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eligible heroic meafure : from the fame caufe, and perhaps with 

 as much juftice in both inftances, as Mr, Mafon flickles for the 

 regular ode. I mufi: own I was furprized to find the odes of 

 Pope and Dryden on St. Cecilia's day claffed together, as if the 

 two produdions were of equal merit ; indeed, I was furprized to 

 hear Pope's ode mentioned, as a poem which may ftill be faid to 

 live. 



I AM fomewhat at a lofs to determine whether Mr. Mafon, in 

 the note in queftion, means by the term regular ode a poem 

 which exhibits the regular fuccelTion of Jirophe, antijirophe and 

 epode, or that merely which is confined to an uniform and regu- 

 larly repeated flanza. If we are to apply this denomination to 

 poems of the firft clafs only, the number of odes is but fmall, 

 comparatively fpeaking, and of that number many are faint and 

 weak, and many fleep; certainly, fuch of them as have flood 

 their ground are far inferior in number and merit to their irre- 

 gular brethren. If we are to iinderfland the term regular ode 

 in the latter and more extenfive fenfe, then it follows, that a 

 trifling ballad or fong will be a regular ode, and pafs for Jierlitig, 

 bccaufe of the uniform returning flanza, while no regularity of 

 plan, no lyrical arrangement, or propriety of fentiment, will ex- 

 empt from the charge of irregularity an ode, which unluckily ad- 

 mits a variety of flanza. 



The mere regular return of an uniform flanza, if that flanza 



does not afford a copious interchange of melodious founds, is 



not a work of much difficulty in the execution, or merit in the 



[H 2] perufal ; 



