The
Progress
of
Poesy
.
A
Pindaric
Ode
ϕωνᾶντα
συνετοῖσιν·
ἐς
δὲ
τὸ
πᾶν
ἑρμηνέων
χατίζει
.
Pindar
,
Olymp
[
ian
Odes
]
.
II
.
[
85
]
I.
1.
Awake
,
Aeolian
lyre
,
awake
,
Awake
[
up
]
,
my
glory
:
awake
,
lute
and
harp
.
David's
Psalms
.
[
Prayer
Book
version
,
lvii.
9
]
Pindar
styles
his
own
poetry
with
its
musical
accompanyments
,
[
Greek
sentence
(
omitted
)
,
translation
:
]
,
Aeolian
song
,
Aeolian
strings
,
the
breath
of
the
Aeolian
flute
.
And
give
to
rapture
all
thy
trembling
strings
.
From
Helicon's
harmonious
springs
The
subject
and
simile
,
as
usual
with
Pindar
,
are
united
.
The
various
sources
of
poetry
,
which
gives
life
and
lustre
to
all
it
touches
,
are
here
described
;
its
quiet
majestic
progress
enriching
every
subject
(
otherwise
dry
and
barren
)
with
a
pomp
of
diction
and
luxuriant
harmony
of
numbers
;
and
its
more
rapid
and
irresistible
course
,
when
swoln
and
hurried
away
by
the
conflict
of
tumultuous
passions
.
A
thousand
rills
their
mazy
progress
take
:
The
laughing
flowers
,
that
round
them
blow
,
Drink
life
and
fragrance
as
they
flow
.
Now
the
rich
stream
of
music
winds
along
,
Deep
,
majestic
,
smooth
,
and
strong
,
Through
verdant
vales
and
Ceres'
golden
reign
:
Now
rowling
down
the
steep
amain
,
Headlong
,
impetuous
,
see
it
pour
:
The
rocks
and
nodding
groves
rebellow
to
the
roar
.
I.
2.
Oh
!
Sovereign
of
the
willing
soul
,
Power
of
harmony
to
calm
the
turbulent
sallies
of
the
soul
.
The
thoughts
are
borrowed
from
the
first
Pythian
of
Pindar
.
[
See
note
to
l.
20.
]
Parent
of
sweet
and
solemn-breathing
airs
,
Enchanting
shell
!
the
sullen
Cares
And
frantic
Passions
hear
thy
soft
control
.
On
Thracia's
hills
the
Lord
of
War
,
Has
curbed
the
fury
of
his
car
,
And
dropped
his
thirsty
lance
at
thy
command
.
Perching
on
the
sceptered
hand
This
is
a
weak
imitation
of
some
incomparable
lines
in
the
same
Ode
.
[
Pindar
,
Pythian
Ode
I
,
1-12
.
]
Of
Jove
,
thy
magic
lulls
the
feathered
king
With
ruffled
plumes
and
flagging
wing
:
Quenched
in
dark
clouds
of
slumber
lie
The
terror
of
his
beak
,
and
lightnings
of
his
eye
.
I.
3.
Thee
the
voice
,
the
dance
,
obey
,
Power
of
harmony
to
produce
all
the
graces
of
motion
in
the
body
.
Tempered
to
thy
warbled
lay
.
O'er
Idalia's
velvet-green
The
rosy-crowned
Loves
are
seen
On
Cytherea's
day
With
antic
Sports
and
blue-eyed
Pleasures
,
Frisking
light
in
frolic
measures
;
Now
pursuing
,
now
retreating
,
Now
in
circling
troops
they
meet
:
To
brisk
notes
in
cadence
beating
Glance
their
many-twinkling
feet
.
[
Greek
line
(
omitted
)
]
[
He
(
Odysseus
)
gazed
at
the
quick
twinkling
of
(
the
dancers'
)
feet
;
and
he
wondered
in
his
heart
.
]
Homer
.
Od
[
yssey
]
.
O.
[
viii
.
265
]
Slow
melting
strains
their
queen's
approach
declare
:
Where'er
she
turns
the
Graces
homage
pay
.
With
arms
sublime
,
that
float
upon
the
air
,
In
gliding
state
she
wins
her
easy
way
:
O'er
her
warm
cheek
and
rising
bosom
move
The
bloom
of
young
desire
and
purple
light
of
love
.
[
Greek
line
(
omitted
)
]
[
And
on
his
rose-red
cheeks
there
gleams
the
light
of
love
.
]
Phrynichus
,
apud
Athenaeum
.
