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CANTO II - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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CANTO II

    • Not with more glories, in th’ ethereal plain,
    • The sun first rises o’er the purpled main,
    • Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams
    • Launch’d on the bosom of the silver Thames.
    • Fair nymphs, and well-dress’d youths around her shone,
    • But every eye was fix’d on her alone.
    • On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,
    • Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.
    • Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose,
    • Quick as her eyes, and as unfix’d as those:
    • Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;11
    • Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
    • Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
    • And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.
    • Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
    • Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide;
    • If to her share some female errors fall,
    • Look on her face, and you’ll forget ’em all.
    • This nymph, to the destruction of mankind,
    • Nourish’d two locks, which graceful hung behind20
    • In equal curls, and well conspired to deck
    • With shining ringlets the smooth iv’ry neck.
    • Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains,
    • And mighty hearts are held in slender chains.
    • With hairy springes we the birds betray,
    • Slight lines of hair surprise the finny prey,
    • Fair tresses man’s imperial race ensnare,
    • And beauty draws us with a single hair.
    • Th’ adventurous Baron the bright locks admired;
    • He saw, he wish’d, and to the prize aspired.
    • Resolv’d to win, he meditates the way,31
    • By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
    • For when success a lover’s toil attends,
    • Few ask if fraud or force attain’d his ends.
    • For this, ere Phœbus rose, he had implor’d
    • Propitious Heav’n, and every Power ador’d,
    • But chiefly Love—to Love an altar built
    • Of twelve vast French romances , neatly gilt.
    • There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
    • And all the trophies of his former loves;40
    • With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,
    • And breathes three am’rous sighs to raise the fire.
    • Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
    • Soon to obtain, and long possess the prize:
    • The Powers gave ear , and granted half his prayer,
    • The rest the winds dispers’d in empty air.
    • But now secure the painted vessel glides,
    • The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides;
    • While melting music steals upon the sky,
    • And soften’d sounds along the waters die:
    • Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play,51
    • Belinda smil’d, and all the world was gay.
    • All but the Sylph—with careful thoughts opprest
    • Th’ impending woe sat heavy on his breast.
    • He summons straight his denizens of air;
    • The lucid squadrons round the sails repair:
    • Soft o’er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe
    • That seem’d but zephyrs to the train beneath.
    • Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold,
    • Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;60
    • Transparent forms too fine for mortal sight,
    • Their fluid bodies half dissolv’d in light,
    • Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
    • Thin glitt’ring textures of the filmy dew,
    • Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
    • Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes,
    • While ev’ry beam new transient colours flings,
    • Colours that change whene’er they wave their wings.
    • Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,
    • Superior by the head was Ariel placed;70
    • His purple pinions opening to the sun,
    • He raised his azure wand, and thus begun:
    • ‘Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear.
    • Fays, Fairies, Genii , Elves, and Dæmons, hear!
    • Ye know the spheres and various tasks assign’d
    • By laws eternal to th’ aërial kind.
    • Some in the fields of purest ether play,
    • And bask and whiten in the blaze of day:
    • Some guide the course of wand’ring orbs on high,
    • Or roll the planets thro’ the boundless sky:80
    • Some, less refin’d, beneath the moon’s pale light
    • Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
    • Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
    • Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
    • Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
    • Or o’er the glebe distil the kindly rain.
    • Others, on earth, o’er human race preside,
    • Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:
    • Of these the chief the care of nations own,
    • And guard with arms divine the British Throne.90
    • ‘Our humbler province is to tend the Fair,
    • Not a less pleasing, tho’ less glorious care;
    • To save the Powder from too rude a gale;
    • Nor let th’ imprison’d Essences exhale;
    • To draw fresh colours from the vernal flowers;
    • To steal from rainbows ere they drop in showers
    • A brighter Wash; to curl their waving hairs,
    • Assist their blushes and inspire their airs;
    • Nay oft, in dreams invention we bestow,
    • To change a Flounce, or add a Furbelow.
    • ‘This day black omens threat the brightest Fair,101
    • That e’er deserv’d a watchful spirit’s care;
    • Some dire disaster, or by force or slight;
    • But what, or where, the Fates have wrapt in night.
    • Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
    • Or some frail China jar receive a flaw;
    • Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,
    • Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
    • Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
    • Or whether Heav’n has doom’d that Shock must fall.110
    • Haste, then, ye Spirits! to your charge repair:
    • The flutt’ring fan be Zephyretta’s care;
    • The drops to thee, Brillaute, we consign;
    • And, Momentilla, let the watch be thine;
    • Do thou, Crispissa, tend her fav’rite Lock;
    • Ariel himself shall be the guard of Shock.
    • ‘To fifty chosen sylphs, of special note,
    • We trust th’ important charge, the petticoat;
    • Oft have we known that sev’n-fold fence to fail,
    • Tho’ stiff with hoops, and arm’d with ribs of whale:120
    • Form a strong line about the silver bound,
    • And guard the wide circumference around.
    • ‘Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,
    • His post neglects, or leaves the Fair at large,
    • Shall feel sharp vengeance soon o’ertake his sins:
    • Be stopp’d in vials, or transfix’d with pins,
    • Or plunged in lakes of bitter washes lie,
    • Or wedg’d whole ages in a bodkin’s eye;
    • Gums and pomatums shall his flight restrain,
    • While clogg’d he beats his silken wings in vain,130
    • Or alum styptics with contracting power
    • Shrink his thin essence like a rivell’d flower:
    • Or, as Ixion fix’d, the wretch shall feel
    • The giddy motion of the whirling mill,
    • In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
    • And tremble at the sea that froths below!’
    • He spoke; the spirits from the sails descend;
    • Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;
    • Some thread the mazy ringlets of her hair;
    • Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;
    • With beating hearts the dire event they wait,141
    • Anxious, and trembling for the birth of Fate.

[Canto II. Line 28.]And beauty draws us with a single hair. In allusion to those lines of Hudibras, applied to the same purpose,—

  • ‘And tho’ it be a two-foot trout,
  • ’T is with a single hair pull’d out.’
  • (Warburton.)

[Line 38.]Twelve vast French romances. Clélie, one of the popular French romances of the period, appeared in ten volumes of 800 pages each. (Hales.)

[Line 45.]The Powers gave ear, etc. ‘See Æneid, xi. 794, 795. (Pope.)

[Line 74.]Fays, Fairies, Genii, etc. This line obviously echoes Satan’s address to his followers:—

‘Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers!’

Paradise Lost, v. 601.

[Line 106.]Or some frail China jar, etc. Pope repeats this anti-climax in Canto iii. 159, below.