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[Page 86]
ODE TO LOVE.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY DUDLEY AND WARD.
1 ALL hail to thee, resistless pow'r!
2 Before whose shrine all Nature bows,
3 And fondly breathes her ardent vows!
4 Hail, parent of the blissful hour!
5 Hail, theme of Sappho's trembling lyre!
6 Hail, theme of Petrarch's plaintive strain!
7 Hail, mystic source of joy and pain!
8 Hail, theme of Nature's woodland choir!
9 With mazy dance, and breathing song,
10 The joys around thy altar throng.
11 Though, amid thy smiling train,
12 Jocund pleasures tread the plain;
[Page 87]13 Yet mark yon spectre's gloomy air,
14 Who, whilst the Graces fondly twine
15 Their roseate wreaths around thy shrine,
16 Insidious plants the cypress there.
17 Say, Cupid, now what phantom drear
18 Approaches near,
19 On whose torn breast
20 The serpent rears his scaly crest,
21 Tearing, with venom'd tooth,
22 The seat of life and truth;
23 Whilst through the gaping wound black gore,
24 In sullen tide, is seen to pour.
25 Thy matted hair,
26 Thy frantic stare,
27 Thy green eye fell;
28 These, jealous fiend, thy name will tell.
[Page 88]29 See, as the Loves disporting round,
30 Dance to the rebeck's jocund sound,
31 With rage inspir'd,
32 By vengeance fir'd,
33 Whilst, horror-struck, the Graces gaze;
34 See madly through the Daedal maze,
35 As coupled now with writhing pain,
36 In hurried step he treads the plain;
37 And, spurning, Love, thy wily song,
38 Disperses thus thy frighted throng.
39 O! thou who, 'mid the roaring wave,
40 An early fate to Sappho gave;
41 Who lur'd with Syren strain,
42 And promis'd joy,
43 The Grecian boy,
44 To plow the wint'ry main,
45 Though quench'd in night
46 Thy faithless light,
[Page 89]47 That beam'd on high,
48 And let a lover die.
49 Amid the elemental war
50 He ask'd in vain the dove-drawn car,
51 That erst thy goddess-mother bore
52 From Neptune's realm to Paphos' shore:
53 But deaf to Hero's ardent pray'rs,
54 But heedless of a lover's cares,
55 And deaf to sad Leander's cries,
56 You sought, false pow'r, serener skies.
57 Then, Heloise, thy victim fell.
58 Ah! see her stretch'd in yonder cell.
59 By all thy fiercest passions borne,
60 Berest of hope, through thee forlorn.
61 Attentive hear each groan, each sigh,
62 And mark the lamps that dimly burn
63 Around her lover's holy urn.
[Page 90]64 Now pouring slow
65 Sad notes of woe,
66 See Petrarch seek his Laura's grave.
67 Hark! how the saddening strain
68 Wanders o'er Vauclusa's plain.
69 Thine are his lays,
70 And thine the praise
71 Thou kindledst first the fatal fire,
72 Then tun'd to grief his plaintive lyre.
73 Round Laura's tomb,
74 With cheerless gloom,
75 Thy cypress sad is seen to wave,
76 Whilst Pity's self slow pausing there,
77 With Lethe's blissful balm,
78 The mourner's pangs could calm;
79 But yonder groan, that pierc'd the air,
80 Proclaimeth all thy reign despair.
[Page 91]81 Since such thy pow'r, since such thy deeds,
82 Since gor'd by thee each bosom bleeds,
83 From me thy shafts, dread Godhead, turn;
84 Ne'er shall my breast devoted burn.
85 Thy cup Circean freely give
86 To those who wish with thee to live.
87 Thy arts I spurn, thy joys despise;
88 Minerva's smile alone I prize.
About this text
Title (in Source Edition): ODE TO LOVE. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY DUDLEY AND WARD.
Author: George Monck Berkeley
Themes:
Genres:
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Source edition
Berkeley, George Monck, 1763-1793. Poems: by the late George-Monck Berkeley, Esq. ... With a preface by the editor, consisting of some anecdotes of Mr. Monck Berkeley and several of his friends. London: printed by J. Nichols; and sold by Messrs. Leigh and Sotheby; Mr. Edwards; Mr. Cooke, Oxford; Mr. Todd, York; Messrs. Simmons and Co.; Messrs. Flackton, Marrable, and Claris; and Mr. Bristow, Canterbury, 1797, pp. 86-91. viii,DCXXXII,212p.,plate: port.; 4⁰. (ESTC T142950; OTA K111746.000)
Editorial principles
The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the ECCO-TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 3.0.
