TO ADVERSITY. Ζήνα Τὸν φρονεῖν Βροτοὺς ὁδώ- ÆSCHYLUS. DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless power, The proud are taught to taste of pain, With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone, When first thy sire to send on earth With patience many a year she bore: woe. Scared at thy frown terrific fly, Light they disperse, and with them go To her they vow their truth, and are again be lieved. Wisdom in sable garb array'd Immersed in rapturous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid, With leaden eye that loves the ground, Still on thy solemn steps attend: Warm Charity, the general friend, With Justice, to herself severe, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly pleasing tear. Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess, lay thy chastening hand! Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, Not circled with the vengeful band (As by the impious thou art seen); With thundering voice, and threatening mien, With screaming Horror's funeral cry, Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty: Thy form benign, oh goddess, wear, Thy philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound my heart. The generous spark extinct revive, What others are to feel, and know myself a Man. THE PROGRESS OF POESY. A PINDARIC ODE. Φωνᾶντα συνετοίσιν· ἐς 1. 1 PINDAR. 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. Ver. 1. Awake, Æolian lyre, awake] "Awake, my glory awake, lute and harp." DAVID'S PSALMS. VARIATION."Awake, my lyre: my glory, wake." Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical ac companiments, Αἰοληΐς μολπή, Αἰόλιδες χορδα, Now the rich stream of music winds along, The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. 1. 2. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul, And frantic Passions hear thy soft control. And dropp'd his thirsty lance at thy command. Αιολίδων πνοαί αὐλῶν, 'Eolian song, Eolian strings, the breath of the Eolian flute.' The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which give life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. Ver. 13. Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul] Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar, Perching on the sceptred hand Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king Thee the voice, the dance, obey, The rosy-crowned Loves are seen With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, Now in circling troops they meet: Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare: Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. 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. Ver. 20. Perching on the sceptred hand] This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Ver. 25. Thee the voice, the dance, obey] Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. |