Odyssey of Homer, the Æneid of Virgil, the Paradise Lost of Milton, the Inferno-Purgatorio-and Paradiso of Dante the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, and Jerusalem of Tasso,t the Messiah of Klopstock, the Lusiad of Camoens, the Henriade of Voltaire, Glover's Leonidas, Cumberland's Calvary, Southey's Joan of Arc, Wilkie's Epigoniad, Hole’» Arthur, and Wieland's Oberon, translated by Sotheby.§ 2. Lyric Poetry took its rise from religious gratitude, it was first used to express thanks for the blessings bestowed on man by his Creator; hence the harvest hymns, and other compositions of a similar nature. The psalms surpass in sublimity, all the lyric performances of other nations. Among the antients, lyrics were appropriated, (1.) To religious subjects. (2.) To the celebration of heroes. (3.) To moral and philosophical subjects. (4) To festive pleasure and amusement. Examples. Pindar, the father of lyric poetry; Anacreon; Sappho; Horace; Casimir; Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's day, Collins' Ode on the Passions, and many of Gray's and Mason's Odes. To these may be added the lyric compositions of Watts, Thomson, Lyttleton, Warton, Cowper, Mrs. Barbauld, Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, Mr. Bowles, and Miss Seward; many of these deserve high praise for sweetness and harmony of versification, and unaffected elegance of style. 3. Elegiac. The elegy is a plaintive, but sweet and engaging poem. It was first used in bewailing the death of a friend, and afterwards expressed the complaints of lovers, or any melancholy subject. The passions of grief, despair, or resentment, generally, predominate in poems of this kind; but funeral lamentations and disappointed love seem most congenial to its character; the lamentation of David over Jonathan, is a beautiful instance of elegiac poetry. Examples. Hammond's Version of Tibullus' elegies, Gray's celebrated masterpiece, his Elegy in a Country Churchyard, Mason, Shenstone, Mr. Bowles, and Miss Seward, Translated by Boyd. + By Hoole. By Mickle. § Most nations can boast their epic poems. Hence, in addition to those above named, may be added; the Mahabarat of the Hin dus; the Edda of the Norwegians; the Fingal and Chronological poems of the Irish and Scotch; the Taliessin and Triads of the Welsh; the Nebiun-Nameh (exploits of Mohammed) and Hamleh Heedry (exploits of Aly) of the Arabs; and the Shah Name (book of kings) of the Persians. 4. Pastoral poetry so termed from pastor a shepherd, the subject relating to rural life, and the speakers introduced being generally shepherds. Poems of this nature are also called bucolies and eclogues from two Greek words; the one, signifying a herdsman, and the other choice pieces. The pastoral poet exhibits whatever is most agreeable in the pastoral state. He paints its simplicity and its happiBess, but usually conceals its rudeness and misery. Examples. Theocritus and Virgil. Gay's Shepherd's Week, Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad, Collins' Eclogues, Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, Gesner's Idylls, Dr. Beattie's Hermit, and Southey's Old Mansion House, Ruined Cottage, and, Botany Bay Eclogues. Robert Burus also may be includ-" ed in the list of pastoral poets. There cannot be a more faithful representation of rural mamers, than that exhibited in the Farmer's Boy of Bloomfield. 5. Didactic, or Preceptive Poetry is intended to convey instruction and knowledge in a pleasing and attractive manner. The poet may treat some instructive subject in a regular form; or without infending a great or regular work, he may inveigh against particular vices or press some moral observations on human life and characters. Examples. Pope's Essay on Criticism, and Essay on Man, Dyer's Fleece, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, Armstrong on Health, Blair's Grave, Mason's English Garden, Beattie's Minstrel, Somerville's Chace, and Downman's Infancy. 6. Descriptive poetry calls forth the highest exertions of genius. Its design is to exhibit beautiful pictures of nature or art, so as to communicate all the information and pleasure, which the reader could receive from an actual survey of the objects. Examples. The Allegro and Penseroso of Milton, the Seasons of Thomson, the Hermit of Parnell, Pope's Windsor Forest, Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted Village, Falconer's Shipwreck, many of Robert Burns' Poems, Gisborne's Walks in a Forest, and Vales of Wever, Maurice's Grove-hill, the Sea by Mr. Bidlake, Rogers Pleasures of Memory, Campbell's Pleasures of Hope, Leyden's Scenes of Infancy, Bloom field's Farmer's Boy, and Grahamie's Birds of Scotland. 7. Satirical poetry is descriptive of men and manners. It affords instruction and amusement, by censuring what is wrong, and exposing what is foolish. There are two sorts of satire: the one, paints vice in its native deformity, and fails not to inflict upon the vicious, deserved censure: the other, aims at men the shaft of ridicule, and exposes their whims, their oddities, their absurdities, and their crimes. Examples. Horace, Juvenal and Persius; Boileau; Dryden; Pope, in his Satirical Epistles and his Dunciad; Dr. Young, in his Love of Fame, the Universal Passion; Swift; Churchill, in his Rosciad and Prophecy of Famine; Johnson, in his London; Cowper, in his Table talk and Progress of Error; Gifford, in his Baviad and Mæviad; and an anonymous author in the Pursuits of Literature;-all exhibit striking instances of that keenness of reproof, energy of description, condensation of thought, and vivacity and correctness of style, which should ever characterise satirical poetry. 