An ODE ON AEOLUS's HARP. James Thomson Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T131163 K104099.003 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. III. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 4-5. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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An ODE ON AEOLUS's HARP . Aeolus's Harp is a musical instrument , which plays with the wind , invented by Mr. Oswald ; its properties are fully described in the Castle of Indolence . By the Same . I. Aetherial race , inhabitants of air ! Who hymn your God amid the secret grove ; Ye unseen beings to my harp repair , And raise majestic strains , or melt in love . II . Those tender notes , how kindly they upbraid ? With what soft woe they thrill the lover's heart ? Sure from the hand of some unhappy maid Who dy'd of love , these sweet complainings part . III . But hark ! that strain was of a graver tone , On the deep strings his hand some hermit throws ; Or he the sacred Bard ! Jeremiah . who sat alone , In the drear waste , and wept his people's woes . IV . Such was the song which Zion's children sung , When by Euphrates' stream they made their plaint : And to such sadly solemn notes are strung Angelic harps , to sooth a dying saint . V. Methinks I hear the full celestial choir , Thro' heaven's high dome their aweful anthem raise ; Now chanting clear , and now they all conspire To swell the lofty hymn , from praise to praise . VI . Let me , ye wand'ring spirits of the wind , Who as wild Fancy prompts you touch the string , Smit with your theme , be in your chorus join'd , For 'till you cease , my Muse forgets to sing .