First Choral Symphony

PRELUDE: INVOCATION TO PAN

CHORUS:

O Thou, whose mighty palace roof doth hang

From jagged trunks, and overshadoweth

Eternal whispers, glooms, the birth, life, death

Of unseen flowers in heavy peacefulness;

Who lov'st to see the hamadryads dress

Their ruffled locks where meeting hazels darken;

And through whole solemn hours dost sit, and hearken

The dreary melody of bedded reeds -

In desolate places, where dank moisture breeds

The pipy hemlock to strange overgrowth;

Bethinking thee, how melancholy loth

Thou wast to lose fair Syrinx - do thou now,

By thy love's milky brow!

By all the trembling mazes that she ran,

Hear us, great Pan!

Be still the unimaginable lodge

For solitary thinkings; such as dodge

Conception to the very bourne of heaven,

Then leave the naked brain, be still the leaven:

That, spreading in this dull and clodded earth,

Gives it a touch ethereal - a new birth:

Be still a symbol of immensity;

A firmament reflected in a sea;

An element filling the space between;

An unknown - but no more: we humbly screen

With uplift hands our foreheads, lowly bending,

And giving out a shout most heaven-rending,

Conjure thee to receive our humble Paean,

Upon thy Mount Lycean!

SONG AND BACCHANAL

Beneath my palm trees, by the river side,

I sat a-weeping: in the whole world wide

There was no one to ask me why I wept, -

And so I kept

Brimming the water-lily cups with tears

Cold as my fears.

Beneath my palm trees, by the river side,

I saw a-weeping: what enamoured bride,

Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds,

But hides and shrouds

Beneath dark palm trees by a river side?

And as I sat, over the light blue hills

There came a noise of revellers: the rills

Into the wide stream came of purple hue -

'Twas Bacchus and his crew!

The earnest trumpet spake, and silver thrills

From kissing cymbals made a merry din -

'Twas Bacchus and his kin!

Like to a moving vintage down they came,

Crown'd with green leaves, and faces all on flame;

All madly dancing through the pleasant valley

To scare thee. Melancholy!

O then, O then, thou wast a simple name!

And I forgot thee, as the berried holly

By shepherds is forgotten, when, in June,

Tall chestnuts keep away the sun and moon:

I rushed into the folly!

CHORUS:

"Whence came ye, merry Damsels, whence came ye?

So many, and so many, and such glee?

Why have ye left your bowers desolate,

Your lutes, and gentler fate?"

"We follow Bacchus! Bacchus on the wing,

A-conquering!

Bacchus, young Bacchus! good or ill betide,

We dance before him thorough kingdoms wide:

Come hither, lady fair, and joined be

To our wild minstrelsy!"

SOLO:

Within his car, aloft, young Bacchus stood,

Trifling his ivy-dart, in dancing mood,

With sidelong laughing;

And little rills of crimson wine imbrued

His plump white arms, and shoulders, enough white

For Venus' pearly bite:

And near him rode Silenus on his ass

Pelted with flowers as he on did pass

Tipsily quaffing.

CHORUS:

"Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs, whence came ye?

So many, and so many, and such glee?

Why have ye left your forest haunts why left

Your nuts in oak-tree cleft?"

"For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree;

For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,

And cold mushrooms;

For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;

Great God of breathless cups and chirping mirth!

I Come hither, lady fair, and joined be

To our mad minstrelsy!"

SOLO:

Onward the tiger and the leopard pants,

With Asian elephants:

Onward these myriads - with song and dance,

With zebras striped, and sleek Arabians' prance,

Web-footed alligators, crocodiles,

Bearing upon their scaly backs, in files,

Plump infant laughers mimicking the coil

Of seamen, and stout galley-rowers' toil:

With toying oars and silken sails they glide,

Nor care for wind and tide.

CHORUS

Bacchus, young Bacchus! good or ill betide,

We dance before him thorough kingdoms wide;

For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;

Great God of breathless cups and chirping mirth!

We follow Bacchus! Bacchus on the wing,

A-conquering!

ODE ON A GRECIAN URN

CHORUS:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme;

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love! more happy, happy love!

For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

For ever panting, and for ever young;

All breathing human passion far above,

That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,

A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar. O mysterious priest,

Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

What little town by river or sea shore,

Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?

And, little town. thy streets for evermore

Will silent be; and not a soul to tell

Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' SOLO that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

SCHERZO

Fancy Chorus:

Ever let the Fancy roam,

Pleasure never is at home:

At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,

Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;

Then let wingèd Fancy wander

Through the thought still spread beyond her:

Open wide the mind's cage-door,

She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.

O sweet Fancy! let her loose;

Summer's joys are spoilt by use

And the enjoying of the Spring

Fades as does its blossoming;

Autumns red-lipped fruitage too,

Blushing through the mist and dew,

Cloys with tasting: What do then?

Sit thee by the ingle, when

The sear faggot blazes bright,

Spirit of a winter's night;

When the soundless earth is muffled,

And the cakèd snow is shuffled

From the ploughboy's heavy shoon;

When the Night doth meet the Noon

In a dark conspiracy

To banish Even from her sky.

Sit thee there, and send abroad,

With a mind self-overaw'd,

Fancy, high-commission'd: - send her!

She has vassals to attend her:

She will bring. in spite of frost,

Beauties that the earth hath lost;

She will bring thee, all together,

All delights of summer weather;

All the buds and bells of May,

From dewy sward or thorny spray;

All the heaped Autumn's wealth,

With a still, mysterious stealth:

She will mix these pleasures up

Like three fit wines in a cup,

And thou shalt quaff it: - thou shalt hear

Distant harvest-carols clear;

Rustle of the reapèd corn;

Sweet birds antheming the morn:

And in the same moment - hark!

