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From Helicon's harmonious springs

A thousand rills their mazy progress take:
The laughing flowers, that round them blow,
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along,
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,

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more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. Gray.

V. 3. Thomson has joined the subject and simile in a passage strongly resembling this:

"In thy full language speaking mighty things,
Like a clear torrent close, or else diffus'd
A broad majestic stream, and rolling on
Thro' all the winding harmony of sound."

And see Quinctil. Inst. xii. 10. 61. volvat," &c.

Liberty, ii. 257. "At ille qui saxa de

In Huntingford, Apology for his Monostrophics, p. 80, referred to by Wakefield, several passages of Pindar are pointed out, to which he supposes that Gray alluded, viz. Ol. ii. 62, 229. vii. 12. xii. 6.

Petron.

V. 4. "The melting voice through mazes running." Milt. L'Allegro, 142. Luke. V. 5. "Albaque de viridi riserunt lilia prato," cap. 127. "Ridenti colocasia fundet acantho," Virg. Ecl. iv. 20; and Achilles Tatius has the expression, тò téтahov tậ Sεpúpo yεhã. See Burm. ad Ovid. v. ii. p. 1023.

V. 6. "Bibant violaria fontem," Virg. Georg. iv. ver. 32. W.

"And mounting in loose robes the skies

Shed light and fragrance as she flies."

Green. Spleen, v. 79.

V. 7. This couplet seems to have been suggested by some lines of Pope. Hor. Epist. II. ii. 171:

"Pour the full tide of eloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong."

Wakefield refers to Pope. Cecilia, 10:

"While in more lengthened notes, and slow,
The deep majestic solemn organs blow."

Dr. Berdmore of the Charter-House, in his pamphlet on Literary Resemblance, p. 16, supposes that Gray had Horace in his mind. Od. III. xxix. 32.

Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign:
Now rolling down the steep amain,

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour;

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The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.

I. 2.

Oh! Sov'reign of the willing soul, Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, Enchanting shell! the sullen Cares

And frantic Passions hear thy soft controul. On Thracia's hills the Lord of War

Var. V. 11. "With torrent rapture, see it pour." Ms.

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V. 9. Shenstone. Inscr. "Verdant vales and fountains bright." Luke.

V. 10. "Immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore."
Hor. Od. iv. 2. 8.

V. 12. "And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas resound," Dryden. Virg. Georg. i."Rocks rebellow to the roar," Pope. Iliad.

V. 13. Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar.

Gray.

V. 14. Milton. Comus, 555, "A soft and solemn-breathing sound." See Todd's note.

"V. 15. "While sullen Cares and wither'd Age retreat,' Eusden. Court of Venus, p. 101. "Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell," Dryden. Virgil. Æn. vi. 247. “Care shuns thy soft approach, and sullen flies away," Dryden. Ceyx. vol. iv. p. 33, the same expression occurs in many other poets.

V. 17.

"The God of War

Was drawn triumphant on his iron car. 99

Dryden, vol. iii. 60. ed. Warton.

And Collins in his Ode to Peace, ver. 4:

"When War, by vultures drawn afar,

To Britain bent his iron car."

"Mavortia Thrace," Statii Ach. 1. 201, Theb. vii. 34, and "Mars Thracen occupat," Ovid. Ar. Am. ii. ver. 588. Virg. En. iii. 35. "Gradivumque patrem Geticis qui præsidet arvis." v. Bentl. on Hor. Od. i. xxv. 19.

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Has curb'd the fury of his car,

And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.
Perching on the sceptred hand

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing:
Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie

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The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

I. 3.

Thee the voice, the dance, obey,

Temper'd to thy warbled lay.

Var. V. 23. Dark] Black. MS.

V. 19. "Winn'st from his fatal grasp the spear."

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Collins. Ode to Mercy, ver. 5. In the Lusus Poetici of Jortin (Hymn to Harmony, p. 45), published in 1722, is the following couplet, strongly resembling Gray's, and from the same source:

"Thou mak'st the God of War forsake the field,
And drop his lance, and lay aside his shield."

See also Ovid. Fasti, iii. v. 1: "Bellice, depositis clypeo paulisper et hastâ, Mars, ades." Claudiani Præf. in Rufin. lib. ii.