[
Deipnosophistae
,
xiii
.
604a
]
[
Modern
texts
give
the
line
as
follows
:
Greek
line
(
omitted
)
.
]
II
.
1.
Man's
feeble
race
what
ills
await
,
To
compensate
the
real
and
imaginary
ills
of
life
,
the
Muse
was
given
to
Mankind
by
the
same
Providence
that
sends
the
Day
by
its
chearful
presence
to
dispel
the
gloom
and
terrors
of
the
Night
.
Labour
,
and
penury
,
the
racks
of
pain
,
Disease
,
and
sorrow's
weeping
train
,
And
death
,
sad
refuge
from
the
storms
of
fate
!
The
fond
complaint
,
my
song
,
disprove
,
And
justify
the
laws
of
Jove
.
Say
,
has
he
given
in
vain
the
heavenly
Muse
?
Night
,
and
all
her
sickly
dews
,
Her
spectres
wan
,
and
birds
of
boding
cry
,
He
gives
to
range
the
dreary
sky
:
Till
down
the
eastern
cliffs
afar
Or
seen
the
Morning's
well-appointed
Star
Come
marching
up
the
eastern
hills
afar
.
Cowley
.
[
Brutus
,
an
Ode
,
st.
4
]
Hyperion's
march
they
spy
,
and
glittering
shafts
of
war
.
II
.
2.
In
climes
beyond
the
solar
road
,
Extensive
influence
of
poetic
Genius
over
the
remotest
and
most
uncivilized
nations
:
its
connection
with
liberty
,
and
the
virtues
that
naturally
attend
on
it
.
[
See
the
Erse
,
Norwegian
,
and
Welch
Fragments
,
the
Lapland
and
American
songs
.
]
[
solar
road
]
'
'
Extra
anni
solisque
vias
—
'
'
[
Beyond
the
paths
of
the
year
and
the
sun
—
]
Virgil
.
[
Aeneid
,
vi
.
796
]
'
'
Tutta
lontana
dal
camin
del
sole
.
'
'
[
Quite
far
from
the
road
of
the
sun
.
]
Petrarch
,
Canzon
2.
[
Canzoniere
,
'
Canzone
II
'
,
l.
48
]
Where
shaggy
forms
o'er
ice-built
mountains
roam
,
The
Muse
has
broke
the
twilight-gloom
To
cheer
the
shivering
native's
dull
abode
.
And
oft
,
beneath
the
odorous
shade
Of
Chile's
boundless
forests
laid
,
She
deigns
to
hear
the
savage
youth
repeat
In
loose
numbers
wildly
sweet
Their
feather-cinctured
chiefs
,
and
dusky
loves
.
Her
track
,
where'er
the
goddess
roves
,
Glory
pursue
,
and
generous
Shame
,
The
unconquerable
Mind
,
and
Freedom's
holy
flame
.
II
.
3.
Woods
that
wave
o'er
Delphi's
steep
,
Progress
of
Poetry
from
Greece
to
Italy
,
and
from
Italy
to
England
.
Chaucer
was
not
unacquainted
with
the
writings
of
Dante
or
of
Petrarch
.
The
Earl
of
Surrey
and
Sir
Tho.
Wyatt
had
travelled
in
Italy
,
and
formed
their
taste
there
;
Spenser
imitated
the
Italian
writers
;
Milton
improved
on
them
:
but
this
School
expired
soon
after
the
Restoration
,
and
a
new
one
arose
on
the
French
model
,
which
has
subsisted
ever
since
.
Isles
that
crown
the
Aegean
deep
,
Fields
that
cool
Ilissus
laves
,
Or
where
Maeander's
amber
waves
In
lingering
lab'rinths
creep
,
How
do
your
tuneful
echoes
languish
,
Mute
,
but
to
the
voice
of
anguish
?
Where
each
old
poetic
mountain
Inspiration
breathed
around
:
Every
shade
and
hallowed
fountain
Murmured
deep
a
solemn
sound
:
Till
the
sad
Nine
in
Greece's
evil
hour
Left
their
Parnassus
for
the
Latian
plains
.
Alike
they
scorn
the
pomp
of
tyrant-power
,
And
coward
Vice
that
revels
in
her
chains
.
When
Latium
had
her
lofty
spirit
lost
,
They
sought
,
oh
Albion
!
next
thy
sea-encircled
coast
.
III
.
1.
