"Ah, Fear, ah, frantic Fear! I fee, I fee thee near." The editor of these poems has met with nothing in the fame fpecies of poetry, either in his own, or any other language, equal, in all respects, to the following defcription of Danger: "Danger, whofe limbs of giant mold, Of fome loose hanging rock to fleep." It is impoffible to contemplate the image conveyed in the two laft verfes without thofe emotions of terror it was intended to excite. It has, moreover, the entire advantage of novelty to recommend it, for there is too much originality in all the circumftances, to fuppofe that the author had in his eye that description of the penal fituation of Catiline in the ninth Æneid: The archetype of the English poet's ideas was in nature, and probably to her alone he was indebted for the thought. From her, likewife, he derived that magnificence of conception, that horrible grandeur of imagery, difplayed in the following lines: "And thofe, the fiends, who near allied, On whom that ravening brood of fate, That nutritive enthufiafm, which cherishes the feeds of poetry, and which is, indeed, the only foil wherein they will grow to perfection, lays open the mind to all the influences of fiction. A paffion for whatever is greatly wild, or magnificent in the works of nature, feduces the imagination to attend to all that is extravagant, however unnatural. Milton was notoriously fond of high. romance and Gothic diableries; and Collins, who in genius and enthusiasm bore no very distant resemblance to Milton, was wholly carried away by the fame attachments. "Be mine, to read the vifions old, Which thy awakening bards have told: And, left thou meet my blafted view, "On that thrice hallow'd eve, &c." There is an old traditionary fuperftition, that on St. Mark's eve the forms of all fuch perfons as fhall die within the enfuing year, make their folemn entry into the churches of their refpective parifhes, as St. Patrick fwam over the channel, without their heads. ODE TO SIMPLICITY. THE measure of the ancient ballad feems to have been made choice of for this ode, on account of the subject, and it has, indeed, an air of fimplicity not altogether unaffecting : By all the honey'd store By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear, By her whofe love-lorn woe, In evening mufings flow, Sooth'd fweetly fad Electra's poet's ear." This allegorical imagery of the honey'd ftore, the blooms, and mingled murmurs of Hybla, alluding to the fweetnefs and beauty of the Attic poetry, has the fine and the happiest effect: yet, poflibly, it will bear a queftion, whether the ancient Greek tragedians had a general claim to fimplicity in any thing more than the plans of their drama. Their language, at leaft, was infinitely metaphorical; yet it must be owned that they juftly copied nature and the paffions, and fo far, certainly, they were entitled to the palm of true fimplicity: the following most beautiful speech of Polynices, will be a monument of this fo long as poetry shall last. - πολυδακρυς δ' αφικομὴν Χρονιος ιδων μελαθρα, και βωμές θεων, EURIP. Phoeniff. ver. 369. "But ftaid to fing alone To one diftinguish'd throne.” The poet cuts off the prevalence of fimplicity among the Romans with the reign of Auguftus, and indeed, it did not continue much longer, most of the compofitions, after that date, giving into falfe and artificial ornament. "No more, in hall or bower, The paffions own thy power, Love, only Love, her forcelefs numbers mean." In these lines the writing of the Provençal poets are principally alluded to, in which, fimplicity is generally facrificed to the rhapsodies of romantic love. ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER. Procul! O! procul efte profani! THIS ode is fo infinitely abftracted and replete with high enthufiafm, that it will find few readers capable of entering into the beauty of it, or of relishing its beauties. There is a ftyle of fentiment as utterly unintelligible to common capacities, as if the fubject were treated in an unknown language; and it is on the fame account that abftracted poetry will never have many admirers. The authors of fuch poems must be content with the approbation of those heaven-favoured geniufes, who, by a fimilarity of tafte and fentiment, are enabled to penetrate the high myfteries of infpired fancy, and to pursue the loftieft flights of enthufiaftic imagination. Nevertheless, the praise of the diftinguished