IV. 2. When Friendship and when letter'd Mirth Haply partake my simple board, There let the Sapphic lute be strung. IV. 3. But when from envy, and from death to claim When to throw incense on the vestal flame Nor Theban voice, nor Lesbian lyre, While my presaging mind, Conscious of pow'rs she never knew, Astonish'd grasps at things beyond her view, Nor by another's fate submits to be confined. ODE TO THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON. M DCC XLVII. [IBID.] I. 1. THE wise and great of ev'ry clime, To mortal sense impart : They best the soul with glory fire; They noblest counsels, boldest deeds inspire; And high o'er Fortune's rage enthrone the fixed heart. I. 2. Nor less prevailing is their charm No, Hastings! thou my words wilt own: I. 3. The Muse's awful art, And the blest function of the poet's tongue, Ne'er shalt thou blush to honour; to assert From all that scorned Vice or slavish Fear hath sung. Nor shall the blandishment of Tuscan strings, Warbling at will in Pleasure's myrtle bow'r; Nor shall the servile notes to Celtic kings, By flatt'ring minstrels paid in evil hour, Move thee to spurn the heav'nly Muse's reign. A different strain, And other themes From her prophetic shades and hallow'd streams And how, by Glory, Virtue shall be crown'd. II. 1. Such was the Chian* father's strain With equal bounty to requite, He struck his magic strings; And pour'd spontaneous numbers forth, And seiz'd their ears with tales of ancient worth, And fill'd their musing hearts with vast heroic things. II. 2. Now oft where happy spirits dwell, The seeds of Grecian fame : Who first the race with freedom fir'd; From whom Lycurgus Sparta's sons inspir'd;† From whom Platæan palms and Cyprian trophies came. * Homer. Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian lawgiver, brought into Greece from Asia Minor the first complete copy of Homer's works. II. 3. O noblest, happiest age! When Aristides ruled, and Cimon fought; What thy base rulers trembled to behold; * Pindar was contemporary with Aristides and Cimon, in whom the glory of ancient Greece was at its height. When Xerxes invaded Greece, Pindar was true to the common interest of his country, though his fellow-citizens the Thebans had sold themselves to the Persian king. As the argument of this ode implies that great poetical talents and high sentiments of liberty do reciprocally produce and assist each other, so Pindar is perhaps the most exemplary proof of this connection which oceurs in history. |