With brede ethereal wove, O'erhang his wavy bed: 8 Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat With short, shrill shriek, flits by on leathern wing; Or where the beetle winds His small but sullen horn, 12 As oft he rises 'midst the twilight path, Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum: To breathe some soften'd strain, Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, May, not unseemly, with its stillness suit, As, musing slow, I hail Thy genial loved return! For when thy folding-star arising shows And many a nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge, 16 And sheds the freshening dew, and, lovelier still, The pensive pleasures sweet Prepare thy shadowy car. 28 Then lead, calm votaress, where some sheety lake Cheers the lone heath, or some time-hallow'd pile, Or up-land fallows grey Reflect its last cool gleam. 32 But when chill blustering winds, or driving rain, That from the mountain's side, And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires; The gradual dusky veil. 36 40 While spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont, And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest eve! While sallow autumn fills thy lap with leaves; And rudely rends thy robes; 44 48 So long, sure-found beneath the sylvan shed, health, Thy gentlest influence own, And hymn thy favourite name! 1746. 52 William Collins. "WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE?" An Ode in Imitation of Alcaus WHAT constitutes a State? Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; Not bays and broad-armed ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Not starred and spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No; men, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake, or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude; Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain: These constitute a State, And sovereign Law, that State's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate IC Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. The fiend, Dissension, like a vapor sinks; 20 Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks. Than Lesbos fairer, and the Cretan shore! Shall Britons languish, and be men no more? Those sweet rewards which decorate the brave 30 'T is folly to decline, And steal inglorious to the silent grave. 1781. Sir William Jones. ODE INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and The earth, and every common sight, Apparell'd in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more. 9 The rainbow comes and goes, The moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare, Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath pass'd away a glory from the earth. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor's sound, To me alone there came a thought of grief: The cataracts blow their trumpets from the No more shall grief of mine the season wrong; Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, And with the heart of May Doth every beast keep holiday;— Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy! 36 18 |