| New Year’s Day was performed before their Majesties and the Royal Family, / the following Ode, written by William Whitehead, Esq; Poet Lau- / reat, and set to Music by Dr. Boyce, Master of the King’s Band of Mu- / sicians; The vocal Parts by Mr. Beard, the Gentlemen and Children of / the Chapel Royal, &c. the Instrumental by his Majesty’s Band, assisted by / other principal Performers.
ODE for the NEW YEAR, 1763.
I
At length th’ imperious Lord of war,
Yields to the fates their ebon car,
And frowning quits his toil:
Dash’d from his hand the bleeding spear
Now dei[g]ns a happier form to wear,
And peaceful turns the soil.
Th’ insatiate furies of his train
Revenge, and Hate, and fell Disdain
With heart of steel, and eyes of fire,
Who stain the sword which honour draws,
Who fully virtue’s sacred cause,
To Stygian depths retire.
Unholy shapes, and shadows drear,
The pallid family of Fear,
And Rapine, still by shrieks pursu’d,
And meagre Famine’s [s]qualid brood
Close the dire crew. - Ye eternal gates display
Your adamantine folds, and shut them from the day!
II.
For lo; in yonder pregnant skies
On billowy clouds the goddess lies.
Whose presence breath[e]s delight!
Whose power th’ obsequious seasons own,
And winter loses half his frown,
And half her shades the night.
Soft-smiling PEACE, whom Venus bore
When tutor’d by th’ enchanting lore
Of Maia’s blooming Son,
She sooth’d the Synod of the Gods,
Drove Discord from the blest abodes,
And Jove resum’d his throne.
Th’ attendant graces gird her round,
And sportive Ease with locks unbound,
And every muse to leisure born,
And Plenty with her twisted horn.
While changeful Commerce spreads her loosen’d sails,
Blow, as ye lift, ye winds, the reign of PEACE prevails.
III.
And see, to grace that milder reign,
Sweet Innocence adorns the train,
And deigns a human frame to wear,
In form and features Albion’s heir,
A future George! propitious powers,
Ye delegates of heaven’s high king,
Who guide the years, the days, the hours
That float on time’s progressive wing,
Exert your influence, bid us know
From parent worth what virtues flow!
Be to less happy realms resign’d
The warriour’s unrelenting rage,
We ask not kings of hero-kind,
The storms and earthquakes of their age,
To us be nobler blessings given:
O teach us, delegates of heaven,
What mightier bliss from union springs!
Future subjects, future kings,
Shall bless the fair example shown
And from our character transcribe their own.
A people, zealous to obey,
A monarch, whose paternal sway
Despises regal art,
His shield, the laws which guard the land,
His sword, each Briton’s eager hand,
His throne, each Briton’s heart.
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