Arise, as in that elder time,
Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!
Thy wonders in that god-like age,
Fill thy recording Sister's page;--
'Tis said, and I believe the tale,
Thy humblest reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
E'en all at once together found
Cecilia's mingled world of sound;--
O bid our vain endeavours cease:
Revive the just designs of Greece:
Return in all thy simple state!
Confirm the tales her sons relate!

COLLINS.

[Notes: _William Collins_ (1720-1756). A poet, who throughout life
struggled with adversity, and who, though he produced little, refined
everything he wrote with a most fastidious taste and with elaborate
care.

_Shell_, according to a fashion common with the poets of the
first half of the 18th century, stands for lyre. The Latin word
_testudo_, a shell is often so used.

_Possessed beyond the Muse's painting_ = enthralled beyond what poetry
can describe.

_His own expressive power, i.e.,_ his power to express his own feelings.

_In lightnings owned his secret stings_ = in lightning-like touches
confessed the hidden fury which inspired him.

_Veering song_. The ever-changeful song.

_Her wild sequestered seat_. Sequestered properly is used of something
which, being in dispute, is deposited in a third person's hands: hence
of something set apart or in retirement.

_Round a holy calm diffusing_ = diffusing around a holy calm.

_Buskin_. A boot reaching above the ankle. _Gemmed_ = sparkling as with
gems.

Faun and Dryad_. Creatures with whom ancient mythology peopled the
woods.

_Their chaste-eyed Queen_ = Diana.

_Brown exercise_. Exercise is here personified and represented as brown
and sunburnt.

_Viol_. A stringed musical instrument.

_In Tempe's vale_. In Thessaly, especially connected with the worship of
Apollo, the god of poetry and music.

_Sphere-descended maid_. A metaphor common with the poets, and taken
from a Greek fancy most elaborately described in Plato's 'Republic,'
where the system of the universe is pictured as a series of whorls
linked in harmony.

_Thy mimic soul_. Thy soul apt to imitate.

_Devote_ = devoted. A form more close to that of the Lat