Part 23 (1/2)
Timotheus, placed on high Amid the tuneful quire, With flying fingers touched the lyre: The trembling notes ascend the sky, And heavenly joys inspire.
The song began from Jove, Who left his blissful seats above, (Such is the power of mighty love.) A dragon's fiery form belied the G.o.d: Sublime on radiant spires he rode.
The listening crowd admire the lofty sound, A present deity, they shout around; A present deity, the vaulted roofs rebound: With ravish'd ears The monarch hears, a.s.sumes the G.o.d, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres.
_Chorus._
_With ravish'd ears_ _The monarch hears,_ _a.s.sumes the G.o.d,_ _Affects to nod,_ _And seems to shake the spheres._
JOHN DRYDEN.
_From ”Ode on St. Cecilia's Day.”_
_Kubla Khan_
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man, Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But O! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift, half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale, the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me Her sympathy and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flas.h.i.+ng eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.
_The Magic Car Moved On_
The Fairy and the Soul proceeded; The silver clouds disparted; And, as the car of magic they ascended, Again the speechless music swelled, Again the coursers of the air Unfurled their azure pennons, and the Queen, Shaking the beamy reins, Bade them pursue their way.
The magic car moved on.
The night was fair, and countless stars Studded heaven's dark-blue vault,-- The eastern wave grew pale With the first smile of morn.
The magic car moved on.
From the celestial hoofs The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew; And, where the burning wheels Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak, Was traced a line of lightning.
Now far above a rock, the utmost verge Of the wide earth, it flew-- The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow Loured o'er the silver sea.
Far far below the chariot's path, Calm as a slumbering babe, Tremendous Ocean lay.
The mirror of its stillness showed The pale and waning stars, The chariot's fiery track, And the grey light of morn Tingeing those fleecy clouds That cradled in their folds the infant dawn.
The chariot seemed to fly Through the abyss of an immense concave, Radiant with million constellations, tinged With shades of infinite colour, And semicircled with a belt Flas.h.i.+ng incessant meteors.
The magic car moved on.