While in more lengthen'd notes and flow, Now louder, and yet louder rife, And fill with spreading founds the skies; 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. By Mufic, minds an equal temper know, Or, when the foul is prefs'd with cares, Warriors fhe fires with animated founds: Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds: Morpheus rouzes from his bed, But when our country's cause provokes to arms, How martial mufic every bofom warms! So when the first bold vessel dar'd the feas, High on the ftern the Thracian rais'd his ftrain, While Argo faw her kindred trees But when thro' all th' infernal bounds, Love, ftrong as Death, the Poet led O'er all the dreary coafts? Dreadful gleams, Fires that glow, Shrieks of woe, Sullen moans, Hollow groans, And cries of tortur'd ghosts! But hark! he strikes the golden lyre; And fee! the tortur'd ghofts refpire, Thy stone, O Syfiphus, ftands still, Ixion rests upon his wheel, And the pale spectres dance! The furies fink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurl'd hang lift'ning round their heads. By By the streams that ever flow, By the fragrant winds that blow O'er th' Elyfian flow'rs; Reftore, reftore Eurydice to life: Oh take the Husband, or return the Wife! To hear the Poet's prayer Stern Proferpine relented, O'er death, and o'er hell, A conqueft how hard, and how glorious! With Styx nine times round her, Yet mufic and love were victorious. But foon, too foon, the lover turns his eyes: Now under hanging mountains, Befide the falls of fountains, Or where Hebrus wanders, Rolling in meanders, All alone, E = Unheard, Unheard, unknown, He makes his moan; He trembles, he glows, Amidst Rhodope's fnows: See, wild as the winds, o'er the defert he flies; Hark! Hæmus refounds with the Bacchanal's cries Ah fee, he dies! Yet even in death Eurydice he fung, Eurydice ftill trembled on his tongue, Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods, Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung. Mufic the fierceft grief can charm, Mufic can soften pain to ease, And make defpair and madness pleafe: And antedate the blifs above. This the divine Cecilia found, And to her Maker's praise confin'd the found. And Angels lean from heav'n to hear. His numbers rais'd a fhade from hell, POPE. CHA P. XXXIII. ALEXANDER'S FEAST. WAS at the royal feast, for Perfia won, "TWAS By Philip's warlike fon: Aloft in awful ftate The god-like hero fate On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were plac'd around; Their brows with rofes and with myrtle bound: The lovely Thais by his fide Sat, like a blooming eastern bride, In flow'r of youth and beauty's pride, None but the brave,. None but the brave, None but the brave deferves the fair. Timotheus plac'd on high Amid the tuneful quire, With flying fingers touch'd the lyre: And heav'nly joys inspire. |