I.
DEfcend, ye Nine! descend and fing;

The breathing instruments inspire,
Wake into voice each filent string,
And sweep the sounding lyre!

In a sadly-pleasing strain
Let the warbling lute complain:

Let the loud trumpet found,
'Till the roofs all around
The shrill echos rebound:

5

REMARKS. Ode for Mufic. This is one of the most artful as well as sublime of our Poet's smaller compofitions. The first stanza exprefies the various tones and meafures in music. The second describes their power over the several pafsions in general. The third explains their use in inspiring the Heroic pafsions in particular. The fourth, fifth, and fixth, their power over all nature in the fable of Orpheus's expedition to hell; which subject of illustration arose naturally out of the preceding mention of the Argo

50

Lukw.ering,
Vkust area Fiore icon

Love, firar.g 2. Dresses

To the past parce of seiz
What founds were heard,
What frenes appear's,
O'er all the dreary coasts!

54
Dreadful gleams,
Dilmal screams,
Fires that glow,
Shricks of woe,
Sullen moans,
I lollow

groans
And cries of tortur'd ghosts!
But hark! he strikes the golden lyre;
And fee! the tortur'd ghosts respire,

See, shady forms advance! 65
Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still,
Ixion rests upon his wheel,

And the pale spectres dance !
The Furies fink

their iron beds, And snakes uncurld hang list’ning round their

60