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ODE ON ST. CECILIA'S DAY,

AND

OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC.

Written in the year 1708.

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;

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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,

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Intestine war no more our passions wage,
And giddy factions bear away their rage.

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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

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Descend from Pelion to the main :
Transported demigods stood round,
And men grew heroes at the sound,
Inflam'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,
Te arms, to arms, to arms!

IV.

But when thro' all th' infernal bounds,

Which flaming Phlegethon surrounds,
Love, strong as Death, the Poet led
To the pale nations of the dead,
What sounds were heard,
What scenes appear'd,

O'er all the dreary coasts!

Dreadful gleams,

Dismal screams,

Fires that glow,

Shrieks of woe,

Sullen moans,

Hollow groans,

And cries of tortur'd ghosts!

VOL. II.

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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,

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And the pale spectres dance;

The Furies sink upon their iron beds,

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 thro' the gloomy glades;
By the youths that dy'd for love,
Wand'ring in the myrtle grove,

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Restore, restore Eurydice to life;

Oh, take the husband, or return the wife!

He sung, and hell consented

To hear the poet's pray'r;
Stern Proserpine relented,
And gave him back the fair.

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Thus song could prevail

O'er death and o'er hell,

A conquest how hard and how glorious!

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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;

And calls her ghost,
For ever, ever, ever, lost!
Now with Furies surrounded,
Despairing, confounded,
He trembles, he glows,
Amidst Rhodope's snows:

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