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Ode for Music
Air
1 'Hence, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)
2 'Comus and his midnight-crew,
3 'And Ignorance with looks profound,
4 'And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue,
5 'Mad Sedition's cry profane,
6 'Servitude that hugs her chain,
7 'Nor in these consecrated bowers
8 'Let painted Flattery hide her serpent-train in flowers.
Chorus
9 'Nor Envy base nor creeping Gain
10 'Dare the Muse's walk to stain,
11 'While bright-eyed Science watches round:
12 'Hence, away, 'tis holy ground! '
Recitative
13 From yonder realms of empyrean day
14 Bursts on my ear the indignant lay:
15 There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine,
16 The few whom genius gave to shine
17 Through every unborn age and undiscovered clime.
18 Rapt in celestial transport they,
(accomp.)
19 Yet hither oft a glance from high
20 They send of tender sympathy
21 To bless the place, where on their opening soul
22 First the genuine ardour stole.
23 'Twas Milton struck the deep-toned shell,
24 And, as the choral warblings round him swell,
25 Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime,
26 And nods his hoary head and listens to the rhyme.
Air
27 'Ye brown o'er-arching groves,
28 'That Contemplation loves,
29 'Where willowy Camus lingers with delight!
30 'Oft at the blush of dawn
31 'I trod your level lawn,
32 'Oft wooed the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright
33 'In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly,
34 'With Freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melancholy. '
Recitative
35 But hark! the portals sound and, pacing forth
36 With solemn steps and slow,
37 High potentates and dames of royal birth
38 And mitred fathers in long order go:
39 Great Edward with the lilies on his brow
40 From haughty Gallia torn,
41 And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn
42 That wept her bleeding love, and princely Clare,
43 And Anjou's heroine, and the paler rose,
44 The rival of her crown and of her woes,
45 And either Henry there,
46 The murthered saint and the majestic lord,
47 That broke the bonds of Rome,
48 (Their tears, their little triumphs o'er,
(accomp.)
49 Their human passions now no more,
50 Save charity, that glows beyond the tomb).
51 All that on Granta's fruitful plain
52 Rich streams of regal bounty poured,
53 And bade these awful fanes and turrets rise,
54 To hail their Fitzroy's festal morning come;
55 And thus they speak in soft accord
56 The liquid language of the skies.
Quartetto
57 'What is grandeur, what is power?
58 'Heavier toil, superior pain.
59 'What the bright reward we gain?
60 'The grateful memory of the good.
61 'Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
62 'The bee's collected treasures sweet,
63 'Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
64 'The still small voice of gratitude. '
Recitative
65 Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud
66 The venerable Margaret see!
67 'Welcome, my noble son,' (she cries aloud)
68 'To this, thy kindred train, and me:
69 'Pleased in thy lineaments we trace
70 'A Tudor's fire, a Beaufort's grace.
Air
71 'Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye,
72 'The flower unheeded shall descry,
73 'And bid it round heaven's altars shed
74 'The fragrance of its blushing head:
75 'Shall raise from earth the latent gem
76 'To glitter on the diadem.
Recitative
77 'Lo, Granta waits to lead her blooming band,
78 'Not obvious, not obtrusive, she
79 'No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings;
80 'Nor dares with courtly tongue refined
81 'Profane thy inborn royalty of mind:
82 'She reveres herself and thee.
83 'With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow
84 'The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings,
85 'And to thy just, thy gentle hand
86 'Submits the fasces of her sway,
87 'While spirits blest above and men below
88 'Join with glad voice the loud symphonious lay.
Grand Chorus
89 'Through the wild waves as they roar
90 'With watchful eye and dauntless mien
91 'Thy steady course of honour keep,
92 'Nor fear the rocks nor seek the shore:
93 'The star of Brunswick smiles serene,
94 'And gilds the horrors of the deep. '
FINIS
Source edition
Gray, Thomas, 1716-1771. Thomas Gray: English poems. Web. Oxford: Thomas Gray Archive, 2002. http://www.thomasgray.org/texts/poems.shtml
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other versions of this work
Other works by Thomas Gray
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- [Verse Fragments] ()
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