AT A SOLEMN MUSIC.1 BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges2 of heaven's joy, With saintly shout and solemn jubilee : Singing everlastingly; That we on earth, with undiscording voice, Jarred against nature's chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In perfect diapason, 10 whilst they stood In first obedience, and their state of good. (1) At a solemn music―i. e. lines written at, or on, a sacred concert or oratorio. (2) Pledges-i. e. earnests or foretastes of the joys of heaven. (3) Wed your, &c.-Milton speaks in his "L'Allegro," of airs "married to immortal verse." (See p. 309.) (4) Mixed power, &c.-i. e. employ your united power, which is able to penetrate and breathe life even into dead things. and to our, &c. (5) Phantasy-the old spelling for fancy. (6) Concent-from the Latin con, together, and centus (for cantus), singing, harmony-in allusion to Plato's conceit of the music of the spheres. (7) Aye-always, ever. (8) Noise-music. So the word used to be sometimes employed in prose. See Psalm xlvii. 5: "God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet."-Cranmer's version. (9) Disproportioned-mismatched, disorderly. (10) Diapason-from the Greek 8tá, through, and waσwv, of all-"the interval of the octave, so called because it includes all admitted musical sounds"-here, metaphorically, full harmony. Oh! may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with heaven, till God ere long To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light! Milton. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.1 AVENGE, O Lord! thy slaughtered saints, whose bones To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow Milton. TO A FRIEND. WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills (1) This sublime prayer, as it may truly be called, was written on occasion of the barbarous massacre in 1665, inflicted by the Duke of Savoy on his Protestant subjects, the Vaudois. (2) So pure of old-The Vaudois appear to have kept themselves separate from the church of Rome from time immemorial. (3) Their moans, &c.—The simplicity of the expression, the fulness of meaning, and the fine movement of the verse, make this sentence truly sublime: (4) The triple tyrant-the Pope. So designated, probably, from his wearing the triple crown. (5) Babylonian woe-the woe denounced on the spiritual Babylon, which is by many considered to be the Roman Catholic church. To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills: ; Hartley Coleridge. THE DEATH-BED. WE watched her breathing through the night, Her breathing soft and low, As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro. So silently we seemed to speak, As we had lent her half our powers Our very hopes belied our fears, For when the morn came, dim and sad, Her quiet eyelids closed-she had Hood. (1) Wisely doting-to dote, connected with the Dutch dutten, and the French doter, radoter, probably meant originally to sleep, or dream, then to rave, to talk or act foolishly: hence the pointed antithesis, in the above phrase. (2) This beautiful line reminds us of Gray's expression (see p. 127)— "Where ignorance is bliss "Tis folly to be wise;" and also of the exquisite story of Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius (book iv. 28). Psyche was perfectly happy in the love of Cupid, or Eros, until her curiosity prompted her to try to ascertain who he was-and then he vanished for ever! NIGHT. NIGHT is the time for rest;- Stretch the tired limbs and lay the head Night is the time for dreams; The gay romance of life; When truth that is, and truth that seems, Blend in fantastic strife; Ah! visions less beguiling far Than waking dreams by daylight are! 1 Night is the time for toil;- Night is the time to weep ;— Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years; Hopes that were angels in their birth, But perished young, like things of earth. Night is the time for care ;- Come to our lonely tent; Like Brutus,1 'midst his slumbering host, (1) Like Brutus-In allusion to the phantom of Cæsar, which is said to have appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi. (2) Stalworth-from the Anglo-Saxon stal-weorth, worth stealing or taking, and therefore (says Richardson), by inference-brave, strong, daring. Jamieson derives its equivalent stalwart from the Anglo-Saxon stalferhth, steel mind or spirit—a much more probable derivation. M Night is the time to pray ;- Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, Night is the time for death ;- Calmly to yield the weary breath, From sin and suffering cease; Think of heaven's bliss and give the sign To parting friends-such death be mine! DEATH OF AN INFANT.1 Montgomery. DEATH found strange beauty on that infant brow, Mrs. Sigourney. EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.2 WHEN first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave (1) This subject has not often been more gracefully and tenderly handled than in the above lines. The picture here presented matches with that by the same elegant hand in p. 88. (2) The author of these striking lines was a Welsh private gentleman who lived in the 17th century. It is rare to find so much meaning in so few words. |