ODE IV.

ON EXPECTING TO RETURN TO CAMBRIDGE,

1747.*

I. 1.

WHILE Commerce, riding on thy refluent tide,
Impetuous HUMBER ! wafts her stores

From Belgian or Norwegian shores
And spreads her countless sails from side to side;
While, from yon crowded strand,

Thy genuine sons the pinnace light unmoor,
Break the white surge with many a sparkling oar,
To pilot the rich freight o'er each insidious sand;

I. 2.

At distance here my alien footsteps stray,
O'er this bleak plain unblest with shade,
Imploring Fancy's willing aid

To bear me from thy banks of sordid clay :

NOTE.

* This was also for the first time printed 1797. In the interval between the dates of the preceding Ode and of this, the author had been unexpectedly nominated by the Fellows of Pembroke Hall to a vacant Fellowship. See Memoirs of Mr. Gray, vol. iii, p. 70, edit. 1778.

Her barque the fairy lends,

With rainbow pennants deck'd, and cordage fine As the wan silkworm spins her golden twine, And, ere I seize the helm, the magic voyage ends.

I. 3.

Lo, where peaceful CAMUS glides

Through his ozier-fringed vale,

Sacred Leisure there resides

Musing in his cloyster pale.

Wrapt in a deep solemnity of shade,

Again I view fair Learning's spiry seats, Again her ancient elms o'erhang my head, Again her votary Contemplation meets, Again I listen to Æolian lays,

Or on those bright heroic portraits gaze,

That, to my raptur'd eye, the classic page displays.

II. 1.

Here, though from childhood to the Muses known,
The Lyric Queen her charms reveal'd;

Here, by superior influence held

My soul enchain'd, and made me all her own.
Re-echo every plain !

While, from the chords she tun'd, the silver voice
Of heav'n-born harmony proclaims the choice
My youthful heart has made to all Aonia's train.

II. 2.

Here too each social charm that most endears:

Sincerity with open eye,

And frolic Wit, and Humour sly,
Sat sweetly mix'd among my young compeers.
When, o'er the sober bowl,

That but dispell'd the mind's severer gloom,

And gave the budding thought its perfect bloom, Truth took its circling course and flow'd from soul to soul.

II. 3.

Hail ye friendly faithful few!

All the streams that Science pours,

Ever pleasing, ever new,

From her ample urn be yours.

When, when shall I amid your train appear,

O when be number'd with your constant guests, When join your converse, when applauding hear The mental music of accordant breasts ?

Till then, fair Fancy! wake these favourite themes, Still kindly shed these visionary gleams,

Till suns autumnal rise, and realize my dreams.

ODE V.

FOR MUSIC.*

IRREGULAR.

I.

HERE all thy active fires diffuse,

Thou genuine British Muse;

Hither descend from yonder orient sky,

Cloath'd in thy heav'n-wove robe of harmony.
Come, imperial Queen of Song;

Come with all that free-born grace

Which lifts thee from the servile throng,

Who meanly mimic thy majestic pace;
That glance of dignity divine,

Which speaks thee of celestial line;
Proclaims thee inmate of the sky,

Daughter of Jove and Liberty.

NOTE.

* This Ode was written at the request of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, set to music by the late Dr. Boyce, and performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge, July 1st, 1749, at the Installation of his Grace THOMAS HOLLIS, Duke of Newcastle, Chancellor of the University; it has since appeared in some Miscellaneous Collections of Poetry, and was therefore inserted 1797.

II.

The elevated soul, that feels

Thy awful impulse, walks the fragrant ways
Of honest unpolluted praise :

He with impartial justice deals

The blooming chaplets of immortal lays :
He flies above ambition's low career;

And thron'd in Truth's meridian sphere,

Thence, with a bold and heav'n-directed aim, Full on fair Virtue's shrine he pours the rays of Fame.

III.

Goddess! thy piercing eye explores
The radiant range of Beauty's stores,
The steep ascent of pine-clad hills,

The silver slope of falling rills;
Catches each lively-coloured grace,
The crimson of the Wood-Nymph's face,
The verdure of the velvet lawn,

The purple of the eastern dawn,

And all the tints that, rang'd in vivid glow,
Mark the bold sweep of the celestial bow.

IV.

But loftier far her tuneful transports rise,

When all the moral beauties meet her eyes:
The sacred zeal for Freedom's cause,
That fires the glowing Patriot's breast;