few is certainly preferable to the applaufe of the undifcerning million; for all praife is valuable in proportion to the judgment of thofe who confer it. As the fubject of this ode is uncommon, fo are the ftyle and expreffion highly metaphorical and abftracted; thus the fun is called the rich-hair'd youth of morn," the ideas are termed "the fhadowy tribes of mind," &c. We are ftruck with the propriety of this mode of expreffion here, and it affords us new proofs of the analogy that subfifts between language and fentiment. Nothing can be more loftily imagined than the creation of the Ceftus of Fancy in this ode: the allegorical imagery is rich and sublime: and the observation that, the dangerous paffions kept aloof, during the operation, is founded on the strictest philofophical truth; for poetical fancy can exist only in minds that are perfectly serene, and in fome measure abstracted from the influences of fenfe. The fcene of Milton's "inspiring hour" is perfectly in character, and described with all those wild-wood-appearances of which the great poet was fo enthusiastically fond: I view that oak, the fancied glades among, By which as Milton lay, his evening ear, Nigh fpher'd in heaven, its native ftrains could hear." THE Ode written in 1746, and the Ode to Mercy, feem to have been written on the fame occafion, viz. the late rebellion; the former in memory of those heroes who fell in the defence of their country, the latter to excite fentiments of compaffion in favour of those unhappy and deluded wretches who became a facrifice to public juftice. The language and imagery of both are very beautiful; but the scene and figures defcribed in the ftrophe of the Ode to Mercy are exquifitely ftriking, and would afford a painter one of the fineft fubjects in the world. THE ancient ftates of Greece, perhaps the only ones in which a perfect model of liberty ever exifted, are naturally brought to view in the opening of the poem. "Who fhall awake the Spartan fife, And call in folemn founds to life, The youths, whofe locks divinely spreading, There is fomething extremely bold in this imagery of the locks of the Spartan youths, and greatly fuperior to that defcription Jocafta gives us of the hair of Polynices. Βοτρύχων τε κυανόχρωτα χαίτας Πλοκαμον. "What new Alceus, fancy-bleft, Shall fing the fword, in myrtles dreft, &c." This alludes to a fragment of Alcæus ftill remaining, in which the poet celebrates Harmodius and Ariftogiton, who flew the tyrant Hipparchus, and thereby restored the liberty of Athens. The fall of Rome is here moft nervously described in one line: "With heaviest found, a giant-ftatue, fell." The thought feems altogether new, and the imitative harmony in the ftructure of the verfe is admirable. After bewailing the ruin of ancient liberty, the poet confiders the influence it has retained, or ftill retains among the moderns; and here the free republics of Italy naturally engage his attention-Florence, indeed, only to be lamented on account of lofing its liberty under thofe patrons of letters, the Medicean family; the jealous Pifa, justly fo called in respect to its long impatience and regret under the fame yoke; and the fmall Marino, which, however unrefpectable with regard to power or extent of territory, has, at leaft, this diftinction to boaft, that it has preferved its liberty longer than any other ftate, ancient or modern, having, without any revolution, retained its prefent mode of government near 1400 years. Moreover the patron faint who founded it, and from whom it takes its name, deferves this poetical record, as he is, perhaps, the only faint that ever contributed to the establishment of freedom. "Nor e'er her former pride relate, To fad Liguria's bleeding ftate." In thefe lines the poet alludes to thofe ravages in the ftate of Genoa, occafioned by the unhappy divifions of the Guelphs and Gibelines. When the favour'd of thy choice, The daring archer heard thy voice." For an account of the celebrated event referred to in these verses, see Voltaire's Epiftle to the King of Pruffia. "Those whom the rod of Alva bruis'd, Whofe crown a British queen refus'd!" The Flemings were fo dreadfully oppreffed by this fanguinary general of Philip the Second, that they offered their fovereignty to Elizabeth, but, happily for her fubjects, fhe had policy and magnanimity enough to refufe it. Deformeaux, in his Abrégé Chronologique de l'Hiftoire d'Efpagne, thus