Odes (Mason, 1756)/Ode to Memory
ODE I.
To MEMORY.
Mother of Wisdom![1] thou, whose sway
The throng'd ideal hosts obey;
Who bidst their ranks, now vanish, now appear,
Flame in the van, or darken in the rear:
Accept this votive verse. Thy reign
Nor place can fix, nor power restrain:
All all is thine. For thee the car, and eye
Rove thro' the realms of Grace, and Harmony:
The Senses thee spontaneous serve,
That wake, and thrill thro' every nerve.
Else vainly soft, lov'd Philomel! would flow
The soothing sadness of thy warbled woe:
Else vainly sweet yon woodbine shade
With clouds of fragrance fill the glade;
Vainly, the cygnet spread her downy plume,
The vine guſh nectar, and the virgin bloom.
But swift to thee, alive, and warm,
Devolves each tributary charm:
See modest Nature bring her simple stores,
Luxuriant Art exhaust her plastic powers;
While every flower in Fancy's clime,
Each gem of old heroic Time,
Cull'd by the hand of the industrious Muse,
Around thy shrine their blended beams diffuse.
The throng'd ideal hosts obey;
Who bidst their ranks, now vanish, now appear,
Flame in the van, or darken in the rear:
Accept this votive verse. Thy reign
Nor place can fix, nor power restrain:
All all is thine. For thee the car, and eye
Rove thro' the realms of Grace, and Harmony:
The Senses thee spontaneous serve,
That wake, and thrill thro' every nerve.
Else vainly soft, lov'd Philomel! would flow
The soothing sadness of thy warbled woe:
Else vainly sweet yon woodbine shade
With clouds of fragrance fill the glade;
Vainly, the cygnet spread her downy plume,
The vine guſh nectar, and the virgin bloom.
But swift to thee, alive, and warm,
Devolves each tributary charm:
See modest Nature bring her simple stores,
Luxuriant Art exhaust her plastic powers;
While every flower in Fancy's clime,
Each gem of old heroic Time,
Cull'd by the hand of the industrious Muse,
Around thy shrine their blended beams diffuse.
II.
Hail, mem'ry! hail. Behold I lead
To that high shrine the sacred Maid;
Thy daughter she, the Empress of the lyre,
The first, the fairest, of Aonia's quire.
She comes, and lo, thy realms expand!
She takes her delegated stand
Full in the midst, and o'er thy num'rous train
Displays the awful wonders of her reign.
There thron'd supreme in native state,
If Sirius flame with fainting heat,
She calls; ideal groves their shade extend,
The cool gale breaths, the silent show'rs descend:
Or, if bleak Winter, frowning round,
Disrobe the trees, and chill the ground,
She, mild Magician, waves her potent wand;
And ready summers meet her wing'd command.
See, visionary Suns arise,
Mid silver clouds, and azure skies;
See, Sportive Zephyrs curl the crisped streams;
Thro' shadowy brakes light glance the sparkling beams:
While, near the secret moss-grown cave,
That stands beside the crystal wave,
Sweet Eccho, rising from her rocky bed,
Mimics the feather'd Chorus o'er her head.
Hail, mem'ry! hail. Behold I lead
To that high shrine the sacred Maid;
Thy daughter she, the Empress of the lyre,
The first, the fairest, of Aonia's quire.
She comes, and lo, thy realms expand!
She takes her delegated stand
Full in the midst, and o'er thy num'rous train
Displays the awful wonders of her reign.
There thron'd supreme in native state,
If Sirius flame with fainting heat,
She calls; ideal groves their shade extend,
The cool gale breaths, the silent show'rs descend:
Or, if bleak Winter, frowning round,
Disrobe the trees, and chill the ground,
She, mild Magician, waves her potent wand;
And ready summers meet her wing'd command.
See, visionary Suns arise,
Mid silver clouds, and azure skies;
See, Sportive Zephyrs curl the crisped streams;
Thro' shadowy brakes light glance the sparkling beams:
While, near the secret moss-grown cave,
That stands beside the crystal wave,
Sweet Eccho, rising from her rocky bed,
Mimics the feather'd Chorus o'er her head.
III.
Rise, hallow'd Milton! rise, and say,
How, at thy gloomy close of Day;
How, when "deprest by Age, beset with wrongs;
When "fall'n on evil days and evil tongues;
When Darkness, brooding on thy sight,
Exil'd the sov'raign lamp of light:
Say, what could then one chearing hope diffuse?
What friends were thine, save Mem'ry and the Muse?
Hence the rich spoils, thy studious youth
Caught from the stores of antient Truth:
Hence all thy busy eye cou'd pleas'd explore,
When Rapture led thee to the Latian shore;
Each scene, that Tiber's bank supply'd;
Each grace, that play'd on Arno's side;
The tepid gales, thro' Tuscan glades that fly;
The blue Serene, that spreads Hesperia's sky;
Were still thine own: thy ample mind
Each charm receiv'd, retain'd, combin'd.
And thence "the nightly Visitant", that came
To touch thy bosom with her sacred flame,
Recall'd the long-lost beams of grace;
That whilom shot from Nature's face,
When God, in Eden, o'er her youthful breast
Spread with his own right hand Perfection's gorgeous Vest.
Rise, hallow'd Milton! rise, and say,
How, at thy gloomy close of Day;
How, when "deprest by Age, beset with wrongs;
When "fall'n on evil days and evil tongues;
When Darkness, brooding on thy sight,
Exil'd the sov'raign lamp of light:
Say, what could then one chearing hope diffuse?
What friends were thine, save Mem'ry and the Muse?
Hence the rich spoils, thy studious youth
Caught from the stores of antient Truth:
Hence all thy busy eye cou'd pleas'd explore,
When Rapture led thee to the Latian shore;
Each scene, that Tiber's bank supply'd;
Each grace, that play'd on Arno's side;
The tepid gales, thro' Tuscan glades that fly;
The blue Serene, that spreads Hesperia's sky;
Were still thine own: thy ample mind
Each charm receiv'd, retain'd, combin'd.
And thence "the nightly Visitant", that came
To touch thy bosom with her sacred flame,
Recall'd the long-lost beams of grace;
That whilom shot from Nature's face,
When God, in Eden, o'er her youthful breast
Spread with his own right hand Perfection's gorgeous Vest.
- ↑ According to a fragment of Afranius who makes Experience and Memory the parents of Wisdom.The Passage is preserv'd by Aulus Gellius, Lib. XIII. Cap. 8.Usus me genuit, Mater peperit Memoria,
ΣΟΦΙΑΝ vocant me Graii, vos Sapientiam.