STEPHEN DUCK
“On MUSIC”
I.
MUSIC the coldest Heart can warm,
The hardest melt, the fiercest charm;
Disarm the Savage of his Rage,
Dispel our Cares, and Pains assuage;
With Joy it can our Souls inspire, 5
And tune our Tempers to the Lyre;
Our Passions, like the Notes, agree,
And stand subdu’d by Harmony.
This found the melancholy King,
When David tun’d the trembling String: 10
Sweet Music chas’d the fullen Spleen away,
And made his clouded Soul serenely gay.
II.
WHILE Music breathes in martial Airs,
The Coward dares forget his Fears;
Or, if the Notes to Pity sound, 15
Revenge and Envy cease to wound:
The Pow’r of MUSIC has been known,
To raise or tumble Cities down:
Thus Theban Turrets, Authors say,
Were rais’d by MUSIC’s Magick Lay; 20
And antient Jericho’s Heav’n-hated Wall,
To sacred MUSIC, ow’d its destin’d Fall.
III.
NOR Mortals only MUSIC love;
It chears celestial Saints above:
Sweet Hallelujahs Angels sing 25
Around their great Ethereal King;
CeaslessCeasless they sound the FATHER’S Praise,
The FATHER too approves their Lays;
For HE (as all Things) MUSIC made,
And SERAPHIMS before Him play’d: 30
When over Horeb’s Mount He came,
Array’d in Majesty and Flame;
After the sounding Trump, sublime, He rode;
The sounding Trump proclaim’d the’ approaching GOD.
IV.
MUSIC had Being, long before 35
The solemn Organ learnt to roar:
When MICHAEL, o’er the heav’nly Plain,
Advanc’d, to fight the rebel Train;
Loud Trumpets did his Wrath declare,
In MUSIC, terrible to hear: 40
And when the Universe was made,
On golden Harps the Angels play’d:
And when it falls, (as fall it must)
MUSIC shall penetrate the Dust;
The Trump shall sound with the Archangel’s Breath; 45
And, sweetly dreadful! wake the Dead from Death.
NOTES:
6 Lyre “A stringed instrument of the harp kind, used by the Greeks for accompanying song and recitation” (OED).
9 melancholy King An allusion to King Saul in the Bible.
10 David tun’d the trembling String In the first book of Samuel, David would play the lyre to calm Saul when the evil spirit of God was upon him (1 Samuel 16:23).
11 Spleen “Excessive dejection or depression of spirits; gloominess and irritability.” (OED).
19 Theban Turrets A structure or tower belonging to Thebes, ancient capital of Boeotia in Greece.
20 Lay “A short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung” (OED).
21 Jericho’s Heav’n-hated Wall In the Bible Joshua is instructed to sound trumpets before taking over the city of Jericho (Joshua 6:20).
30 Seraphims Biblical angels.
31 Horeb’s Mount The mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
32 Majesty and Flame Allusion to the Burning bush that the Lord appeared as to give Moses the Ten Commandments.
37 MICHAEL, o’er the heav’nly Plain Michael was an archangel who fought the Devil in heaven.
45-46 The Trump shall sound with the Archangel’s Breath/…wake the Dead from Death Alludes to the literary tradition of the archangel Gabriel sounding a trumpet to welcome Christ back to Earth for the Last Judgement (see John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI, ll. 72-76). In the Biblical tradition, Gabriel is neither an archangel, not is it clear that he’s the trumpeter (see I Corinthians 15:52).
Source: Poems on Several Occasions, (3rd Edition) (London, 1753), pp. 49-51. [Google Books]
Edited by Noelle Gallagher
