ODE

ON

ST. CECILIA'S DAY,

MDCCVIII.

AND OTHER PIECES FOR MUSIC.

ODE FOR MUSIC

ON

ST. CECILIA'S DAY.

1. . DESCEND, ye Nine ! descend and sing ;

The breathing instruments inspire,
Wake into voice each silent string,
And sweep the sounding lyre !
In a sadly-pleasing strain

5 Let the warbling lute complain :

Let the loud trumpet sound,
"Till the roofs all around

The shrill echoes rebound:
While in more lengthen'd notes and slow,
The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.

Hark! the numbers soft and clear
Gently steal upon the ear ;
Now louder, and yet louder rise,
And fill with spreading sounds the skies ;

15 Exulting in triumph now swell the bold notes, In broken air, trembling, the wild music floats;

"Till

10 'Till, by degrees, remote and small,

The strains decay,

And melt away,
In a dying, dying fall.

20

II.

By Music, minds an equal temper know,

Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, Music her soft, assuasive voice applies ;

Or, when the soul is press’d with cares,

Exalts her in enliv'ning airs.
Warriors she fires with animated sounds;
Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds :

Melancholy lifts her head,
Morpheus rouses from his bed,
Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes,

Listning Envy drops her snakes ;
Intestine war no more our passions wage,
And giddy Factions hear away their rage.

30

35 But

Ver. 35.) Dr. Greene set this ode to music in 1730, as an exercise for his Doctor's Degree at Cambridge, on which occasion Pope made considerable alteration in it, and added the following Atanza in this place :

Amphion thus bade wild dissention cease,
And soften’d mortals learn'd the arts of peace,
Amphion taught contending kings,

From various discords, to create

The music of a well-tun'd state;
Nor slack, nor strain the tender strings,

Those useful touches to impart,
That strike the subject's answering heart,

And