"Ode for Music"

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

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• [BrJ_1903] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
• [EpW_1959] Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
• [GoE_1884] The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1912 [1st edition 1884], vol. i.
• [HeJ_1981] Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
• [LoR_1969] The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
• [P/W_1950] The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
• [PhW_1894] Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894.
• [ReJ_1973] The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
• [S/H_1966] The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].