lineation which is the life of poetry. The theme, however, appears not to have deserted his thoughts, and it is not unfair to presume that the similitude of the case might direct his attention to the composition of that first of poems, the Eloisa. There, upon a subject sufficiently remote, yet sufficiently resembling, he pours forth his genuine feelings, and the concluding lines incontestibly allude to the transaction in question. There is a poem of Collins on the Death of Thomson, which, though not exactly in the measure which we have appropriated to this description of poem, bears all the true characteristics of elegy-softness, sweetness, melancholy, and harmony. I have always admired beyond any thing of the kind the following stanzas→ "Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore, "And oft as ease and health retire "To breezy lawn, or forest deep, And mid the varied landscape weep." "Yet lives there one, whose heedless eye "Shall scorn thy pale shrine glimm'ring near! 66 And joy desert the blooming year." Mr. Gray's Elegy in a Country Church Yard has deserved all the praises that have been be-stowed upon it. Here the muse of elegy has 66 Stoop'd to truth, and moraliz'd her song." "It abounds (says Dr. Johnson) with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo." The best stanzas I think are "Full many a gem of purest ray serene, "The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear; "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, "And waste its sweetness on the desart air." For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey The former of these Mr. Gray has himself imitated, and I think improved in his Installation Ode "Thy lib'ral heart, thy judging eye, Serene in the first line (notwithstanding the apology of my late friend G. Wakefield), if not quite an expletive, will generally be mistaken for one. IX. LYRIC poetry may, in point of antiquity, contend with any other species, perhaps with the epic itself. Though we have no knowledge of the metre of the Hebrews, we cannot doubt but they had poetry, and as little (while the sublime book of Psalms is before us) can we doubt that much of that poetry is lyric. Many, if not most of them, we know to a certainty were sung or set to music, which both the term ode, and the epithet lyric (from the lyre, a musical instrument) imply. If we advert to the remote origin of the ode, it will perhaps account at once for the sublimity which is required from the lyric bard, and the irregularity in which he is indulged. All the ideas of men just emerging from the savage state are wild, awful, enthusiastic, and passionate; and they express themselves concisely, and with abruptness. Such were probably the first models of the ode, from whatever quarter they were derived, and upon these models poets afterwards composed. 1 There is, however, an evident distinction to be made in lyric compositions. There is the serious and sublime ode; and the familiar and comic, or, in modern language, the song. The first may be regarded as the original ode: it was employed both by the Hebrews and the Pagan nations at solemn festivals in their religious ceremonies; and by the latter in praise of heroes and other distinguished personages. There is no description of poetry that requires both thoughts and language more sublime and more remote from common usage than this. A fine ode is compared by Horace to a majestic torrent from a mountain's top, which overflows its wonted limits "Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres "Quem super notas aluere ripas "Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo "As when a river swollen by sudden showers "The deep-mouth'd Pindar, foaming pours along." FRANCIS. Yet with all this seeming irregularity, there is no composition that requires a more artful and judicious arrangement than a perfect ode. It may truly be said of it that the perfection of art is to conceal the art; and I will venture to › say more, that to form a good ode, the poet should have the whole plan regularly digested in his mind before he begins to compose. The shorter the poem, the more nice should be the arrangement. It is not necessary that an ode, like an epigram, should conclude in a point; but it is absolutely necessary that it should rise in a kind of climax, and that the strongest part should be towards the conclusion. For the Hebrew ode, with some of the most perfect specimens which a man of fine taste could select, I must refer to Bishop Lowth's Lectures on Sacred Poetry. In Greek, Pindar has long occupied the highest situation in this department; and from his exceeding popularity among his countrymen and contempo |
