12. Cf. Dryden, _Virgil's Geo._ i.: "And rocks the bellowing voice of
boiling seas resound;" Pope, _Iliad_: "Rocks rebellow to the roar."
13. "Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The
thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar" (Gray).
14. _Solemn-breathing airs_. Cf. _Comus_, 555: "a soft and
solemn-breathing sound."
15. _Enchanting shell_. That is, lyre; alluding to the myth of the
origin of the instrument, which Mercury was said to have made from
the shell of a tortoise. Cf. Collins, _Passions_, 3: "The Passions
oft, to hear her shell," etc.
17. _On Thracia's hills_. Thrace was one of the chief seats of the
worship of Mars. Cf. Ovid, _Ars Am._ ii. 588: "Mars Thracen occupat."
See also Virgil, _Æn._ iii. 35, etc.
19. _His thirsty lance_. Cf. Spenser, _F. Q._ i. 5, 15: "his thristy
[thirsty] blade."
20. Gray says, "This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in
the same ode;" that is, in "the first Pythian of Pindar," referred to
in the note on 13. The passage is an address to the lyre, and is
translated by Wakefield thus:
"On Jove's imperial rod the king of birds
Drops down his flagging wings; thy thrilling sounds
Soothe his fierce beak, and pour a sable cloud
Of slumber on his eyelids: up he lifts
His flexile back, shot by thy piercing darts.
Mars smooths his rugged brow, and nerveless drops
His lance, relenting at the choral song."