POETICAL WORKS 
of Tom Warton should be beloved by 
all the Wykehamists who remember 
him. 
The editor compares the studies and 
performances of Warton and Gray, as 
being contemporaries, between whom 
there existed more than a general re- 
semblance of talents, pursuits, taste, and 
acquirements. “ Partiality to my au- 
thor,” he says, “ shall not lead me to 
dispute, that as a poet the palm of su- 
periority must be adjudged to Gray. 
«But in making this concession, some 
reservation may not unfairly be claimed. It 
»should be remembered that the poems of 
Gray were uniformly composed on suljects 
chosen by himself; but that the subjects of 
some of the best of Warton’s were imposed 
’ by the duty, and encumbered with the 
' weight, of an official station. Nor is this 
_ all.—for it may farther be added, that in 
every point the superiority of Gray is far 
' from manifest; that if Gray has more ab- 
stract poetry, Warton has more picturesque 
imagery; if Gray has more fire, Warton 
yields not to him in grandeur ; if Gray more 
frequently strikes the imagination, Warton 
is not less successful in delighting it; and 
‘pieces, Gray is allowed to be more perfect, 
arton, in the general estimate, has cer- 
tainly more variety. Not apoem of Gray's can 
be mentioned, but one of the same kind may 
be produced from Warton: bat several of 
; the poems of Warton are such kinds as Gray 
has never attempted.” 
that of too often substituting sound for 
_ sense, swelling out sentences that are as 
- beautiful as bubbles in the sunshine, 
_ and as empty, if examined. Mr. Mant 
might fairly have allowed Warton the 
raise of more originality; for Gray, 
with all his merit, is a maker of centos, 
a putter-together of mosaic pictures; the 
designs are indeed his own, but he has 
picked out the materials piece by piece. 
_ The editor is mistaken in asserting 
that Warton, asa commentator on Eng- 
lish poetry, “ possesses the singular me- 
rit of having been the first to illustrate 
his authors by an examination of the 
works with which they had been priu- 
' cipally conversant.” ‘That merit is 
_ Theobald’s, and it provoked the envy of 
* Pope, who being an indifferent scholar, 
__ and a worse commentator, abused Bent- 
. ley for his learning, and ‘Theobald for 
_ his annotations. ' 
- Mr. Mant’s criticism on the poetry of 
his author, contains no error so impor- 
tant as ‘to need correction, and no ob- 
Ann. Rev. Vou. IT, 
One fault is common to both poets, 
OF THE LATE T. 
that if, in the examination of individual . 
WARTON, 545 
servations of such novelty or utility as 
to deserve to be extracted. Why does 
he call our heroic verse the English 
pentameter? The five-foot Iambic, or 
the ten-syllable line should be its name : 
to call it a pentameter because it con- 
tains five fect, is mere pedantry. 
The poems now first published are 
two translations from Horace, in the 
metre of Collins’s Ode to Evening, and 
the two following poems. 
** Solitude, at an Inn, 
«© (Written May 15, 1769.) 
«« Oft upon the twilight plain, 
Cireled with thy shadowy train, 
While the dove at distance coo'd, 
Have I met thee, Solitude! 
Then was loneliness to me 
Rest and true society. 
But, ah! how alterd is thy mien 
In this sad deserted scene! 
Here all thy classic pleasures cease, 
Musing mild, and thoughtful peace : 
Here thou com’st in eaflen mood, 
Not with thy fantastic brood 
Of magic shapes. and visions airy, 
Beckon'd from the land of fairy ; 
*Mid the melancholy void 
Nota pensive charm enjoy'd! 
No poetic being here 
Strikes with airy sounds mine ear; 
No converse here to faney cold 
With many a fleeting form I hold, 
Here all inelegant and rude 
‘hy presence is, sweet Solitude.” 
“© On Mr. Head, 
“« Oh pe his youth, O stay thy threat’ning 
iand, 
Nor break too soon young wedlock’s eatly 
ban! 
But if his gentle and ingenuous mind, 
The generous temper, and the taste refin’d, 
A soul unconscious of corruption’s stain, 
If learning, wit, and genius plead in vain, 
O Igt the mourning bride, to stop thy spear, 
Oppose the meek resistance of a tear ! 
And when to sooth thy force his virtues fail, 
Let weeping faith and widow'd love prevail !” 
‘he first of these poems is evidently 
an uncorrected effusion, but it is pleasing 
because the feeling which it describes 
will be recognized by every one. The. 
epitaph is perfectly Irish: an address 
upon atombstone to Death, requesting 
him to spare the person who is there 
interred., We have never seena more fla- 
grant instance of that vilecommon-place 
artifice, which converts a figure of pas- 
sion into the trick of composition. Mr. 
Edgeworth may insert the Epitaph in 
his Essay upon Bulls. 
From the inaugural lecture we copy 
Nn 
