Select Poems Of Thomas Gray Part 5

In the midst a form divine! 115 Her eye proclaims her of the Briton line; Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face, Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air, What strains of vocal transport round her play! 120 Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear; They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.

Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings, Waves in the eye of heaven her many-colour'd wings.

III. 3.

"The verse adorn again 125 Fierce War, and faithful Love, And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

In buskin'd measures move Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. 130 A voice, as of the cherub-choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, That lost in long futurity expire.

Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, 135 Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day?

To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

Enough for me; with joy I see The different doom our fates a.s.sign. 140 Be thine despair, and sceptred care; To triumph, and to die, are mine."

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night.

[Ill.u.s.tration: QUEEN ELIZABETH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

HYMN TO ADVERSITY.

[Greek: Zena---- Ton phronein brotous hodo- santa, toi pathei mathan Thenta kurios echein.]

aeSCHYLUS, _Agam_.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power, Thou tamer of the human breast, Whose iron scourge and torturing hour The bad affright, afflict the best!

Bound in thy adamantine chain, 5 The proud are taught to taste of pain, And purple tyrants vainly groan With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.

When first thy sire to send on earth Virtue, his darling child, design'd, 10 To thee he gave the heavenly birth, And bade to form her infant mind.

Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore With patience many a year she bore: What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, 15 And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe.

Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood, Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, And leave us leisure to be good. 20 Light they disperse, and with them go The summer friend, the flattering foe; By vain Prosperity receiv'd, To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.

Wisdom in sable garb array'd, 25 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, 30 With Justice, to herself severe, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear.

Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread G.o.ddess, lay thy chastening hand!

Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, 35 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: 40

Thy form benign, O G.o.ddess, wear, Thy milder influence impart; Thy philosophic train be there To soften, not to wound, my heart.

The generous spark extinct revive, 45 Teach me to love and to forgive, Exact my own defects to scan, What others are to feel, and know myself a Man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BERKELEY CASTLE.

"Mark the year, and mark the night, When Severn shall reecho with affright The shrieks of death thro' Berkeley's roofs that ring, Shrieks of an agonizing king!"

_The Bard_, 53.]

NOTES.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

A. S., Anglo-Saxon.

Arc., Milton's _Arcades_.

C. T., Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_.

Cf. (_confer_), compare.

D. V., Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_.

Ep., Epistle, Epode.

Foll., following.

F. Q., Spenser's _Faerie Queene_.

H., Haven's _Rhetoric_ (Harper's edition).

Hales, _Longer English Poems_, edited by Rev. J. W. Hales (London, 1872).

Il Pens., Milton's _Il Penseroso_.

L'All., Milton's _L'Allegro_.

Ol., Pindar's _Olympian Odes_.

P. L., Milton's _Paradise Lost_.

P. R., Milton's _Paradise Regained_.

S. A., Milton's _Samson Agonistes_.

Shakes. Gr., Abbott's _Shakespearian Grammar_ (the references are to _sections_, not pages).

Shep. Kal., Spenser's _Shepherd's Kalendar_.

st., stanza.