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And be with caution bold.

Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize,

Nor all that glisters gold.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY

A PINDARIC ODE

Φωνάντα συνετοῖσιν· ές

Δὲ τὸ πᾶν ἑρμηνέων

Χατίζει.

PINDAR, Olympiad II. v. 152.

I. I.

AWAKE, Æolian lyre, awake,

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers, that round them blow,
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along,

Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,

Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign;
Now rolling down the steep amain,

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour;

The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.

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I. 2.

Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul,

Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares

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And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.

On Thracia's hills the Lord of War

Has curb'd the fury of his car,

And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.
Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing:
Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie

The terrors of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

I. 3.

Thee the voice, the dance, obey,

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Temper'd to thy warbled lay.

O'er Idalia's velvet-green

The rosy-crownèd Loves are seen

On Cytherea's day

With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures,

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With arms sublime, that float upon the air,

In gliding state she wins her easy way:

O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move

The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

II. I.

Man's feeble race what ills await!

Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,

Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train,

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And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate! The fond complaint, my song, disprove,

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And justify the laws of Jove.

Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse?

Night, and all her sickly dews,

Her spectres wan, and birds of boding cry,

He gives to range the dreary sky;

Till down the eastern cliffs afar

Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts of war.

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II. 2.

In climes beyond the solar road,

Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,

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Th' unconquerable Mind, and freedom's holy flame.

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Where each old poetic mountain
Inspiration breath'd around;
Ev'ry shade and hallow'd fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:
Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour,

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power,

And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.

When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,

They sought, oh Albion! next thy sea-encircled coast.

III. I.

Far from the sun and summer-gale,

In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,

To him the mighty mother did unveil

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Her awful face: the dauntless child

Stretch'd forth his little arms and smiled.

"This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear

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He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time:

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble while they gaze,

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He saw; but, blasted with excess of light,

Clos'd his eyes in endless night.

Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear

Two coursers of ethereal race,

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With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding pace.

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But ah! 't is heard no more

Oh! Lyre divine, what daring Spirit

Wakes thee now? Tho' he inherit

Nor the pride, nor ample pinion,
That the Theban eagle bear,
Sailing with supreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air:

Yet oft before his infant eyes would run
Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray,
With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun:

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

Beneath the Good how far-but far above the Great.

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