The Hymns of DIONYSIUS: Translated from the Greek. James Merrick Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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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 K104099.005 Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. V. London printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley 1763 [1st ed. 1758] pp. 143-146. 6v.: music; 8⁰.

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The Hymns of DIONYSIUS : Translated from the Greek . By the Rev. Mr. MERRICK . To the MUSE . LEND thy voice , celestial maid : Through thy vocal grove convey'd , Let a sudden call from thee . Wake my soul to harmony . Raise , oh ! raise the hallow'd strain , Mistress of the tuneful train . And thou sacred source of light , Author of our mystic rite , Thou whom erst Latona bore On the sea-girt Delian shore , Join the fav'ring Muse , and shed All thy influence on my head . II . TO APOLLO . Be still , ye vaulted skies ! be still Each hollow vale , each echoing hill , Let earth and seas , and winds attend ; Ye birds awhile your notes suspend ; Be hush'd each sound ; behold him nigh , Parent of sacred harmony ; He comes ! his unshorn hair behind Loose floating to the wanton wind , Hail , sire of day , whose rosy car , Through the pathless fields of air , By thy winged coursers borne , Opes the eyelids of the morn . Thou , whose locks their light display O'er the wide aetherial way , Wreathing their united rays Into one promiscuous blaze . Under thy all-seeing eye Earth's remotest corners lie ; While , in thy repeated course , Issuing from thy fruitful source , Floods of fire incessant stray , Streams of everlasting day . Round thy sphere the starry throng , Varying sweet their ceaseless song , ( While their vivid flames on high Deck the clear untroubled sky , ) To the tuneful lyre advance , Joining in the mystic dance , And with step alternate beat Old Olympus' lofty seat . At their head the wakeful Moon Drives her milkwhite heifers on , And with measur'd pace and even Glides around the vast of heaven , Journeying with unwearied force , And rejoicing in her course . Time attends with swift career , And forms the circle of the year . III . TO NEMESIS . Nemesis , whose dreaded weight Turns the scale of human fate ; On whose front black terrors dwell , Daughter dire of Justice , hail ! Thou whose adamantine rein Curbs the arrogant and vain . Wrong and Force before thee die , Envy shuns thy searching eye , And , her sable wings outspread , Flies to hide her hated head . Where thy wheel with restless round Runs along th' unprinted ground , Humbled there , at thy decree Human greatness bows the knee . Thine it is unseen to trace Step by step each mortal's pace : Thine the sons of Pride to check , And to bend the stubborn neck , Till our lives directed stand By the measure in thy hand . Thou observant sit'st on high With bent brow and stedfast eye , Weighing all that meets thy view In thy balance just and true . Goddess , look propitious down , View us , but without a frown , Nemesis , whose dreaded weight Turns the scale of human fate . Nemesis be still our theme , Power immortal and supreme , Thee we praise , nor thee alone , But add the partner of thy throne . Thee and Justice both we sing , Justice , whose unwearied wing Rears aloft the virtuous name Safe from hell's rapacious claim ; And when thou thy wrath hast shed Turns it from the guiltless head .