Part 50

IN IMITATION OF

VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

Ye Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song: To heav'nly themes sublimer strains belong. The mossy fountains, and the sylvan shades, The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids, Delight no more--O Thou my voice inspire Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire! Rapt into future times, the bard begun: A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son! From Jesse's root behold a branch arise, Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies: 10 Th' ethereal Spirit o'er its leaves shall move, And on its top descends the mystic dove. Ye heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, And in soft silence shed the kindly show'r! The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid, 15 From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; Returning Justice lift aloft her scale; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend. 20 Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn! Oh spring to light, auspicious babe, be born! See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring, With all the incense of the breathing spring: See lofty Lebanon his head advance; 25 See nodding forests on the mountains dance: See spicy clouds from lowly Saron rise, And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies! Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers; Prepare the way! a God, a God appears: 30 A God, a God! the vocal hills reply, The rocks proclaim th' approaching deity. Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies! Sink down, ye mountains, and, ye valleys, rise; With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay; 35 Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods, give way! The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold! Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold! He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day: 40 'Tis he th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear, And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear: The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting like the bounding roe. No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear, 45 From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear, In adamantine chains shall Death be bound, And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound. As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care, Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air, 50 Explores the lost, the wand'ring sheep directs, By day o'ersees them, and by night protects, The tender lambs he raises in his arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms; Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, 55 The promised Father of the future age. No more shall nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes, Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er, The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more; 60 But useless lances into scythes shall bend, And the broad faulchion in a plow-share end. Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun; Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, 65 And the same hand that sowed, shall reap the field. The swain in barren deserts with surprise Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise; And starts, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear New fells of water murm'ring in his ear. 70 On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes, The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods. Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn, The spiry fir and shapely box adorn; To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed, 75 And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed. The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead; The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 80 The smiling infant in his hand shall take The crested basilisk and speckled snake, Pleased, the green lustre of the scales survey, And with their forky tongue shall innocently play. Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise! 85 Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes! See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn; See future sons, and daughters yet unborn, In crowding ranks on ev'ry side arise, Demanding life, impatient for the skies! 90 See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend, Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend; See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings, And heaped with products of Sabæan springs! For thee Idume's spicy forests blow, 95 And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display, And break upon thee in a flood of day. No more the rising sun shall gild the morn, Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her silver horn; 100 But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays, One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine! The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 105 Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away; But fixed his word, his saving power remains: Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!

FOOTNOTES:

Sicilian muse, begin a loftier strain--WAKEFIELD.]

The lovely shrubs and trees that shade the plain, Delight not all.--BOWLES.]

And join thy voice unto the angel quire, From out his sacred altar touched with hallowed fire.--WAKEFIELD.]

Jam redit et Virge, redeunt Saturnia regna; Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto.-- Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.-- Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.

"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever reliques of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father."

Isaiah vii. 14. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son." Ch. ix. ver. 6, 7. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,--the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government, and of his peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice, for ever and ever."--POPE.

By "the virgin" Virgil meant Astræa, or Justice, who is said by the poets to have been driven from earth by the wickedness of mankind.--PROFESSOR MARTYN.]

But shed from nature like a kindly show'r.--STEEVENS.]

Yet of old fraud some footsteps shall remain.]

For Justice was fabled by the poets to quit the earth at the conclusion of the golden age.--WAKEFIELD.]

Talia sæcla ... currite ...--WAKEFIELD.]

At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus, Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.-- Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores.

"For thee, O child, shall the earth, without being tilled, produce her early offerings; winding ivy, mixed with Baccar, and Colocasia with smiling Acanthus. Thy cradle shall pour forth pleasing flowers about thee."

Isaiah xxxv. 1. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Chap. lx. 13. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary."--POPE.]

The line is too particular; it brings the image too close, and by exhibiting the action stronger than poetical propriety and sublimity required, destroys the intended effect. In images of this sort, the greatest care should be taken just to present the idea, but not to detail it,--otherwise it becomes, in the language of Shakespeare, like "ambition that o'er-leaps itself."--BOWLES.

Pope copied Dryden's translation of Virgil, Ecl. vi. 44, quoted by Wakefield;

And silver fauns and savage beasts advanced, And nodding forests to the numbers danced,]

Aggredere, ô magnos, aderit jam tempus, honores, Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum.

Ecl. v. 62:

Ipsi lætitia voces ad sidera jactan Intonsi montes, ipsæ jam carmina rupes, Ipsa sonant arbusta, Deus, deus ille, Menalca!

"Oh come and receive the mighty honours: the time draws nigh, O beloved offspring of the gods, O great increase of Jove! The uncultivated mountains send shouts of joy to the stars, the very rocks sing in verse, the very shrubs cry out, A god, a god!"

Isaiah xl. 3, 4. "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord! make straight in the desert a high way for our God! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Chap. xliv. 23. "Break forth into singing, ye mountains! O forest, and every tree therein! for the Lord hath redeemed Israel."--POPE.

The passage from Virgil, in which the shrubs are supposed to cry out "a god, a god," is not from the same Eclogue with the rest of Pope's extracts, and has no reference to the anticipated appearance of a ruler who should regenerate the world. The occasion of the shout is the presumed deification of one Daphnis who is dead.]

Then, as you pass, let mountains homage pay And bow their tow'ring heads to smooth your way.--WAKEFIELD.]