'Weave the warp and weave the woof, Mark the year and mark the night When Severn shall re-echo with affright Long years of havoc urge their destined course, way. Ye towers of Julius! London's lasting shame, The shrieks of death through Berkley's roofs that Twined with her blushing foe, we spread; ring, Shrieks of an agonizing king! She-wolf of France,¶ with unrelenting fangs The bristled Boar in infant gore ⚫ Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and mistress, ↑ Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father. Magnificence of Richard II.'s reign. See Froissard, and other contemporary writers. § Richard II. (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop, and the • The shores of Caernarvonshire, opposite to the isle of An- confederate lords, in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsing glesey. ↑ Camden and others observe, that eagles used annually to Build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from merce (as some think) were named by the Welsh, Craigian eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called The Eagle's Nest. That rd is certainly no stranger to this island as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Wil ughby's Ornithol, published by Ray.] As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.-Shaksp. Julius Cæsar. ham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon is of much later date. 1 Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. ↑ Henry VI., George Duke of Clarence, Edward V., Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar. Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who strug gled hard to save her husband and her crown. ¦ Henry V. Henry VI. very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown. §§ The white and red Roses, devices of York and Lancaster The silver Boar was the badge of Richard III. whence be was usually known in his own time by the name of The Bour Now, brothers! bending o'er the accursed icom, Stamp we ou vengeance sep, and ratify his doom. III. 1. 'Edward, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof; the thread is spun) Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn All hail, ye genuine kings; Britannia's issue, hail! III. 2. “Girt with many a baron bold Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line, What strings symphonious tremble in the air! III. 3. "The verse adorn again. Fierce war, and faithful love,¶ ⚫Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proofs she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sor row for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Gadlington Waltham, and other places. It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that king Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and should return again to reign over Britain. Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regair, their sovereignty over this island, which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor. And tru severe, by faisy fiction dresɩ. Pale grief, and pleasing pain, With horrror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. And distant warbling‡ lessen on my ear, Fond impious man! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Raised by thy breath, has quenched the orb of day? The different doom our fates assign. He spoke, and, headlong from the mountain' height, Deep in the roaring tide, he plunged to endle night. ADVERTISEMENT. The Author once had thoughts (in concert with a friend) of giving a history of English poetry. In the introduction to it he meant to have produced some specimens of the style that reigned in ancient times among the neighbouring nations, or those who had subdued the greater part of this island, and were our progenitors: the following three imitations made a part of them. He afterwards dropped his design; especially after he had heard that it was already in the hands of a person well qualified to do it justice both by his taste and his researches into antiquity. ODE VII. THE FATAL SISTERS. From the Norse tongue. To be found in the Orcades of Thermodus Torfæus, Hafnia, 1679, folio; and also in Bartholinus. Vitt er orpit fyrir Valfalli, &-c. PREFACE. IN the eleventh century, Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney islands, went with a fleet of ships, and a considerable body of troops, into Ireland, to the assistance of Sigtryg with the silken Beard, who was then making war on his father-in-law, Brian, king of Dublin. The earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sigtryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of Brian, their king, who fell in the ac Speed, relating an audience given by queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, "And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her tion. On Christmas-day (the day of the battle) a stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartness of her princelie cheekes." Taliessin, the chief of the bards, flourished in the 6th cen tury. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen. Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song. native of Caithness, in Scotland. saw, at a distance, a number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them, till, looking| through an opening in the rock, he saw twelve gigantic figures, resembling women: they were all employed about a loom; and as they wove, they sung the following dreadful song, which, when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and each taking her portion, galloped six to the north, and as many to the south. Now the storm begins to lower, Hurtlest in the darkened air. See the grisly texture grow, ('Tis of human entrails made,) And the weights that play below Each a gasping warrior's head. Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore, Shoot the trembling cords along: "Tis the woof of victory. Ere the ruddy sun be set Pikes must shiver, javelins sing, Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. (Weave the crimson web of war) Wading through the ensanguined field, O'er the youthful king your shield. We the reins to slaughter give, Ours to kill and ours to spare: (Weave the crimson web of war.) Note. The Valkyriur were female divinities, servants of Odin (or Wodin) in the Gothic mythology. Their name sig. nifies choosers of the slain. They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn swords in their hands, and in the throng of battle selected such as were destined to slaughter, and conducted them to Valkalla, (the hall of Odin, or paradise of the brave,) where they attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with horns of mead and ale. • How quick they wheeled, and flying, behind them shot Sharp sleet of arrowy shower.-Milt. Par. Reg. The noise of battle hurtled in the air.-Shak. Jul. Cas. They whom once the desert beach Pent within its bleak domain, Soon their ample sway shall stretch O'er the plenty of the plain. Low the dauntless earl is laid, Gored with many a gaping wound Long his loss shall Erin* weep, Horror covers all the heath, Clouds of carnage blot the sun: Sisters! weave the web of death: Sisters! cease, the work is done. Hail the task and hail the hands! Songs of joy and triumph sing; Joy to the victorious bands, Triumph to the younger king. Mortal! thou that hearest the tale Learn the tenor of our song; Scotland through each winding vale Far and wide the notes prolong. Sisters! hence with spurs of speed; Each her thundering falchion wield; Each bestride her sable steed: Hurry, hurry to the field. ODE VIII. THE DESCENT OF ODIN. From the Norse tongue. To be found in Bartholinus, decausis contem nendæ mortis Hasniæ, 1689, Quarto. Upreis Odinn Allda gautr, &c. UP rose the king of men with speed, And saddled straight his coal-black steed; ⚫ Ireland. Niflheimr, the hell of the Gothic nations, consisted of nine worlds, to which were devoted all such as lied of sickness, old age, or by any other means than in battle; over it presided Hela the goddess of Death. |