Thee the great Apollo bless'd ODE XLIV.—THE DREAM.3 I DREAM'D, that over earth and sky, 1 The ancient Athenians compared themselves to these insects, either on account of their skill in music, or because like them they were descended from the earth. They likewise wore golden ornaments in their hair, resembling grasshoppers. The Chinese ladies still wear fastened to their heads by springs small golden figures of a bird, the wings of which flutter with the slightest motion. 2 Homer represents the gods as being free from blood; and, speaking of Venus being wounded, he says, From the clear vein a stream immortal flow'd, Pope's Homer, book v. 3 Madame Dacier says that this is one of the finest and most gallant odes of antiquity, and if she for whom it was composed was as beautiful, all Greece could produce nothing more charming. Its meaning seems to be simply this, that passion suddenly conceived is generally transient and fleeting; but love founded on esteem and regulated by reason, though slow in its approaches, and imperceptible in its growth, makes an impression on the heart at once permanent and indelible. While Love pursued with swiftest pace, ODE XLV.-CUPID'S DARTS. THE rugged mate of love's soft queen The mighty Mars their bus'ness view'd; 1 Lemnos was an island in the Egean sea, sacred to Vul can, who, in the first book of the Iliad, gives an account o Jupiter's throwing him from heaven, and his fall on tha island. Once in your cause I felt his matchless might, Hurl'd headlong downward from th' ethereal height; The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast. Pope's Homer. And, leaning on his massy spear,1 2 'Tis strongly made; and, for its size, ODE XLVI.-THE POWER OF GOLD. A THOUSAND pains we lovers prove,3 1 The proportions of the spear and arrow are finely contrasted. The tiny weapon makes the deeper wound. 2 This sentiment is extremely beautiful; intimating that one cannot even touch the darts of Cupid with safety. Moschus concludes his first idyllium with a similar thought: Perhaps he'll say, 'Alas! no harm I know, Here take my darts, my arrows, and my bow.' Ah! touch them not, fallacious is his aim, His darts, his arrows, all are tipt with flame.-Fawkes. 3 Oh, love! what is it in this world of ours Which makes it fatal to be loved? Ah! why As those who doat on odors pluck the flowers, But ah! what woe, when doom'd to mourn ODE XLVII.-YOUNG OLD AGE. I LOVE the cheerful, blithesome sage, Thus sings the bard; the magic of whose verse, in spite of reason, leads the fancy captive; the efforts of whose mighty genius will be regarded by future ages with sentiments of admiration, pleasure and regret. For him the Muses wove their brightest wreaths: why did he perversely mingle weeds, rank, poisonous weeds, with their sweet perennial flowers? 1 The ancient poets are loud in their invectives against the auri sacra fames.' Ovid says, This is the golden age; all worship gold: 'Tis who bids most, for all men would be sold. But when an aged youth like me ODE XLVIII.-HAPPY LIFE. O! FOR the harp, the harp of fire, No! let the measured cups be brought,' I'll read the laws which Bacchus taught Then warm in heart, but wisely gay," 1 The custom of appointing a master of the revels by the cast of a die has already been alluded to.-See ode xiv. 2 I find but few commentators who have noticed the very singular expression of the original in this passage. It means literally preserving the mind;' and is intended to express that degree of pleasurable excitement which exhilarates the spirits without overpowering the senses; or, as Cowper says, Cups which cheer but not inebriate : though the remark is certainly applied to a beverage of a very different nature. |