Other works by George Monck Berkeley
- ADDRESS TO THE SHADE OF SHAKSPEARE. ON MRS. B—'S VISITING HIS TOMB IN COMPANY WITH THE WRITER OF THESE LINES, AUGUST 13, 1787. ()
- ADDRESS TO THE WINDS. SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY A LADY DURING THE ABSENCE OF HER LOVER. ()
- THE AUTHOR. TO ARTHUR MURPHY, ESQ. ()
- THE BANKS OF ALMOND. (VIDE PENNANT'S TOUR.) ()
- THE BIRTH OF BLISS. TO THE HONOURABLE GEORGE LESLIE, SON OF THE EARL OF LEVEN, &c. ()
- ELEGIAC BALLAD. TO HENRY M'KENZIE ESQ. ()
- AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH of MISS M—s. ()
- ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF LADY JANE GRAY AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. TO JUDITH LADY LAURIE. ()
- ELEGY. TO ALMERIA. ()
- EPITAPH ON AN UNFORTUNATE LADY. TO THE REV. GEORGE GLEIG, A.M. ()
- EPITAPH ON G. R. BERKELEY, ESQ. TO MRS. GEORGE BERKELEY, HIS MOTHER. ()
- EVENING, A PASTORAL. TO HENRY GRIMSTON, ESQ. OF YORKSHIRE. ()
- THE FAIRIES. TO MISS GRIMSTON, YOUNGEST SISTER OF THOMAS GRIMSTON, ESQ. OF GRIMSTON, YORKSHIRE. ()
- FAREWELL STANZAS ON LEAVING COOKHAM, IN THE SPRING OF THE YEAR, 1781, WHEN MR. B. WAS NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD, TWO YEARS AFTER HE LEFT ETON-SCHOOL. ()
- THE IMMORTALITY OF VIRTUE. TO MRS. FRINSHAM. ()
- IMPROMPTU, ON HEARING, AS HE WAS RISING IN THE MORNING, OF THE DEATH OF THE REV. JOHN DUNCOMBE, M.A. INSCRIBED TO MRS. DUNCOMBE, OF CANTERBURY. ()
- INSCRIPTION FOR A GOTHIC NICHE LINED WITH IVY, IN THE GARDEN OF DR. BERKELEY'S PREBENDAL HOUSE IN THE OAKS AT CANTERBURY, WHERE MR. BERKELEY USED TO SIT AND READ GREEK. THE LADIES OF THE FAMILY NAMED IT “THE GREEK SEAT.” ()
- INSCRIPTION FOR THE FRONT OF SINGLETON ABBEY. TO MISS MALTHUS'S, THE BELOVED, THE RESPECTED FRIENDS OF HIS EARLY YOUTH. ()
- INVOCATION TO CUPID. TO FREDERICK REYNOLDS, ESQ. ()
- INVOCATION TO OBLIVION. TO ROBERT MERRY, ESQ. ()
- LUCY, OR THE BANKS OF AVON. WRITTEN AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN, AND NEVER MEANT BY MR. B. FOR THE PUBLIC EYE. ()
- THE MAIDS OF MORVEN, AN ELEGIAC ODE. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MARY VISCOUNTESS RUTHVEN, DAUGHTER OF THE EXCELLENT EARL AND COUNTESS OF LEVEN AND MELVIL. ()
- ODE TO CONSCIENCE. TO MRS. YEARSLEY. ()
- ODE TO GENIUS. TO THE REV. WILLIAM MASON, A.M. PRECENTOR OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF YORK. ()
- ODE TO TRAGEDY. TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- THE POWER OF LOVE. TO ROBERT BERKELEY, ESQ. JUNIOR, OF SPETCHLEY PARK, WORCESTERSHIRE. ()
- PROLOGUE TO BONDS WITHOUT JUDGEMENT, OR THE LOVES OF BENGAL. ()
- PROLOGUE, SPOKEN BY THE AUTHOR, ON OPENING THE NEW THEATRE AT BLENHEIM, OCTOBER 1787. TO THEIR GRACES THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. ()
- THE RAPE OF THE WIG. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1782. ()
- RUMORA; OR, THE MAID OF RAASA. ()
- SONG. SUNG BY A CHORUS OF PEASANTS. ()
- SONG. TO ALMERIA. ()
- STANZAS ON PAINTING. TO THE REVEREND WILLIAM PETERS, LL.B. ()
- STANZAS WRITTEN AT THE TOMB OF SHAKSPEARE. ()
- TO A NIGHTINGALE IN CLIFDEN WOOD. TO MRS. D. MONCK, OF COOKHAM. ()
- TO MIRANDA, ON HER DETERMINING TO ASSUME THE VEIL. ()
- TO MIRANDA, ON THE DEATH OF HER BROTHER-IN-LAW THE EARL OF L—. ()
- TO MIRANDA. ()
- TO MISS — OF DUBLIN, ON THE DEATH OF HER MOTHER. ()
- VERSES ON MRS. BILLINGTON'S APPEARANCE AT OXFORD. TO THOMAS BARRETT LENNARD, ESQ. ()
- VERSES ON SEEING THE TRAGEDY OF THE REGENT. TO BERTIE GREATHEAD, ESQ. ()
- VERSES ON THE DUTCHESS OF RUTLAND'S PREFERRING MR. PETERS. TO GEORGE ATKINSON, M.D. ()
- THE VIRGIN'S MIDNIGHT HYMN, SUPPOSED TO BE SUNG BY A CHORUS OF NUNS AT BRUSSELS, IN THE YEAR 1786, WHEN THE AUTHOR WAS THERE. INSCRIBED TO THE HON. MISS MOLESWORTHS, DAUGHTERS OF LORD MOLESWORTH, AND TO MISS HORNES, DAUGHTERS OF THE BISHOP OF NORWICH. ()