Nor perchance, If I were not thus taught, should I the more For thou art with me, here, upon the banks For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams Of past existence, wilt thou then forget That on the banks of this delightful stream STANZAS ON THE POWER OF SOUND. ARGUMENT. - The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony. Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza )—The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot.- Origin of music, and its effect in early ages- How produced (to the middle of the 10th Stanza )— The mind recalled to sounds acting casually and severally-Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation, (Stanza 12th.) The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe- -Imaginations consonant with such a theory. - Wish expressed, (in 11th Stanza) realized, in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator. (Last Stanza) the destruction of earth and the planetary system—The survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ. -- THY functions are ethereal, As if within thee Organ of Vision! 1. dwelt a glancing Mind, And a Spirit aërial Informs the cell of hearing, dark and blind; Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, And shrieks, that revel in abuse Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, Whose piercing sweetness can unloose The chains of frenzy, or entice a smile Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle, II. The headlong Streams and Fountains Serve Thee, Invisible Spirit, with untired powers; Cheering the wakeful Tent on Syrian mountains, They lull, perchance, ten thousand thousand Flowers. That roar, the prowling Lion's Here I am, How fearful to the desert wide! That bleat, how tender! of the Dam Calling a straggler to her side. Shout, Cuckoo! let the vernal soul Go with thee to the frozen zone; Toll from thy loftiest perch, lone Bell-bird, toll! Mercy from her twilight throne Listening to Nun's faint sob of holy fear, To Sailor's prayer breathed from a darkening sea, III. Ye Voices, and ye Shadows, And Images of voice to hound and horn Then, or far earlier, let us rove Where mists are breaking up or gone, A liquid concert matchless by nice Art, IV. Blest be the song that brightens The blind Man's gloom, exalts the Veteran's mirth, And bids it aptly fall, with chime. That beautifies the fairest shore, And mitigates the harshest clime. Yon Pilgrims see - in lagging file They move; but soon the appointed way A choral Ave Marie shall beguile, And to their hope the distant shrine Glisten with a livelier ray; Nor friendless He, the Prisoner of the Mine, Who from the well-spring of his own clear breast Can draw, and sing his griefs to rest. When civic renovation Dawns on a kingdom, and for needful haste Who, from a martial pageant, spreads Incitements of a battle-day, Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads, Even She whose Lydian airs inspire Peaceful striving, gentle play Of timid hope and innocent desire Shot from the dancing Graces, as they move Fanned by the plausive wings of Love. How oft along thy mazes, VI. Regent of Sound, have dangerous Passions trod! Betray not by the cozenage of sense Thy Votaries, wooingly resigned To a voluptuous influence That taints the purer, better mind; But lead sick Fancy to a harp That hath in noble tasks been tried; And, if the Virtuous feel a pang too sharp, Soothe it into patience, stay The uplifted arm of Suicide; And let some mood of thine in firm array Knit every thought the impending issue needs, Ere Martyr burns, or Patriot bleeds! |