FAIR are the gardens of the Aonian mount, Which paint the Maiden's bowers; Where the quick ripple in the sunbeams plays, blaze. O'er the gay scene th' enamoured inmates roam; Alas! for whom? Many a gleam of sprightly thought, Whether from dazzling lustre brought, Or nursed by shades of darksome wood, Keep death-like silence on their native shore, Since he, that gave them speech, is heard no more. Like common breath, to mingle with the air: Retired to yonder grassy mound In leaves of dusky hue encompassed round, Calliope informs the band: Hushed are the warblers of the grove, attentive to the sound. "Soft and slow Let the melting measures flow, Nor lighter air disturb majestic woe. Thy precious drops profusely shed Thou nurtur'd'st once a grateful throng, When Milton poured the sweets of song a Cambridge University, where Gray died. b In 1638 the University published a volume of poems to the memory of Mr. Edward King, Milton's Lycidas. "Now wake that faithful lyre-mute dulness reigns: Your echoes waft no more the friendly theme; Clogged with thick vapours from the neighbouring plains, Where old Cam hardly moves his sluggard stream. Claims festive song, or more melodious tear, Ne'er modelled by Pierian laws, "Far other modes were thine, Victim of hasty fate, Whom now the powers of melody deplore; Thou badest thy train divine Of raptures on Pindaric pinions soar; To childhood's careless scenes", "Or when thy calm and stedfast mind With philosophic reach profound Self-pleasing vanities resigned, See Gray's Pindaric Odes. d Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College. Fond of the look, that loves the ground; Supports the labouring heart, and Virtue's happiest reign. "But most the music of thy plaintive moanf With lengthened note detains the listening ear, As lost in thought thou wanderest all alone, Where spirits hover round their mansions drear. By Contemplation's eye serenely viewed, "Thou sawest her beaming from the hamlet sires Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade; Where now, still faithful to their wonted fires, Thy own dear ashes are for ever laid." e Hymn to Adversity. f Churchyard Elegy. 8 Gray was buried at Stoke, the scene of the Elegy. bs |