Odes
To my Lyre
Thou simple Lyre! thy music wild
Has served to charm the weary hour,
And many a lonely night has ‘guiled,
When even pain has own’d, and smiled,
Its fascinating power.
Yet, O my Lyre! the busy crowd
Will little heed thy simple tones;
Them mightier minstrels harping loud
Engross,—and thou and I must shroud
Where dark oblivion ‘thrones.
No hand, they diapason o’er,
Well skill’d I throw with sweep sublime;
For me, no academic lore
Has taught the solemn strain to pour,
Or build the polish’d rhyme.
Yet thou to sylvan themes canst soar;
Thou know’st to charm the woodland train;
The rustic swains believe thy power
Can hush the wild winds when they roar,
And still the billowy main.
These honours, Lyre, we yet may keep,
I, still unknown, may live with thee,
And gentle zephyr’s wing will sweep
Thy solemn string, where low I sleep,
Beneath the alder tree.
This little dirge will please me more
Than the full requiem’s swelling peal;
I’d rather than that crowds should sigh
For me, that from some kindred eye
The trickling tear should steal.
Yet dear to me the wreath of bay,
Perhaps from me debarr’d;
And dear to me the classic zone,
Which, snatch’d from learning’s labour’d throne,
Adorns the accepted bard.
And O! if yet ’twere mine to dwell
Where Cam or Isis winds along,
Perchance, inspired with ardour chaste,
I yet might call the ear of taste
To listen to my song.
Oh! then, my little friend, thy style
I’d change to happier lays,
Oh! then the cloister’d glooms should smile,
And through the long, the fretted aisle
Should swell the note of praise.