When Music, heavenly maid, was young,
While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions oft, to hear her shell,
Thronged around her magic cell,
Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,
Possessed beyond the Muse's painting:
By turns they felt the glowing mind
Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined,—
Till once, 'tis said, when all were fired,
Filled with fury, rapt, inspired,
From the supporting myrtles round
They snatched her instruments of sound;
And, as they oft had heard, apart,
Sweet lessons of her forceful art,
Each, for Madness ruled the hour,
Would prove his own expressive power.

First Fear his hand, its skill to try,
Amid the chords bewildered laid,
And back recoiled, he knew not why,
E'en at the sound himself had made.

Next Anger rushed: his eyes on fire,
In lightnings owned his secret stings;
In one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hand the strings.

With woful measures, wan Despair—
Low sullen sounds his grief beguiled:
A solemn, strange, and mingled air,
'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.

But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair,
What was thy delighted measure?
Still it whispered promised pleasure,
And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail;
Still would her touch the scene prolong;
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,
She called on Echo still through all the song;
And, where her sweetest theme she chose,
A soft responsive voice was heard at every close;
And hope, enchanted, smiled, and waved her golden
hair;—

And longer had she sung:—but, with a frown,
Revenge impatient rose:
He threw his blood-stained sword in thunder down,
And, with a withering look,
The war-denouncing trumpet took,
And blew a blast so loud and dread,
Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of woe!
And ever and anon he beat
The doubling drum with furious heat:

And though sometimes, each dreary pause between,
Dejected Pity at his side,
Her soul-subduing voice applied,
Yet still he kept his wild unaltered mien,
While each strained ball of sight seemed bursting from
his head.

Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fixed;
Sad proof of thy distressful state!
Of differing themes the veering song was mixed;
And now it courted Love, now raving called on Hate.

With eyes upraised, as one inspired,
Pale Melancholy sat retired;
And from her wild sequestered seat,
In notes by distance made more sweet,
Poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul;
And dashing soft from rocks around,
Bubbling runnels joined the sound:
Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole,
Or, o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay,
Round a holy calm diffusing,
Love of peace and lonely musing,—
In hollow murmurs died away.

But oh, how altered was its sprightlier tone!
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,
Her buskins gemmed with morning dew,
Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,
The hunter's call to Faun and Dryad known!
The oak-crowned Sisters and their chaste-eyed Queen,
Satyrs and Sylvan boys, were seen
Peeping from forth their alleys green.
Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear,
And Sport leaped up, and seized his beechen spear.

Last came Joy's ecstatic trial;
He, with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand addressed;
But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol
Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best:
They would have thought, who heard the strain,
They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids,
Amidst the festal-sounding shades,
To some unwearied minstrel dancing;
While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings,
Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round;
Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;
And he, amidst his frolic play,
As if he would the charming air repay,
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.

O Music! sphere-descended maid,
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!
Why, goddess, why, to us denied,
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?
As in that loved, Athenian bower
You learned an all-commanding power.
Thy mimic soul; O nymph endeared!
Can well recall what then it heard.
Where is thy native simple heart
Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?
Arise, as in that elder time,
Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!
Thy wonders in that god-like age,
Fill thy recording Sister's page;—
'Tis said, and I believe the tale,
Thy humblest reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
E'en all at once together found
Cecilia's mingled world of sound;—
O bid our vain endeavours cease:
Revive the just designs of Greece:
Return in all thy simple state!
Confirm the tales her sons relate!

COLLINS.

[Notes: William Collins (1720-1756). A poet, who throughout life struggled with adversity, and who, though he produced little, refined everything he wrote with a most fastidious taste and with elaborate care.

Shell, according to a fashion common with the poets of the first half of the 18th century, stands for lyre. The Latin word testudo, a shell is often so used.

Possessed beyond the Muse's painting = enthralled beyond what poetry can describe.

His own expressive power, i.e., his power to express his own feelings.

In lightnings owned his secret stings = in lightning-like touches confessed the hidden fury which inspired him.

Veering song. The ever-changeful song.

Her wild sequestered seat. Sequestered properly is used of something which, being in dispute, is deposited in a third person's hands: hence of something set apart or in retirement.

Round a holy calm diffusing = diffusing around a holy calm.

Buskin. A boot reaching above the ankle. Gemmed = sparkling as with gems.

Faun and Dryad_. Creatures with whom ancient mythology peopled the woods.

Their chaste-eyed Queen = Diana.

Brown exercise. Exercise is here personified and represented as brown and sunburnt.

Viol. A stringed musical instrument.

In Tempe's vale. In Thessaly, especially connected with the worship of Apollo, the god of poetry and music.

Sphere-descended maid. A metaphor common with the poets, and taken from a Greek fancy most elaborately described in Plato's 'Republic,' where the system of the universe is pictured as a series of whorls linked in harmony.

Thy mimic soul. Thy soul apt to imitate.

Devote = devoted. A form more close to that of the Latin participle, from which it is derived.

Thy recording Sister = the Muse of History.

Cecilia's mingled world of sound = the organ. So St. Cecilia is called in Dryden's Ode, "Inventress of the vocal frame."

The just designs = the well-conceived, artistic designs.]

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