William Collins (1721-1759)
Ode on the Poetical Character
1
1As once, if not with light regard,
2I read aright that gifted bard,
3(Him whose school above the rest
4His loveliest Elfin Queen has blest,)
5One, only one, unrival'd fair,
6Might hope the magic girdle wear,
7At solemn tourney hung on high,
8The wish of each love-darting eye;
9Lo! to each other nymph in turn applied,
10 As if, in air unseen, some hov'ring hand,
11Some chaste and angel-friend to virgin-fame,
12 With whisper'd spell had burst the starting band,
13It left unblest her loath'd dishonour'd side;
14 Happier, hopeless fair, if never
15 Her baffled hand with vain endeavour
16Had touch'd that fatal zone to her denied!
17Young Fancy thus, to me divinest name,
18 To whom, prepar'd and bath'd in Heav'n,
19 The cest of amplest pow'r is giv'n:
20 To few the god-like gift assigns,
21 To gird their blest prophetic loins,
22And gaze her visions wild, and feel unmix'd her flame!
2
23The band, as fairy legends say,
24Was wove on that creating day,
25When He, who call'd with thought to birth
26Yon tented sky, this laughing earth,
27And dress'd with springs, and forests tall,
28And pour'd the main engirting all,
29Long by the lov'd enthusiast woo'd,
30Himself in some diviner mood,
31Retiring, sate with her alone,
32And plac'd her on his sapphire throne,
33The whiles, the vaulted shrine around,
34Seraphic wires were heard to sound,
35Now sublimest triumph swelling,
36Now on love and mercy dwelling;
37And she, from out the veiling cloud,
38Breath'd her magic notes aloud:
39And thou, thou rich-hair'd youth of morn,
40And all thy subject life was born!
41The dang'rous Passions kept aloof,
42Far from the sainted growing woof:
43But near it sate ecstatic Wonder
44List'ning the deep applauding thunder:
45And Truth, in sunny vest array'd,
46By whose the tarsel's eyes were made
47All the shad'wy tribes of mind,
48In braided dance their murmurs join'd,
49And all the bright uncounted Pow'rs
50Who feed on Heav'n's ambrosial flow'rs.
51Where is the bard, whose soul can now
52Its high presuming hopes avow?
53Where he who thinks, with rapture blind,
54This hallow'd work for him design'd?
3
55High on some cliff, to Heav'n up-pil'd,
56Of rude access, of prospect wild,
57Where, tangled round the jealous steep,
58Strange shades o'erbrow the valleys deep,
59And holy genii guard the rock,
60 Its glooms embrown, its springs unlock,
61While on its rich ambitious head,
62An Eden, like his own, lies spread.
63I view that oak, the fancied glades among,
64By which as Milton lay, his ev'ning ear,
65From many a cloud that dropp'd ethereal dew,
66Nigh spher'd in Heav'n its native strains could hear:
67On which that ancient trump he reach'd was hung;
68 Thither oft his glory greeting,
69 From Waller's myrtle shades retreating,
70With many a vow from Hope's aspiring tongue,
71My trembling feet his guiding steps pursue;
72 In vain--such bliss to one alone,
73 Of all the sons of soul was known,
74 And Heav'n, and Fancy, kindred pow'rs,
75 Have now o'erturn'd th' inspiring bow'rs,
76Or curtain'd close such scene from ev'ry future view.
Notes
1] The poem (a regular Pindaric ode, but of a peculiar type favoured by Collins: see notes on Gray's Progress of Poesy) presents in allegorical form Collins's ideal of the poet's equipment and performance, and voices with increasing emphasis his disillusionment with his age and with his own work.
2] gifted bard: Spenser.
3] whose school. The reference is either to the Spenserians of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, or perhaps more generally to Spenser as the poet's poet.
5] Collins's note to this line refers to Florimel, a character in The Faerie Queene, Book IV. Actually it was Amoret whose "vertue of chast love, / And wivehood true" entitled her to wear the magic girdle. (See canto v, 3).
love-darting eye: cf. Milton, Comus, 753: "Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn"; and Pope, Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, 34: "And those love-darting eyes must roll no more."
17] Fancy: a synonym for imagination.
19] cest: girdle; in the allegory of the poem, the poetic faculty.
29] enthusiast: fancy (cf. line 17). The suggestion is that the union of the Diety with Fancy results in the creation of the universe and of the magic girdle, i.e., the poetic faculty.
39] youth of morn: the sun (cf. Ode to Evening, 5) or Apollo in his role of sun god.
43] Wonder: symbolizing one of the effects aimed at by Collins and his group in poetry.
45] Truth: claiming, symbolically, a truth and validity for the creations of the poetic imagination.
46] tarsel: tercel, the male falcon.
47] shad'wy tribes of mind: the personifications with which Collins's odes abound.
49] bright uncounted Pow'rs: spiritual beings, fit subjects for romantic verse.
54] This hallow'd work: "the magic girdle" (cf. lines 6, 19 and note).
55] cliff: a symbol of Milton's poetry, followed by symbolic details.
69] Waller's myrtle shades: the lyric verse of Edmund Waller (1605-1687). Cf. Pope, Essay on Criticism, 360-61.
72] one alone: Milton. Cf. line 5.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Collins, Odes on several descriptive and allegoric subjects (London: A. Millar ..., 1747 [i.e. 1746]). pam Fisher Library (Rare Books).
First publication date:
1747
RPO poem editor: G. G. Falle
RP edition: 3RP 2.207.
Recent editing: 4:2002/1/30
Form: Irregular Ode
Form note: The variable rhyme pattern of Collins' ode is typical of English imitations of the Pindaric Ode.
Other poems by William Collins