Far
from
the
sun
and
summer-gale
,
In
thy
green
lap
was
Nature's
darling
[
Nature's
Darling
]
Shakespear
.
laid
,
What
time
,
where
lucid
Avon
strayed
,
To
him
the
mighty
Mother
did
unveil
Her
awful
face
:
the
dauntless
child
Stretched
forth
his
little
arms
and
smiled
.
'
This
pencil
take
,
'
(
she
said
)
'
whose
colours
clear
Richly
paint
the
vernal
year
:
Thine
too
these
golden
keys
,
immortal
boy
!
This
can
unlock
the
gates
of
joy
;
Of
horror
that
,
and
thrilling
fears
,
Or
ope
the
sacred
source
of
sympathetic
tears
.
'
III
.
2.
Nor
second
he
,
[
He
]
Milton
.
that
rode
sublime
Upon
the
seraph-wings
of
Ecstasy
,
The
secrets
of
the
abyss
to
spy
.
He
passed
the
flaming
bounds
of
place
and
time
:
'
'
—
flammantia
moenia
mundi
.
'
'
[
—
the
flaming
ramparts
of
the
world
]
.
Lucretius
.
[
De
Rerum
Natura
,
i.
74
]
The
living
throne
,
the
sapphire-blaze
,
For
the
spirit
of
the
living
creature
was
in
the
wheels
-
And
above
the
firmament
,
that
was
over
their
heads
,
was
the
likeness
of
a
throne
,
as
the
appearance
of
a
saphire-stone
.
-
This
was
the
appearance
[
of
the
likeness
]
of
the
glory
of
the
Lord
.
Ezekiel
i.
20
,
26
,
28.
Where
angels
tremble
while
they
gaze
,
He
saw
;
but
blasted
with
excess
of
light
,
Closed
his
eyes
in
endless
night
.
[
Greek
line
(
omitted
)
]
[
(
the
Muse
)
took
away
(
his
)
eyes
,
but
she
gave
(
him
the
gift
of
)
sweet
song
]
.
Homer
.
Od
[
yssey
,
viii
.
64
]
.
Behold
,
where
Dryden's
less
presumptuous
car
,
Wide
o'er
the
fields
of
glory
bear
Two
coursers
of
ethereal
race
,
Meant
to
express
the
stately
march
and
sounding
energy
of
Dryden's
rhimes
.
With
necks
in
thunder
clothed
,
and
long-resounding
pace
.
Hast
thou
cloathed
his
neck
with
thunder
?
Job
.
[
xxxix
.
19
]
III
.
3.
Hark
,
his
hands
the
lyre
explore
!
Bright-eyed
Fancy
hovering
o'er
Scatters
from
her
pictured
urn
Thoughts
that
breathe
,
and
words
that
burn
.
Words
,
that
weep
,
and
tears
,
that
speak
.
Cowley
.
[
"
The
Prophet
"
in
The
Mistress
,
line
20
]
But
ah
!
'tis
heard
no
more
—
We
have
had
in
our
language
no
other
odes
of
the
sublime
kind
,
than
that
of
Dryden
on
St.
Cecilia's
day
:
for
Cowley
(
who
had
his
merit
)
yet
wanted
judgment
,
style
,
and
harmony
,
for
such
a
task
.
That
of
Pope
is
not
worthy
of
so
great
a
man
.
Mr.
Mason
indeed
of
late
days
has
touched
the
true
chords
,
and
with
a
masterly
hand
,
in
some
of
his
Choruses
,
-
above
all
in
the
last
of
Caractacus
,
Hark
!
heard
ye
not
yon
footstep
dread
?
&c.
Oh
!
lyre
divine
,
what
daring
spirit
Wakes
thee
now
?
Though
he
inherit
Nor
the
pride
,
nor
ample
pinion
,
That
the
Theban
eagle
bear
[
Greek
line
(
omitted
)
]
[
against
the
god-like
bird
of
Zeus
]
.
[
Pindar
]
Olymp.
2.
[
88
]
Pindar
compares
himself
to
that
bird
,
and
his
enemies
to
ravens
that
croak
and
clamour
in
vain
below
,
while
it
pursues
its
flight
,
regardless
of
their
noise
.
Sailing
with
supreme
dominion
Through
the
azure
deep
of
air
:
Yet
oft
before
his
infant
eyes
would
run
Such
forms
,
as
glitter
in
the
Muse's
ray
With
orient
hues
,
unborrowed
of
the
sun
:
Yet
shall
he
mount
,
and
keep
his
distant
way
Beyond
the
limits
of
a
vulgar
fate
,
Beneath
the
Good
how
far
—
but
far
above
the
Great
.