"No fruitless toils! No brainless broils! Each moment levell'd at the mark! Be sad and solemn when 'tis dark. "Yet, prudence, still What's most important, make most dear! Resides true bliss ; True bliss, a deity severe ! "When temper leans To gayer scenes, And serious life void moments spares, My sinews brace! Or song unbend my mind from cares! "Nor shun, my soul ! Where mirth, good nature, spirit, flow! Above, to please The laughing gods, the wise, below. "Though rich the vine, More wit than wine, More sense than wit, good-will than art, May I provide ! Fair truth, my pride! My joy, the converse of the heart! "The gloomy brow, The broken vow, To distant climes, ye gods! remove! Their commerce hold With words of truth and looks of love! "O glorious aim ! O wealth supreme! Divine benevolence of soul! That greatly glows, And freely flows, And in one blessing grasps the whole; And scorn the labour'd monument! "Unhurt my urn! Till that great turn When mighty nature's self shall die! Time cease to glide, With human pride, Sunk in the ocean of eternity." IMPERIUM PELAGI: A NAVAL LYRIC. WRITTEN IN IMITATION OF PINDAR'S SPIRIT. OCCASIONED BY HIS MAJESTY'S RETURN, SEPTEMBER 10TH, 1729, AND THE SUCCEEDING PEACE.' Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Quem super notas alvere ripas, Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo.-PINDARUS. Concines lætosque dies, et urbis Publicum ludum, super impetrato Fortis Augusti reditu.-HORATII, Carm. Lib. iv. Od. ii. 41. PREFACE. A PINDARIC carries a formidable sound; but there is nothing formidable in the true nature of it, of which (with utmost submission) I conceive the critics have hitherto entertained a false idea. Pindar is as natural as Anacreon, though not so familiar; as a fixed star is as much in the bounds of nature as a flower of the field, though less obvious and of greater dignity. This is not the received notion of Pindar; I shall therefore soon support at large that hint which is now given. Trade is a very noble subject in itself, more proper than any for an Englishman, and particularly seasonable at this uncture. We have more specimens of good writing in every province than in the sublime; our two famous epic poems excepted. I was willing to make an attempt where I had fewest rivals. If, on reading this Ode, any man has a fuller idea of the real interest or possible glory of his country than before, or a stronger impression from it, or a warmer concern for it, I give up to the critic any further reputation. We have many copies and translations that pass for originals. This Ode, I humbly conceive, is an original, though it professes imitation. No man can be like Pindar by imitating any of his particular works, any more than like Raphael by copying the Cartoons. The genius and spirit of such great men must be collected from the whole; and when thus we are possessed of it, we must exert its energy 1 Commonly called "The Treaty of Seville," concluded December 9th, 1729, between the crowns of Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United Provinces. in subjects and designs of our own. Nothing is so unPindarical as following Pindar on the foot. Pindar is an original; and he must be so, too, who would be like Pindar in that which is his greatest praise. Nothing so unlike as a close copy and a noble original. As for length, Pindar has an unbroken Ode of six hundred lines. Nothing is long or short in writing but relatively to the demand of the subject and the manner of treating it. A distich may be long, and a folio short. However, I have broken this Ode into Strains, each of which may be considered as a separate Ode, if you please. And, if the variety and fulness of matter be considered, I am rather apprehensive of danger from brevity in this Ode than from length. But lank writing is what I think ought most to be declined,-if for nothing else, for our plenty of it. The Ode is the most spirited kind of poetry, and the Pindaric is the most spirited kind of Ode: this I speak at my own very great peril; but truth has an eternal title to our confession, though we are sure to suffer by it. 1729. THE MERCHANT. ODE THE FIRST. ON THE BRITISH TRADE AND NAVIGATION. TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF CHANDOS. Πλατεῖαι πάντοθεν λογίοι σιν ἐντὶ πρόσοδοι νᾶσον εὐκλέα τάν de коσμεTV.-PINDARI, Nemea, Od. vi. 75. PRELUDE. The proposition.-An address to the vessel that brought over the king. FAST by the surge my limbs are spread; The winds are loud; the waves tumultuous roll. The god descends, and transports warm my soul. I celebrate in song.-Famed isle! no less Though Fate and Time have damp'd my strains, Though slow their streams in this cold climate run, Recalls the warmth of blooming years; Away, my soul! salute the "Pine" Oh! send her down the tide of Time, The sea she scorns, and now shall bound I am her pilot, and her port the skies. Dare you to sing, ye tinkling train? Who shackle prose, and boast of absent gods; And labour stiff Anacreontic Odes! Ye lawful sons of genius, rise, Ye founts of learning, and ye mints of fame! Of glowing thought with Attic art, 1 The vessel that brought over the king. |