[Page 125]

ON COLLINS'S ODE ON THE PASSIONS,

AS RECITED BY MRS ESTEN
1. Mrs Esten was thought by some to combine in her own person a considerable portion of the dignity of Mrs Siddons, with the brilliant gaiety of Miss Farren. She is still remembered for her admirable recitation of the "Ode on the Passions," and "Alexander's Feast."

1 BENEATH a sad and silent shade
2 Afflicted Poetry was laid;
3 The shepherd train, the virgin choir,
4 No longer listen'd to her lyre;
5 But, all neglected and alone,
6 Her feeling and her fire were gone.
7 No zephyr fondly sued her breast,
8 No nightingale came there to rest;
9 The faded visions fled her eyes —
10 The visions of her ecstasies.
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11 And if perchance she sought delight,
12 It was amid the gloom of night, —
13 It was the hour the screechowls cry,
14 Or roaring whirlwinds rend the sky,
15 To pour her melancholy strain,
16 And catch a pleasure from the pain.
17 Esten beheld her haggard air
18 At twilight as she wander'd there,
19 And felt the sympathetic woe
20 That Taste and Feeling ever know;
21 Then eager sought the city's throng
22 To vindicate the force of song.
23 She chose an ode divinely wild,
24 Wrote by the Muses' favourite child;
25 From Collins was the magic lay,
26 That subject Passions all obey:
27 The crowd the varying influence prove
28 Of Rage, and Hope, and Fear, and Love;
29 They still implor'd her to rehearse,
30 And own'd the thrilling power of verse!
31 O thou, sweet Bard! who now mayst be
32 A shadow fleeting o'er the sea,
33 A vapour on the morning rose,
34 A whispering wind at evening's close;
35 Or if thy spirit love to dwell
36 Awhile within the violet's bell,
37 Then, in beatitude of change,
38 From star to star exulting range;
39 Live in the lustre of the day,
40 Or float upon the lunar ray;
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41 Or rapturous join the hallow'd voice
42 Where endless Seraphim rejoice;
43 O Collins! whatsoe'er thou art,
44 Deign, deign to bless thy Esten's heart;
45 A portion of those joys reveal
46 Which sure she well deserves to feel!

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Title (in Source Edition): ON COLLINS'S ODE ON THE PASSIONS, AS RECITED BY MRS ESTEN
Author: Susanna Blamire
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Genres: address

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Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 125-127.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

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Other works by Susanna Blamire