The goblet is sparkling with purpled-tinged
wine,
Bright glistens the eye of
each guest,
When into the hall comes the Minstrel
divine,
To the good he now brings
what is best;
For when from Elysium is absent
the lyre,
No joy can the banquet of nectar
inspire.
He is blessed by the gods, with
an intellect clear,
That mirrors the world as
it glides;
He has seen all that ever has taken
place here,
And all that the future still
hides.
He sat in the gods secret
councils of old
And heard the command for each thing
to unfold.
He opens in splendor, with gladness
and mirth,
That life which was hid from
our eyes;
Adorns as a temple the dwelling
of earth,
That the Muse has bestowed
as his prize,
No roof is so humble, no hut is
so low,
But he with divinities bids it oerflow.
And as the inventive descendant
of Zeus,
On the unadorned round of
the shield,
With knowledge divine could, reflected,
produce
Earth, sea, and the stars
shining field,-
So he, on the moments, as onward
they roll,
The image can stamp of the infinite
whole.
From the earliest age of the world
he has come,
When nations rejoiced in their
prime;
A wanderer glad, he has still found
a home
With every race through all
time.
Four ages of man in his lifetime
have died,
And the place they once held by
the fifth is supplied.
Saturnus first governed, with fatherly
smile,
Each day then resembled the
last;
Then flourished the shepherds, a
race without guile
Their bliss by no care was
oercast,
They loved,-and no other
employment they had,
And earth gave her treasures with
willingness glad.
Then labor came next, and the conflict
began
With monsters and beasts famed
in song;
And heroes upstarted, as rulers
of man,
And the weak sought the aid
of the strong.
And strife oer the field
of Scamander now reigned,
But beauty the god of the world
still remained.
At length from the conflict bright
victory sprang,
And gentleness blossomed from
might;
In heavenly chorus the Muses then
sang,
And figures divine saw the
light;-
The age that acknowledged sweet
phantasys sway
Can never return, it has fleeted
away.
The gods from their seats in the
heavens were hurled,
And their pillars of glory
oerthrown;
And the Son of the Virgin appeared
in the world
For the sins of mankind to
atone.
The fugitive lusts of the sense
were suppressed,
And man now first grappled with
thought in his breast.
Each vain and voluptuous charm vanished
now,
Wherein the young world took
delight;
The monk and the nun made of penance
a vow,
And the tourney was sought
by the knight.
Though the aspect of life was now
dreary and wild,
Yet love remained ever both lovely
and mild.
An altar of holiness, free from
all stain,
The Muses in silence upreared;
And all that was noble and worthy,
again
In womans chaste bosom
appeared;
The bright flame of song was soon
kindled anew
By the minstrels soft lays,
and his love pure and true.
And so, in a gentle and neer-changing
band,
Let woman and minstrel unite;
They weave and they fashion, with
hand joined to hand,
The girdle of beauty and right.
When love blends with music, in
unison sweet,
The lustre of lifes youthful
days neer can fleet.
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