While melting music steals upon the sky,1 And softened sounds along the waters die; All but the sylph-with careful thoughts oppressed, Dipped in the richest tincture of the skies, Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes; While every beam new transient colors flings, 50 Colors that change whene'er they wave their wings. Superior by the head, was Ariel placed; His purple pinions opening to the sun, He raised his azure wand, and thus begun : "Ye sylphs and sylphids,8 to your chief give ear! Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and demons, hear!9 1 Cf. Gray's Progress of Poesy, line 36. 2 Properly, dwellers within; by extension it becomes" inhabitants." 3 What is the meaning here? Cf. "crystal," p. 26, line 75. 4 Sails. 5 What is meant by "clouds of gold"? 6 A charming description of the iridescence of "insect wings." 7 "Purple" here suggests his regal position. 8 The termination -id is feminine. 9 Cf. Milton's Paradise Lost, V. lines 600, 601: "Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light, Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers." 55 бо 65 70 Ye know the spheres, and various tasks assigned Some in the fields of purest ether play, And bask and whiten in the blaze of day. Some guide the course of wandering orbs 1 on high, Or suck the mists in grosser air below, 75 80 Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main, 85 Or o'er the glebe distill the kindly rain. 90 To draw fresh colors from the vernal flowers; 95 To steal from rainbows, ere they drop in showers, A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs, Assist their blushes and inspire their airs ;4 Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow, 1 " To change a flounce, or add a furbelow. "This day, black omens threat the brightest fair That e'er deserved a watchful spirit's care; Wandering orbs " here seems to mean meteors," for "planets used in the next line. 2 Cf. Milton's Comus, lines 300, 301: "That in the colors of the rainbow live, And play i' the plighted clouds." 3 Note the ambiguity. 4"Airs." Why used? What does it mean here? 100 " is Some dire disaster,1 ́or by force, or slight; But what, or where, the Fates have wrapped in night. Or some frail China jar receive a flaw; Or lose her heart,2 or necklace,2 at a ball; Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall. "Whatever spirit, careless of his charge, Be stopped in vials, or transfixed with pins; Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie, Or wedged whole ages in a bodkin's 5 eye: 105 IIO 115 120 125 The giddy motion of the whirling mill, In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, And tremble at the sea that froths below!" 1 What is the history of this word? 2 Note the suggestion that her heart and necklace were of equal importance. 3 Lines 110-114. "Zephyretta," etc. 4 Diamond ear pendants. Note the aptness of these names. 5 Originally a small dagger. Cf. Shakespeare's Hamlet, iii. i. : "When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin." 6 A Greek king, who, for boastfulness, was punished in the lower world by being fastened by brazen bands to an ever-revolving wheel. He spoke the spirits from the sails descend; Some hang upon the pendants of her ear: 1 In circles. 66 130 2 What the issue will be. "Fate" is from the Latin, fari, to speak, and means that which was spoken in the beginning, and is therefore unchangeable. CANTO III. CLOSE by those meads, forever crowned with flowers, In various talk the instructive hours they passed, Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat, Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day, The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; 1 Hampton Court. 2 Particularly Louis XIV., king of France from 1643 to 1715. 3 Anne, queen of England from 1702 to 1714. 4 What three? When were they united? 5 See Note 4, p. 26. Note the humorous antithesis. 5 ΙΟ 15 20 |