ODES.

ON THE SPRING.

[The title originally given by Mr. Gray to this Ode was "Noontide."]

O! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,

Fair VENUS' train, appear,

close the long-expected flowers,
And wake the purple year!
⇒ Attic warbler pours her throat,
ponsive to the cuckow's note,
The untaught harmony of spring:
ile, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
ol Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky
Their gather'd fragrance fling.

se reclin'd in rustic state) the ardour of the Crowd, , how little are the Proud, digent the Great! [1]*

O'er-canopies the glade.

a bank

O'er-canopied with luscious woodbine.

Shakesp. Mids. Night's Dream.

to taste the honied And foat amid the liq

es referred to by Italic letters between parentheses (a) Mr. Gray's. Those referred to by Figures between brackc. are chiefly selected from the Criticisms and CommenJohnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Scott, of Amwell, and various - Among them are occasionally interspersed a few remarks r; but these are not of importance enough to be distin

ation:-How low, how indigent the Proud; How little are the Great.

iy o'er the cur shew their gaily-gi Kick-glancing to the

Contemplation's sob h is the race of M

they that creep, an

Shall end where they

od in Dodsley's Miscellany, wherein it was first published. orrected it on account of the point of little and great. It too much the appearance of a Concetto, though it exleaning better than the present reading.

(And float amid the l Nare per æstatem lig

V

(e) Quick glancing to the

Shew to the sun ther sporting w

(d) To Contemplation.

While insects from

Dodsley's Misce

ager to taste the noniea spring,
And float amid the liquid noon: (b)
ome lightly o'er the current skim,
ome shew their gaily-gilded trim
Quick-glancing to the sun (c).

To Contemplation's sober eye (d)
Such is the race of Man:

nd they that creep, and they that fly,
Shall end where they began.

(b) And float amid the liquid noon.
Nare per æstatem liquidam-

Virgil Georg. lib. 4.

(c) Quick glancing to the sun.

sporting with quick glance,

Shew to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold.

Milton's Paradise Lost, book 7.

(d) To Contemplation's sober eye.

While insects from the threshold preach, &c.

M. Green, in the Grotto.

Dodsley's Miscellanies, Vol. 5. p. 161.

'TWAS on a lofty vase's side,

Where China's gayest art had dy'd
The azure flowers, that blow;
Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclin'd,
Gaz'd on the lake below.

Her conscious tail her joy declar'd;
The fair round face, the snowy beard,
The velvet of her paws,

Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,
Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes,
She saw; and purr'd applause.

[2] Mr. Walpole, after the death of Mr. Gray, placed the China vase En question on a pedestal at Strawberry-Hill, with the first four lines of the Ode for its inscription.

'Twas on this Vase's lofty side, &c.