the Bard uplifted both by a divine energy, and by the natural superiority of virtue; and the conqueror has shrunk into a creature of hatred and abhor rence: "Be thine despair, and sceptred care; To triumph, and to die, are mine." If there be any truth in these observations, surely some objections must arise with regard to those poems which are purely descriptive, with little or nothing in them of manners and sentiments: such, for instance, as large parts of Thomson, and some poems of a writer contemporary with Gray, whose genius has justly given him a very respectable rank among the English poets, and whose merits in other respects are far from inconsiderable. I allude particularly to many poems of T. Warton, which appear to me from this cause imperfect and unfinished in their nature; stopping at that point where the picture of the natural scenery is finished in the mind, has united all its effects, and when the moral feeling begins to be excited; when the thought passes from the effect to the cause, from the sublimity and beauty and grandeur, displayed in the creation, to the beings who ennoble it by their presence, or to the wise and animating Mind that created and pervades it.* In this case, though *See Gilpin's Obs. on the Wye, p. 60. I take the liberty of quoting a passage from one of the Essays of Dugald Stewart, on the Sublime; as well for the relation it bears the attention of the poet may have been ever so steadily fixed upon his subject, and his representation ever so accurate, or even new; the reader will demand, in addition, the exercise of the imagination, the excitement of the feeling, the relation of the object to the different passions of the mind; and he will call upon the poet to awaken those numberless analogies which are sleeping in his mind, and which would instantly start up at the call of his inspiration. In the Ode to Spring' by Gray, the imagery he might have introduced, would be amply furnished to the subject under consideration, as for the instance which he has so admirably produced from a poem by Gray.— "The sublime effect of rocks, and of cataracts; of huge ridges of mountains; vast and gloomy forests; of immense and impetuous rivers; of the boundless ocean; and in general, of every thing which forces on the attention the idea of creative power, is owing in part to the irresistible tendency which that idea has to raise the thoughts toward Heaven. The influence of some of these spectacles, in awakening religious impressions, is nobly exemplified in Gray's ode, written at the Grande Chartreuse-an Alpine scene of the wildest and most awful grandeur, where every thing appears fresh from the hand of Omnipotence, inspiring a sense of the more immediate presence of the Divinity. Præsentiorem et conspicimus Deum, Quamsi repostus sub trabe citreâ Fulgeret auro, et Phidiacâ manu," &c. Philos. Essays, p. 368. by the subject, and could be limited only by the will of the poet. It is however to be remarked, that he has confined himself to the assemblage of a very few images and incidents, suited to the occasion, but by which his picture becomes more really finished, than it could by the most laborious assemblage of descriptions. To the studious and contemplative mind, the season of the Spring undoubtedly will suggest, at different times, the same train of thought which the poet has established; but it is probable, or indeed certain, that it will not be presented to the mind in so strong and uniform a manner, cleared of all discordant images, and unnecessary and confused additions. I need not observe, that in the works of a common poet, it would prove either a mere transcript of nature, or something even more imperfect. The description would be too detailed, the smaller parts would be mingled with the greater features: the uniform tendency of the whole would be broken, and enumeration would supply the place of selection. In this poem, as in all the others which he has written, Gray has introduced much of the moral and the pathetic character. Even in so short a poem as the Elegy, he did not think its plan was perfect, unless the reader were interested by something more awakening than description; unless he animated and peopled the landscape which he described. "A description (says Mr. Twining*) may be, but a poem cannot See Twining's Aristotle, 4to. p. 33. See also some be founded upon what Pope somewhere calls, an entire landscape, without human figures, an image of nature, solitary and undisturbed." In the poem of Spring' the expression of the moral feeling occupies a larger space than in the other poems; indeed the original subject seems to be nearly forsaken. The poet, instead of continuing the description with which he commenced, has seized upon a single incident in the picture, taken it out of the general description, and followed the train of thought which it suggested, till the thread of the connexion seemed almost lost; but a fine and unexpected turn of expression, a single word at the close, brings the mind back, and places before it the original scenery with which the poem opened: We frolic while 'tis May.' Some critics, I believe, have thought that the Elegy in a Country Church-yard' is disjointed and unconnected in its plan; but it is sufficient to observe, that it leaves one strong and general impression on the mind; the result of the connexion of the images, and the unity of the subject. The Elegy is an interesting picture of the feelings, manners, and habits of the village poor: it is intended to awaken our sympathy; and to extend observations on this subject, by Du Bos, in his Reflexions, vol. i. chap. 6. Consult Les Epîtres de Mad. Sévigné, vol. i. 1. lxix, and Tableau de la Littérature par Victor Fabre, p. the sphere of our associations among objects so well calculated to excite them. It tends also to lessen our exclusive admiration of those great and elevated scenes of life, which we are too much accustomed to suppose, are alone worthy of our regard. This seems to be the general feeling which is excited: but towards the close of the poem, by a transition founded on this simple association, that, as the poet has not been "unmindful of the dead," so his own death shall not pass without commemoration; by this poetical transition, the interest that had before been previously diffused over the fate of many, becomes now narrowed and directed to the fortune of one the same train of feeling is preserved, but more precise in its circumstances, and more strong in its power of excitement; and thus, by the insertion of this pathetic episode, the descriptive poem closes with a highly dramatic effect. V. After venturing to offer the foregoing remarks on Gray's poetry in general, I now come to the particular consideration of the poem of The Bard.' It is well known, that this poem had been accused of obscurity; to obviate which, Gray found it necessary to add some explanatory notes. This * That Gray was conscious of the fault [obscurity] imputed to his ode, The Bard, (the finest, I believe, that was ever written in any language,) is manifest to me from two particulars. One is, his prefixing to it, for a motto, Pwvavτa ZVVETOLOIV, The other is, the explanatory notes, |