ODE FOR MUSIC

ON

ST. CECILIA'S DAY.

I.

DESCEND, ye Nine! descend and sing;
The breathing instruments inspire,

Wake into voice each silent string,
And sweep the sounding lyre!

In a sadly-pleasing strain

Let the warbling lute complain:
Let the loud trumpet sound,
'Till the roofs all around

The shrill echoes rebound:

While in more lengthen'd notes and slow,
The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.

Hark! the numbers soft and clear
Gently steal

upon

the ear;

Now louder, and yet louder rise,

And fill with spreading sounds the skies; Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes,

In broken air, trembling, the wild music floats;

"Till, by degrees, remote and small,

The strains decay,

And melt away,

In a dying, dying fall.

II.

By Music, minds an equal temper know,

Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, Music her soft, assuasive voice applies;

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Or, when the soul is press'd with cares,

Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes,

List'ning Envy drops her snakes; Intestine war no more our passions wage,

And giddy Factions hear

VER. 35.] Dr. Greene set this ode to music in 1730, as an exercise for his Doctor's Degree at Cambridge, on which occasion Pope made considerable alteration in it, and added the following tanza in this place:

Amphion thus bade wild dissention cease,

And soften'd mortals learn'd the arts of peace,
Amphion taught contending kings,

From various discords, to create
The music of a well-tun'd state;

Nor slack, nor strain the tender strings,
Those useful touches to impart,

That strike the subject's answering heart,

And

III.

But when our country's cause provokes to arms,
How martial music ev'ry bosom warms!

So when the first bold vessel dar'd the seas,
High on the stern the Thracian rais'd his strain,
While Argo saw her kindred trees

Descend from Pelion to the main.
Transported demi-gods stood round,
And men grew heroes at the sound,

Enflam'd with glory's charms:
Each chief his sev❜nfold shield display'd,
And half unsheath'd the shining blade:
And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound
To arms, to arms, to arms!

IV.

But when through all th' infernal bounds,
Which flaming Phlegeton surrounds,
Love, strong as Death, the Poet led
To the pale nations of the dead,

And the soft silent harmony that springs
From sacred union and consent of things.

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And he made another alteration, at the same time, in ftanza iv.

v. 51, and wrote it thus:

Sad Orpheus sought his consort lost;

The adamantine gates were barr'd,

And nought was seen and nought was heard,

Around the dreary coast;

But dreadful gleams, &c.

O'er

Hollow groans,

And cries of tortur'd ghosts!

But, hark! he strikes the golden lyre;
And see ! the tortur'd ghosts respire,

See, shady forms advance!

Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still,
Ixion rests upon his wheel,

And the pale spectres dance;

The Furies sink upon their iron beds,

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And snakes uncurl'd hang list'ning round their heads.

V.

By the streams that ever flow,
By the fragrant winds that blow

O'er th' Elysian flow'rs;

By those happy souls who dwell

In yellow meads of Asphodel,

Or Amaranthine bow'rs;

By the heroes' armed shades,

Glitt'ring through the gloomy glades;

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By

By the youths that dy'd for love, Wand'ring in the myrtle grove, Restore, restore Eurydice to life :

Oh take the husband, or return the wife!

And

gave him back the fair. Thus song could prevail

O'er death, and o'er hell,

A conquest how hard and how glorious!
Tho' fate had fast bound her

With Styx nine times round her,

Yet Music and Love were victorious.

VI.

But soon, too soon, the lover turns his
eyes
Again she falls, again she dies, she dies!
How wilt thou now the fatal sisters move?
No crime was thine, if 'tis no crime to love.
Now under hanging mountains,
Beside the falls of fountains,
Or where Hebrus wanders,

Rolling in meanders,

All alone,

Unheard, unknown,

He makes his moan;