ODE TO MUSIC
Written for the Bicentenary Commemoration of Henry Purcell.
I.
Myriad-voicèd Queen, Enchantress of the air,
Bride of the life of man! with tuneful reed,
With string and horn and high-adoring quire
Thy welcome we prepare.
In silver-speaking mirrors of desire,
In joyous ravishment of mystery draw thou near;
With heavenly echo of thoughts, that dreaming lie
Chain’d in unborn oblivion drear,
Thy many-hearted grace restore
Unto our isle our own to be,
And make again our Graces three.
II.
Turn, oh, return! In merry England
Foster’d thou wert with infant Liberty.
Her hallowed oaks that stand
With trembling leaves and giant heart
Drinking in beauty from the summer moon,
Her wildwood, once was dear to thee.
There the birds with tiny art
Earth’s immemorial cradle-tune
Warble at dawn to fern and fawn,
In the budding thickets making merry;
And for their love the primrose faint
Floods the green shade with youthful scent.
Come, thy jocund spring renew
By hyacinthine lakes of blue:
Thy beauty shall enchant the buxom May;
And all the summer months shall strew thy way,
And rose and honeysuckle rear
Their flowery screens, till under fruit and berry
The tall brake groweth golden with the year.
III.
Thee fair Poetry oft hath sought,
Wandering lone in wayward thought,
On level meads by gliding streams,
When summer noon is full of dreams:
And thy loved airs her soul invade,
Haunting retired the willow shade.
Or in some wallèd orchard nook
She communes with her ancient book,
Beneath the branches laden low;
While the high sun o’er bosom’d snow
Smiteth all day the long hill-side,
With ripening cornfields waving wide.