130 



A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON FALCONER'S 

 SHIPWRECK. 



It is a characteristic peculiar to Falconer's ship- 

 wreck, that the author and his work, the seaman 

 and the poet, are closely and intimately united. 

 The discrimination of Virgil gave to the mouth of 

 iEneas, a narrative of the scenes and dangers in 

 which he himself had borne so large a part. Now 

 Falconer's situation exquisitely coincided with tliis 

 beauty ; and our poet, in the plaintive motto of his 

 work, intimates that he too had been exposed to all 

 the complicated horrors he so forcibly and patheti- 

 cally describes. The young sailor had been left at 

 Alexandria, in Egypt ; where, in fact, he had lately 

 joined the ill fated vessel. The classic grounds for 

 his assuming the name of Arion, are touched with 

 much feeling. The hint previously given in the 

 motto is then confirmed. 



" This la<t our tragic story from the wave 

 Of (lark oblivion haply yet may save." 



With the exception, however, here noticed, the 

 soil on which our poet came, ** muse inspired," to 

 labour, appeared every thing but promising. It 

 seems recognised both by poets and critics, that a 

 good epic should terminate successfully. Lucan's 

 Pharsalia is, I believe, the only classic exception to 

 this rule on record : Falconer's catastrophe is 

 necessarily of the same kind. In one place, after 

 beautifully touching on the design and influence of 

 poetry in general, he notices this defect. His was a 

 tale of the storm, and little else ; a narrative of the 

 same dangers, a repetition of nearly the same vain 

 efforts to avert them. The masters of the elder song 

 had, he confesses, been sometimes engaged on such 

 topics. — 



*"The mournful harp of yore 

 Wept the sad wanderer lost upon the shore." 



Yet with a vast difference in their main object ; with 

 them the wreck was merely episodical, with him it 

 was the groundwork of his tale. — 