"Thirsty blade," Spens. F. Q. i. v. xv.

V. 20. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Gray. Pyth. i. ver. 10; and see D. Stewart. Philos. Essays, p. 373. For an error in the imagery of this line, see Class. Journ. No. xiii. p. 285.

V. 21.

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Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the Eagle feather'd King."

Shakes. Pass. Pilg. xx. V. 22. H. Walpole, in describing the famous Boccapadugli eagle, of Greek sculpture, says: "Mr. Gray has drawn the flagging wing."" See Works, vol. ii. p. 463. Philips (Past. 5.)" She hangs her flagging wings; " Luke. Add A. Behn on the D. of Buckingham, v. Works, v. ii. p. 208: "Now with their broken notes and flagging wing." See Wakef. on Virg. Georg. iv. 137; G. Steevens quotes Ronsard, Ode xxii. ed. 1632, fol.

V. 25. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. Gray.

V. 26. " Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay,"

O'er Idalia's velvet-green

The rosy-crowned Loves are seen
On Cytherea's day;

With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures,
Frisking light in frolic measures;
Now pursuing, now retreating,
Now in circling troops they meet:
To brisk notes in cadence beating,

Var. V. 30. Sport] Sports. MS.

V. 34. In cadence] The cadence. MS.

Fletcher, P. Island, c. ix. s. iii. and Lycidas, 32. Luke.
V. 27. "At length a fair and spacious green he spide,
Like calmest waters, plain; like velvet, soft.”
Fairfax. Tasso, xiii. 38.

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"She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet-green." Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. p. 128. This expression, it is well known, has met with reprehension from Dr. Johnson; who appears by his criticism to have supposed it first introduced by Gray. It was numbered, however, among the absurd expressions of Pope, by the authors of the Alexandriad, (some of the heroes of the Dunciad,) see p. 288. It occurs in a list of epithets and nouns which Pope had used, and which these authors held up to ridicule. V. 30. "I'll charm the air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round."

V. 31.

Macb. act. iv. sc. 1. W.

"In friskful glee, their frolics play,

Thoms. Spring. Luke.

V. 32. Wakefield refers to Callimachi Hymn. Dian. 3. and Hom. II. 2. 593.

V. 35. Μαρμαρυγὰς θηεῖτο ποδῶν· θαύμαζε δὲ δυμῷ. Hom. Od. . ver. 265. Gray.

"Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves

Of aspin tall."

Thoms. Spring, 157. W.

1 Shakespeare has, "Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds," Hen. V. act i. sc. 2.

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

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Slow melting strains their Queen's approach declare:

Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. With arms sublime, that float upon the air,

In gliding state she wins her easy way:

O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move 40 The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

V. 36. Compare the following stanza of a poem by Barton Booth, in his Life, written in 1718, published 1733:

"Now to a slow and melting air she moves,

So like in air, in shape, in mien,
She passes for the Paphian queen;
The Graces all around her play,
The wond'ring gazers die away;
Whether her easy body bend,
Or her faire bosom heave with sighs;
Whether her graceful arms extend,
Or gently fall, or slowly rise;
Or returning or advancing,

Swimming round, or sidelong glancing,

Strange force of motion that subdues the soul."

And Apuleii. Metam. Lib. x. p. 349. ed. Delph.

V. 37. "For wheresoe'er she turn'd her face, they bow'd." Dryden. Flower and Leaf, v. 191.

And see

V. 39. Incessu patuit Dea," Virg. Æn. i. 405. Heyne's quotation from Eustathius. "On all sides round environ'd, wins his way." Par. Lost, ii. 1016.

V. 41.

Λάμπει δ' ἐπὶ πορφυρέησί

Παρείησι φῶς ἔρωτος.

Phrynicus apud Athenæum. Gray. -lumenque juventæ

Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflârat honores." Virg. Æn. i. 594. W. Add Ovid. Amor. ii. 1. 38: "Purpureus quæ mihi dictat Amor." And ix. 34: "Notaque purpureus tela resumit Amor." And Art. Amor. i. 232. Fast. vi. 252. "purpureâ luce." Dryden. Brit. Rediviva, p. 93: "Breath'd Honour on his eyes, and his own purple light." Pope. Hor. Od. iv. 1. "Smiling loves and young desires." Rogers.

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