'Tis the early April lark,

Or the rooks, with busy caw,

Foraging for sticks and straw:

Thou shalt, at one glance, behold

The daisy and the marigold;

White-plumed lilies, and the first

Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst;

Shaded hyacinth alway

Sapphire queen of the mid-May;

And every leaf, and every flower

Pearlèd with the self-same shower.

Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep

Meagre from its cellèd sleep;

And the snake all winter-thin

Cast on sunny bank its skin;

Freckled nest-eggs thou shalt see

Hatching in the hawthorn-tree,

When the hen-bird's wing doth rest

Quiet on her mossy nest;

Then the hurry and alarm

When the bee-hive casts its swarm;

Acorns ripe down-pattering,

While the autumn breezes sing.

Oh, sweet Fancy! let her loose;

Everything is spoilt by use:

Where's the cheek that doth not fade,

Too much gazed at? Where's the maid

Whose lip mature is ever new?

Where's the eye. however blue,

Doth not weary? Where's the face

One would meet in every place?

Where's the voice, however soft,

One would hear so very oft?

Ever let the Fancy roam,

Pleasure never is at home:

At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,

Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;

Then let wingèd Fancy wander

Through the thought still spread beyond her:

Open wide the mind's cage-door,

She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.

FOLLY'S SONG

When wedding fiddles are a-playing,

Huzza for folly O!

And when maidens go a-Maying,

Huzza for folly O!

When a milk-pail is upset,

Huzza for folly O!

And the clothes left in the wet,

Huzza for folly O!

When the barrel's set a-broach,

Huzza for folly O!

When Kate Eyebrow keeps a coach,

Huzza for folly O!

When the pig is over-roasted,

And the cheese is over-toasted,

When Sir Snap is with his lawyer,

And Miss Chip has kiss'd the sawyer,

Huzza for folly O!

SYSTEMFINALE

SOLO:

Spirit here that reignest!

Spirit here that painest!

Spirit here that burnest!

Spirit here that mournest!

Spirit, I bow

My forehead low,

Enshaded with thy pinions.

Spirit, I look,

All passion-struck,

Into thy pale dominions.

CHORUS:

God of the golden bow,

And of the golden lyre,

And of the golden hair,

And of the golden fire!

In thy western halls of gold

When thou sittest in thy state,

Bards, that erst sublimely told

Heroic deeds, and sang of fate,

With fervour seize their adamantine lyres,

Whose chords are solid rays and twinkle radiant fires.

Here Homer with his nervous arms

Strikes the twanging harp of war,

And even the western splendour warms

While the trumpets sound afar.

SOLO:

Then, though thy Temple wide, melodious swells

The sweet majestic tone of Maro's lyre:

The soul delighted on each accent dwells -

Enraptured dwells - not daring to respire,

The while he tells of grief around a funeral pyre.

CHORUS:

'Tis awful silence then again;

Expectant stand the spheres;

Breathless the laurell'd peers.

Nor move, till ends the lofty strain,

Nor move till Milton's tuneful thunders cease,

And leave once more the ravish'd heavens in peace.

Thou biddest Shakespeare wave his hand,

And quickly forward spring

The Passions - a terrific band -

And each vibrates the string

That with its tyrant temper best accords,

While from their Master's lips pour forth the inspiring words.

A silver trumpet Spenser blows,

And, as its martial notes to silence flee,

From a virgin chorus flows

A hymn in praise of spotless Chastity.

'Tis still! Wild warblings from the Aeolian lyre

Enchantment softly breathe, and tremblingly expire.

SOLO:

Next thy Tasso's ardent numbers

Float along the pleasèd air,

Calling youth from idle slumbers,

Rousing them from Pleasure's lair:

Then o'er the strings his fingers gently move,

And melt the soul to pity and to love.

CHORUS:

But when Thou joinest with the Nine,

And all the powers of song combine,

We listen here on earth:

The dying tones that fill the air,

And charm the ear of evening fair,

From thee, great God of Bards, receive their heavenly birth.

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Have ye souls in heaven too,

Double-lived in regions new?

Yes, and those of heav'n commune

With the spheres of sun and moon;

With the noise of fountains wondrous,

And the parle of voices thund'rous;

With the whisper of heav'n's trees

And one another, is soft ease

Seated on Elysian lawns

Browsed by none but Dian's fawns;

Underneath large blue-bells tented,

Where the daisies are rose-scented,

And the rose herself has got

Perfume which on earth is not;

Where the nightingale doth sing

Not a senseless, trancèd thing,

But divine melodious truth;

Philosophic numbers smooth;

Tales and golden histories

Of heaven and its mysteries.

Thus ye live on high, and then

On the earth ye live again;

And the souls ye left behind you

Teach us, here, the way to find you,

Where your other souls are joying,

Never slumbered. never cloying.

Here, your earth-born souls still speak

To mortals, of their little week;

Of their sorrows and delights;

Of their passions and their spites;

Of their glory and their shame;

What doth strengthen and what maim

Thus ye teach us, every day,

Wisdom, though fled far away.

SOLO:

Spirit here that reignest!

Spirit here that painest!

Spirit here that burnest!

Spirit here that mournest!

Spirit, I bow

My forehead low,

Enshaded with thy pinions.

Spirit, I look.

All passion-struck,

Into thy pale dominions.

CHORUS:

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,

Ye have left your souls on earth!

Ye have souls in heaven too,

Double-lived in regions new!