Awake, Æolian 1 lyre, awake,
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings.
From Helicon's 2 harmonious springs
A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers, that round them blow,
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
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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
Oh! Sovereign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares, And frantic Passions hear thy soft control.
1 Pindaric, for so Pindar called his poetry Aganippe and Hippocrene, the fountains of the Muses at the foot of Mt. Helicon 3 fields of grain 4 the lyre
Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep,' Isles, that crown th' Ægean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves,
Or where Mæander's amber waves
In lingering Lab'rinths creep,
How do your tuneful Echoes languish,
Mute, but to the voice of Anguish?
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 Nine3 in Greece's evil hour
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.1
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, O Albion! next thy sea-encircled
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
Her awful face: The dauntless Child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smiled.
This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year:
1 the path of the sun 2 This and the following are places celebrated in Greek poetry. 3 the Muses 4 Italy 7 Englandi.e. England's Shakespeare
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