But felt through all this fleshly dress Bright shoots of everlastingness.

O how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track! That I might once more reach that plain Where first I left my glorious train; From whence th' enlighten'd spirit sees That shady city of palm-trees. But ah! my soul with too much stay Is drunk, and staggers in the way! Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move; And when this dust falls to the urn, In that state I came, return.

JOHN DRYDEN

A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY,
NOVEMBER 22, 1687

FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began :
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,

And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high: "Arise, ye more than dead."

Then cold and hot and moist and dry
In order to their stations leap,
And Music's power obey.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in Man.

What passion cannot Music raise and quell!

When Jubal struck the chorded shell, His listening brethern stood around,

And, wondering, on their faces fell To worship that celestial sound. Less than a god they thought there could not dwell

Within the hollow of that shell That spoke so sweetly and so well. What passion cannot Music raise and quell!

The trumpet's loud clangour

Excites us to arms With shrill notes of anger And mortal alarms.

His valiant peers were placed around; Their brows with roses and with myrtles

bound:

(So should desert in arms be crowned.) The lovely Thais, by his side,

Sate like a blooming Eastern bride,
In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the brave,

None but the brave,

None but the brave deserves the fair.

CHORUS

Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the brave,

None but the brave,

None but the brave deserves the fair.

Timotheus, placed on high

Amid the tuneful choir,

With flying fingers touched the lyre:
The trembling notes ascend the sky,
And heavenly joys inspire.
The song began from Jove,
Who left his blissful seats above,
(Such is the power of mighty love.)
A dragon's fiery form belied the god:
Sublime on radiant spires he rode,
When he to fair Olympia pressed,
And while he sought her snowy
breast;

Then round her slender waist he curled, And stamped an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.

The listening crowd admire the lofty sound,

"A present deity," they shout around; "A present deity," the vaulted roofs rebound:

With ravished ears
The monarch hears,
Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

CHORUS

With ravished ears The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung,

Of Bacchus ever fair, and ever young.
The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets, beat the
drums;

Flushed with a purple grace

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.

Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;
Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
CHORUS

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,
Drinking is the soldier's pleasure;
Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain;

Fought all his battles o'er again; And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.

The master saw the madness rise,
His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And, while he heaven and earth defied,
Changed his hand, and checked his
pride.

He chose a mournful Muse,
Soft pity to infuse;

He sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate,
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.

With downcast looks the joyless victor

sate,

Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of chance

below;

And, now and then, a sigh he stole,

And tears began to flow.

CHORUS

Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of chance below;

And, now and then, a sigh he stole,

And tears began to flow.

The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleas-

ures.

"War," he sung, "is toil and trouble; Honor but an empty bubble;

Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:
If the world be worth thy win-
ning,

Think, oh think it worth enjoying;
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide
thee."

The many rend the skies with loud applause :

So Love was crowned, but Music won the

cause.

The prince, unable to conceal his pain,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,

Sighed and looked, and sighed again: At length, with love and wine at once op

pressed,

The vanquished victor sunk upon her

breast.

CHORUS

At length, with love and wine at once oppressed,

The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

Now strike the golden lyre again:
A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,
And rouse him, like a rattling peal of
thunder.

Hark, hark, the horrid sound
Has raised up his head;

As awaked from the dead,
And, amazed, he stares around.
"Revenge, revenge!" Timotheus

cries,

"See the Furies arise!

See the snakes that they rear,
How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their
eyes!

Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,

And unburied remain
Inglorious on the plain :
Give the vengeance due
To the valient crew.

Behold how they toss their torches on high, How they point to the Persian abodes,

And glittering temples of their hostile gods!"

The princes applaud with a furious joy; And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;

Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

And like another Helen, fired another Troy.

CHORUS

And the king seized a flambeau with zeal

to destroy;

Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, Sighed and looked, and sighed again:

Troy.

Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,