VOL. I.

ODES.

ODE I.

TO MEMORY.

I.

MOTHER OF WISDOM!* thou, whose sway

The throng'd ideal hosts obey;

Who bid'st 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 ear and eye
Rove through the realms of grace and harmony:
The senses thee spontaneous serve,

That wake, and thrill through every nerve.
Else vainly soft, loved Philomel! would flow
The soothing sadness of thy warbled woe:
Else vainly sweet yon woodbine skade
With clouds of fragrance fill the glade;

*

NOTE.

According to a fragment of Afranius, who makes Experience and Memory the parents of Wisdom.

Usus me genuit, Mater peperit MEMORIA

ZOPIAN vocant me Graii, vos SAPIENTIAM.

This passage is preserved by Aulus Gellius, lib. xiii. cap. 8.

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, MEMORY! 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 numerous train
Displays the awful wonders of her reign.

There throned supreme in native state

If Sirius flame with fainting heat,

She calls; ideal groves their shade extend,
The cool gale breathes, the silent showers descend.
Or, if bleak winter, frowning round,

Disrobe the trees, and chill the ground,
She, mild magician, waves her potent wand,
And ready summers wake at her command.