Where Peace defcending bids her olive spring,
And scatters bleffings from her dove-like wing.
Ev'n I more fweetly pass my careless days, 431
Pleas'd in the filent fhade with empty praise;
Enough for me, that to the lift'ning fwains
First in these fields I fung the fylvan ftrains,

ODE

ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY,

MDCCVIII.

AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC,

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DES

The breathing inftruments inspire,

Wake into voice each filent ftring,
And sweep the founding lyre!

In a fadly-pleafing strain

Let the warbling lute complain :
Let the loud trumpet found,
'Till the roofs all around

The fhrill echos rebound:

While

NOTES:

Ode for Mufic.] This is one of the moft artful as well as fublime of our Poet's fmaller compofitions. The firft stanza expreffes the various tones and measures in mufic. The fecond defcribes their power over the feveral paffions in general. The third explains their use in infpiring the Heroic paffions in particular. The fourth, fifth, and fixth, their power over all nature in the fable of Orpheus's expedition to hell; which fubject of illuftration arose naturally out of the preceding mention of the Argonautic expedition, where Orpheus gives the example of the use of Mufic to infpire the heroic paffions. The feventh and laft concludes in praise of Mufic, and the advantages of the facred above the prophane.

VER. 7. Let the loud trumpet found, etc.] Our Author, in his rules for good writing, had faid, that the found fhould be an

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echo

While in more lengthen'd notes and flow,
The deep, majeftic, folemn organs blow.
Hark! the numbers foft and clear

Gently steal upon the ear;

Now louder, and yet louder rife,

ΙΟ

And fill with spreading founds the skies; 15 Exulting in triumph now fwell the bold notes, In broken air, trembling, the wild mufic floats; 'Till, by degrees, remote and small,

The ftrains decay,

And melt away,

In a dying, dying fall.

II.

By Mufic, minds an equal temper know,
Nor fwell too high, nor fink too low.
If in the breast tumultuous joys arise,
Music her foft, affuafive voice applies;
Or, when the foul is prefs'd with cares,
Exalts her in enliv'ning airs.

20

25

Warriors

echo to the fenfe. But we

NOTES.

The graces it adds to the harmony are obvious. fhould never have feen all the advantages arifing from this rule, had this ode not been written. In which, one may venture to say, is found all the harmony that poetic found, when it comes in aid of fenfe, is capable of producing.