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Ode for the Bicentenary Commemoration of Henry Purcell
Ode for the Bicentenary Commemoration of Henry Purcell Author:Robert Seymour Bridges Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ode to Music WRITTEN FOR THE BICENTENARY COMMEMORATION OF HENRY PURCELL Myriad-voiced Queen, Enchantress of the air, Bride of the life of man! With ... more »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 Chain'd in unborn oblivion drear, Thy many-hearted grace restore Unto our isle our own to be, And make again our Graces three. Turn, O return ! In merry England Foster'd thou wert with infant Liberty. Her hallow oaks, that stand With trembling leaves and giant heart Drinking in beauty from the summer moon, Her wild-wood 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. 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 walled 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. There if thou linger all the year, No jar of man can reach thine ear, Or sweetly comes, as when the sound From hidden villages around, Threadin...« less