[ n ] 



It cannot be denied, that a fpecies of compofition which adopts 

 the conftruclion of the rythmus, and even the found of particular 

 words to the fubjed, muft have its foundation in the genuine 

 undepraved feehngs of human nature, I have not a doubt 

 within my mind of the irregular ode being the firft form of 

 compofition adopted by mankind, in their firft wild attempts at 

 literature. Poetry has ever been the delight of men in the firft 

 ftages of fociety : the earlieft recitals of events among them have 

 been in verfe ; this arifes from the connexion between certain 

 founds and the feelings of the mind, as well as the memory. 

 The firft literary produdlion, in an unpohflied nation, where the 

 pure didates of nature prevailed, was a poem, and that poem an 

 irregular ode. Whether the fubjeft of the rude minftrelfy was the 

 feather-cindured chiefs, or dufl<:y loves, the untutored feelings of 

 the heart teaching expreflions, and fuggefting founds attempered 

 and attuned to that fubjed, the ftanza varied with the fenfe, 

 and the fpontaneous defcant became an irregular ode. I am 

 very confident, that the death fong and the war fong, which 

 have fuch an influence on the fpirits of American warriors, are 

 irregular odes ; and I am confirmed in my opinion, by finding 

 that feveral fpecimens of the antient poetry of uncivilized na- 

 tions bear this form. In Scheffer's Hiftory of Lapland you will 

 find two inftances of the irregular ode, which have great poetical 

 merit, and are well known by the Englifh tranflations of them. 



I SHALL conclude with expreffing a wiHi, that thefe hafty 

 refledions may be the means of exciting feme poetical genius 

 to make trial of a fpecies of compofition, which, in my mind, 

 is peculiarly fufceptible of true fublimity. 



[K] . POST- 



