ODE ON THE SPRING. The untaught harmony of Spring: While, whispering pleasure as they fly, Cool Zephyrs through the clear blue sky Their gather'd fragrance fling. Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch Beside some water's rushy brink With me the Muse shall sit, and think Still is the toiling hand of Care: Yet hark, how through the peopled air The insect youth are on the wing, And float amid the liquid noon : To Contemplation's sober eye Such is the race of man: And they that creep, and they that fly, Alike the busy and the gay In Fortune's varying colours drest: Methinks I hear in accents low "Poor moralist! and what art thou? Thy joys no glittering female meets, ODE FOR MUSIC. PERFORMED IN THE SENATE-HOUSE AT CAMBRIDGE, " HENCE, avaunt, ('t is holy ground,) Mad Sedition's cry profane, Servitude that hugs her chain, Nor in these consecrated bowers Let painted Flattery hide her serpent-train in flowers. Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain, Dare the Muse's walk to stain, While bright-ey'd Science watches round: Hence, away, 't is holy ground!" From yonder realms of empyrean day Bursts on my ear th' indignant lay: There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine, The few, whom genius gave to shine Through every unborn age and undiscover'd clime. Rapt in celestial transport they, Yet hither oft a glance from high They send of tender sympathy To bless the place, where on their opening soul 'T was Milton struck the deep-ton'd shell, "Ye brown o'er-arching groves, That Contemplation loves, Where willowy Camus lingers with delight! I trod your level lawn, Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright But hark! the portals sound, and pacing forth With solemn steps and slow, High potentates and dames of royal birth, And mitred fathers in long order go: Great Edward*, with the lilies on his brow, From haughty Gallia torn, And sad Chatillon †, on her bridal morn That wept her bleeding love, and princely Clare ‡, And either Henry ¶ there, * Edward the Third; who added the fleur-delis of France to the arms of England. He founded Trinity College. Mary de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke, daughter of Guy de Chatillon, Comte de St. Paul in France: of whom tradition says, that her husband, Audemar de Valentia, Earl of Pembroke, was slain at a tournament on the day of his nuptials. She was the foundress of Pembroke College or Hall, under the name of Aula Mariæ de Valentia. Elizabeth de Burg, Countess of Clare, was wife of John de Burg, son and heir of the Earl of Ulster, and daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, by Joan of Acres, daughter of Edward the First. Hence the poet gives her the epithet of princely. She founded Clare-Hall. § Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry the Sixth, foundress of Queen's College. || Elizabeth Widville, wife of Edward the Fourth (hence called the paler rose, as being of the house of York). She added to the foundation of Margaret of Anjou. Henry the Sixth and Eighth. The former the founder of King's, the latter the greatest benefactor to Trinity College. The murder'd saint, and the majestic lord, (Their tears, their little triumphs o'er, And bade these aweful fanes and turrets rise, "What is grandeur, what is power? What the bright reward we gain? Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud "Welcome, my noble son," she cries aloud, A Tudor's † fire, a Beaufort's grace. * Countess of Richmond and Derby; the mother of Henry the Seventh, foundress of St. John's and Christ's Colleges. + The Countess was a Beaufort, and married to a Tudor; hence the application of this line to the Duke of Grafton, who claims descent from both these families. |