defcribes the fufferings of the Flemings: "Le Duc d'Albe achevoit de réduire les Flamands au défefpoir. Après avoir inondé “les echafauts du fang le plus noble et le plus précieux, il faifoit conftruire des cita“delles en divers endroits, et vouloit établir l'Alcavala, ce tribute onéreux qui avoit "éte longtems en usage parmi les Efpagnols." Agreg. Chron. Tom. IV. Mona is properly the Roman name of the Isle of Anglefey, anciently fo famous for its Druids; but fometimes, as in this place, it is given to the Isle of Man. Both those ifles ftill retain much of the genius of fuperftition, and are now the only places where there is the leaft chance of finding a fairy. To a Lady on the Death of Colonel Charles Rofs, in the Action at Fontenoy. Written May, 1745. THE iambic kind of numbers in which this ode is conceived, feems as well calculated for tender and plaintive fubjects, as for those where ftrength or rapidity is requir ed.—This, perhaps, is owing to the repetition of the ftrain in the fame ftanza; for forrow rejects variety, and affects an uniformity of complaint. It is needless to obferve that this ode is replete with harmony, fpirit, and pathos; and there, furely, appears no reafon why the feventh and eighth ftanzas should be omitted in that copy printed in Dodfley's Collection of Poems. THE blank ode has for fome time folicited admiffion into the English poetry; but its efforts, hitherto, feem to have been vain, at least its reception has been no more than partial. It remains a queftion, then, whether there is not fomething in the nature of blank verfe lefs adapted to the lyric than to the heroic meafure, fince, though it has been generally received in the latter, it is yet unadopted in the former. In order to difcover this, we are to confider the different modes of thefe different fpecies of poetry. That of the heroic is uniform; that of the lyric is various; and in these circumftances of uniformity and variety, probably, lies the caufe why blank verfe has been fuccessful in the one, and unacceptable in the other. While it prefented itself only in one form, it was familiarized to the ear by cuftom; but where it was obliged to affume the different fhapes of the lyric Mufe, it seemed ftill a ftranger of uncouth figure, was received rather with curiofity than pleasure, and entertained without that eafe, or fatisfaction, which acquaintance and familiarity produce-Moreover, the heroic blank verfe obtained a fanction of infinite importance to its general reception, when it was adopted by one of the greatest poets the world ever produced, and was made the vehicle of the nobleft poem that ever was written. When this poem at length extorted that applause which ignorance and prejudice had united to withhold, the verfification foon found its imitators, and became more generally fuccefsful than even in thofe countries from whence it was imported. But lyric blank verse had met with no fuch advantages; for Mr. Collins, whofe genius and judgment in harmony might have given it fo powerful an effect, hath left us but one fpecimen of it in the Ode to Evening. In the choice of his measure he seems to have had in his eye Horace's Ode to Pyrrha'; for this ode bears the nearest resemblance to that mixt kind of the afclepiad and pherecratic verfe; and that resemblance in fome degree reconciles us to the want of rhyme, while it reminds us of thofe great mafters of antiquity, whofe works had no need of this whimfical jingle of founds. From the following paffage one might be induced to think that the poet had it in view to render his fubject and his verfification suitable to each other on this occafion, and that, when he addreffed himself to the fober power of Evening, he had thought proper to lay afide the foppery of rhyme; "Now teach me, maid compos'd, To breathe fome foften'd ftrain, Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, May not unfeemly with its ftillness fuit, As, mufing flow, I hail Thy genial lov'd return!" But whatever were the numbers, or the verfification of this ode, the imagery and enthufiafm it contains could not fail of rendering it delightful. No other of Mr. Collins's odes is more generally characteristic of his genius. In one place we discover his paffion for vifionary beings: Then appears his tafte for what is wildly grand and magnificent in nature; when, prevented by ftorms from enjoying his evening walk, he wishes for a fituation, 2 |