way, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead, where a pair of eagles wheeled above our heads and darted off as if to hide themselves in a blaze of sky made by the setting sun.-I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Imagination."-ED. 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 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) realised, 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. I THY functions are ethereal, As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind, Organ of vision! And a Spirit aërial Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind; To enter than oracular cave; Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, And shrieks, that revel in abuse Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, Whose piercing sweetness can unloose 5 ΙΟ ON THE POWER OF SOUND Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle,* 205 15 II The headlong streams and fountains Serve Thee, invisible Spirit, with untired powers; How fearful to the desert wide! That bleat, how tender! of the dam 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 throb of holy fear, To sailor's prayer breathed from a darkening sea, 25 30 III Ye Voices, and ye Shadows And Images of voice to hound and horn From rocky steep and rock-bestudded meadows And milder echoes from their cells Where mists are breaking up or gone, * Compare Gray's Elegy, 1. 39.-ED. 35 40 Happy milk-maids, one by one Scattering a ditty each to her desire, A liquid concert matchless by nice Art, IV Blest be the song that brightens 45 The blind man's gloom, exalts the veteran's mirth; 50 And bids it aptly fall, with chime That beautifies the fairest shore, And mitigates the harshest clime. Yon pilgrims see—in lagging file 55 They move; but soon the appointed way And to their hope the distant shrine 60 Glisten with a livelier ray : Nor friendless he, the prisoner of the mine, Who from the well-spring of his own clear breast V When civic renovation Dawns on a kingdom, and for needful haste 65 Mounts with a tune, that travels like a blast Piping through cave and battlemented tower; Then starts the sluggard, pleased to meet 70 That voice of Freedom, in its power Of promises, shrill, wild, and sweet! Who, from a martial pageant, spreads 74 Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads ?— ON THE POWER OF SOUND 207 Even She whose Lydian airs inspire* Peaceful striving, gentle play Of timid hope and innocent desire Shot from the dancing Graces, as they move 80 VI How oft along thy mazes, Regent of sound, have dangerous Passions trod ! O Thou, through whom the temple rings with praises, And blackening clouds in thunder speak of God, 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 85 That hath in noble tasks been tried; And, if the virtuous feel a pang too sharp, The uplifted arm of Suicide; And let some mood of thine in firm array Knit every thought the impending issue needs, VII As Conscience, to the centre Of being, smites with irresistible pain So shall a solemn cadence, if it enter The mouldy vaults of the dull idiot's brain, Transmute him to a wretch from quiet hurled— And then aghast, as at the world * Compare L'Allegro, ll. 135-37 And ever, against eating cares, The deception of the senses.-ED. ED. Of reason partially let in By concords winding with a sway Terrible for sense and soul ! Or, awed he weeps, struggling to quell dismay. Lodged above the starry pole ; Pure modulations flowing from the heart Of divine Love, where Wisdom, Beauty, Truth VIII Oblivion may not cover All treasures hoarded by the miser, Time. And voice and shell drew forth a tear Hell to the lyre bowed low; the upper arch 115 120 125 IX The GIFT to king Amphion That walled a city with its melody 130 * Orpheus, is search of his lost Eurydice, gained admittance with his lyre to the infernal regions. Pluto was charmed with his music, the wheel of Ixion stopped, the stone of Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus forgot his thirst, and the Furies relented, while Pluto and Proserpine consented to restore Eurydice. The sequel is well known.-ED. |