8. Heroi-comic or mock heroic is a mixture of comic and heroic, or a jocose parody of some great poem. Of this nature is Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice. Here the poet adopts the sublime style of Epic composition to describe a ridiculous contest between a few rats and frogs; and forces his reader to smile at the wide difference between the loftiness of his verse and the insignificancy of his heroes. The Lutrin of Boileau, Pope's Rape of the Lock, Tassoni's Secchia Rapita, the Splendid Shilling of Phillips, and Hayley's Triumphs of Temper, are eminent exemplifications of this sort of poetical composition. 9. Burlesque poetry describes in a style affectedly quaint, trivial, and vulgar, what has been before celebrated in epic versification. Examples. Butler's Hudibras, Prior's Alma, the Iliad burlesqued, Cotton's Virgil Travestie, and Trumbull's Mc Fingall; Rejected Addresses. There are many excelleut poems not referrible to either of the preceding heads, which may be justly styled moral and devotional. The principal of these are, Young's Night Thoughts; Pope's Ethical Epistles, Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, Cowper's Task, and Grahame's Sabbath and Sabbath Walks. Much excellent devotional poetry may be found in the works of Mr. Addison, Dr. Watts, Dr. Doddridge, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Merrick, Dr. Blacklock, and Mr. Logan, For those persons, to whom an individual purchase of each poet named in these exemplifications, would not only be too expensive, but very inconvenient for reference, and more especially for young persons, Dr. Knox's Elegant Extracts, may be resorted to, as a judicious and ample collection of the best English poetry." .: SECT. II. ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. Mere quantity is of very little effect in English versifis cation, for the difference made between long and short syllables in our manner of pronouncing them, is very inconsiderable; the melody of our verse depends, chiefly, upon a certain order and succession of accented and unaccented. syllables. The casural pause is another essential. This may fall after the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh syllable: by which means uncommon variety and richness are superadded. The ingenious author of "An Essay on the Nature of English Verse," having very successfully exhibited the varieties of the accent and pause, the following rules and exemplifications have been taken from his useful manual. 1. The common heroic line consists of ten syllables; the first of which is generally unaccented; the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth, are accented. Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring } › Of wóes unbúnber'd, heav'nly goddess sing. Il. i. t. 2. For the sake of variety, the line sometimes begins with an accented syllable. Ask of thy mother earth, why бaks are made. Ess. on M. 1. 39. 3. The accent is sometimes laid on the first, third, fifth, and seventh syllables. To those who wish to cultivate an acquaintance with our early English poets, Ellis' Specimens, 3 vols. 8vo. Percy's Reliques, 3 vols. 8vo. and Headley's Beauties, 2 vols. 8vo. will prove highly acceptable. As a collection, Sharpe's Poets may be confidently recommended, as the accuracy of the text has been secured by the well-known industry of the Editor, Mr. Park. The complete works of any poet may be obtained separately. 4. The accent is sometimes placed on every third syllable. This measure is adapted to lively and joyous subjects. These verses frequently admit of twelve syllables, because they have only four which are not pronounced with rapidity. Tis the voice of the sluggard, I hear him complain, You have wak'd me too soon, I must slúmber again. My time, O ye Múses, was happily spent, Sometimes of six : In my rage shall be seen The revenge of a quéen. Addison. 5. Verses which have an air of ridicule, jocularity, or burlesque, sometimes consist of eleven syllables, and trave a double rhyme at the end. There heroes' wits are kept in pond'rous cases, Such verses frequently consist of nine syllables: Yet to his guest though no way sparing, He eat himself the rind and paring. Sometimes of seven : In roses Cupid peeping, Pope. Pope. Disturb'd a bee a sleeping. Lewis Misc. Poems, 6. When the accent falls on significant words, or propersyllables, the verse though consisting of ten words is not inharmonious. Ah, cóme not, write not, think not once of mé,v Pope If, however, the accent is upon every word, the line will run heavily, as in the following memorable instance. Pope. And ten low words oft creep in one dull line. 7. When the accented syllable happens to be an insignificant particle, or a syllable on which the voice cannot pro perly rest, the verse is lame and inharmonious. |