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THE PROGRESS OF POESY.
25
Has curb'd the fury of his car,
And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command.[N 1]
Perching on the scept'red hand[N 2] 20
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king[N 3]
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing:[N 4]
Quench'd in dark[V 1] clouds of slumber lie
The terror of his beak, and lightnings of his eye.

I. 3.
Thee the voice, the dance, obey,[N 5] 25
Temper'd to thy warbled lay.[N 6]

Variants

  1. ↑ Var. V. 23. Dark] Black. MS.

Notes

  1. ↑ V. 19."Winn'st from his fatal grasp the spear,"
    Collins. Ode to Mercy, ver. 5.
    In the Lusus Poetici of Jortin (Hymn to Harmony, p. 45.), published in 1722, is the following couplet, strongly resembling Gray's, and from the same source:
    "Thou mak'st the God of War forsake the field,
    And drop his lance, and lay aside his shield."

    See also Ovid. Fasti, iii. v. 1: "Bellico, depositis clypeo paulisper et hastâ, Mars, ades," Claudiani Præf. in Rufin. lib. ii. "Thirsty blade," Spens. F. Q. i. v. xv.
  2. ↑ V. 20. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode. Gray. Pyth. i. ver. 10; and see D. Stewart. Philos. Essays, p. 373. For an error in the imagery of this line, see Class. Journ. No. xiii. p. 285.
  3. ↑ V. 21."Every fowl of tyrant wing,
    Save the Eagle feather'd King.
    Shakes. Pass. Pilg. xx.
  4. ↑ V. 22. H. Walpole, in describing the famous Boccapadugli eagle, of Greek sculpture, says: "Mr. Gray has drawn the 'flagging wing.'" See Works, vol. ii. p. 463. Philips (Past. 5.) "She hangs her flagging wings;" Luke. Add A. Behn on the D. of Buckingham, v. Works, v. ii. p. 208 "Now with their broken notes and flagging wing," See Wakef. on Virg. Georg. iv. 137; G. Steevens quotes Ronsaid Ode xxii. ed. 1632, fol.
  5. ↑ V. 25. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. Gray.
  6. ↑ V. 26. "Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay,"
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