Yet e'en in death Eurydice he sung,
Eurydice still trembled on his tongue;

Eurydice the woods,

Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks and hollow mountains rung.

Music the fiercest grief can charm,
And Fate's severest rage disarm:
Music can soften pain to ease,
And make despair and madness please:
Our joys below it can improve,

And antedate the bliss above.
This the divine Cecilia found,
And to her Maker's praise confined the sound.
When the full organ joins the tuneful quire,
• The immortal powers incline their ear;
Borne on the swelling notes our souls aspire,
While solemn airs improve the sacred fire,

And angels lean from Heaven to hear.
Of Orpheus now no more let poets tell;
To bright Cecilia greater power is given :
His numbers raised a shade from Hell,

Her's lift the soul to Heaven.

ODE ON SOLITUDE.

WRITTEN WHEN THE AUTHOR WAS ABOUT twelve

YEARS OLD.

HAPPY the man whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. 125 Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire, Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

In winter fire.

Bless'd who can unconcern’dly find

Hours, days, and years, slide soft away, In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day:

Sound sleep by night; study and ease

Together mix'd; sweet recreation; And innocence, which most does please,

With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,

Thus unlamented let me die:
Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

ODE.
The Dying Christian to his Soul.
VITAL spark of heavenly flame!
Quit, О quit this mortal frame!

Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying;

Oh the pain, the bliss of dying ! Cease, fond Nature! cease thy strife, And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper; angels say,

Sister spirit, come away.

• What is this absorbs me quite,

Steals my senses, shuts my sight, Drowns my spirits, draws my breath? Tell me, my soul! can this be death?

The world recedes; it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears

With sounds seraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings ! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory?

O death! where is thy sting?

TWO CHORUSES

TO

THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS.

Chorus of Athenians.

STROPHE I.
YE shades, where sacred truth is sought;
Groves, where immortal sages taught:
Where heavenly visions Plato fired,
And Epicurus lay inspired!
In vain your guiltless laurels stood

Unspotted long with human blood.
War, horrid war, your thoughtful walks invades,
And steel now glitters in the Muses' shades.

ANTISTROPHE I.
O heaven-born sisters! source of art!
Who charm the sense, or mend the heart;

Who lead fair Virtue's train along,
Moral truth and mystic song!
To what new clime, what distant sky,

Forsaken, friendless, shall ye fly?
Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore?
Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more?

STROPHE II.
When Athens sinks by fates unjust,
When wild Barbarians spurn her dust;
Perhaps e’en Britain's utmost shore
Shall cease to blush with strangers' gore:
See arts her savage sons control,

And Athens rising near the pole!
Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand,
And civil madness tears them from the land.

ANTISTROPHE II. Ye gods! what justice rules the ball ? Freedom and arts together fall; Fools grant whate'er ambition craves, And men, once ignorant, are slaves. Oh, cursed effects of civil hate, · In every age, in every state! Still, when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, Some Athens perishes, some Tully bleeds.

Chorus of Youths and Virgins.

SEMICHORUS.
O tyrant Love; hast thou possess'd
The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast?

Wisdom and Wit in vain reclaim,
And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame.

Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But, entering, learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire

Which Nature hath impress’d?
Why, Nature, dost thou soonest fire

The mild and generous breast?

CHORUS.
Love's purer flames the gods approve;
The gods and Brutus bend to Love:

Brutus for absent Porcia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia's eyes.

What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wandering, self-consuming fire.
But Hymen's kinder flames unite,

And burn for ever one:
Chaste as cold Cynthia's virgin light,

Productive as the sun.

SEMICHORUS.

Oh, source of every social tie,
United wish, and mutual joy!
What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother, husband, friend !

Whether his hoary sire he spies,
While thousand grateful thoughts arise ;
Or meets his spouse's fonder eye,
Or views his smiling progeny;