.138 ' poetry. Jug. r. 



it never fliould be disregarded. The following v«r;e, among others, re- 

 quires to be corrected : 



or entrance 



■ The soul in th' extacies of rapt'rous song. 41 



See also lines 62, 69, 71, 82, 92, &c. 



There is great beauty in the following pafsage ; 



Oft let me range the devious wild, where rocks 



Rise in fantastic grandeur, bare, or cloth'd 



With ivy; while aloft the wiuntain ajh 



Waves from the tow'ring clift"; and far belosv 



Th' unruffled lake reilccts the mountain aJh, 



The tow'ring cliff, and ev'n the goat that dares 



Along the precipice's fliaggy verge 



Ciop-lhe scant herbage. 

 Is not the re-petition of the mountain afh rather an overstrained affecta- 

 tion of simplicity ? Would it not be fully as natural, and more picturtsque, 

 to say the f tufted tree ?* 



The following pafsage, but for the two harih lines we have marked, is 



highly beautiful : 



Chief let me seek the iKetamorfhoi'J scene. 

 Where Alcon hath o'er nature's form, (ere while 

 A form uncouth, unseemly, unarray'd,) 

 With easy grace, thrown the loose flowing robe 

 Of rural beauty. Soft may southern fliow'rs 

 Descend ! and gently may Favonian gales 

 Shake their moist pinions! May the vernal beam 

 And kindly dews, with genial influence feed 

 The rising plants, till ev'ry swelling hill 

 Waves with a verdant grove! 'Mid thcfe gay fields. 

 With him whose genuine taste reforms the rude 

 Bleak desart, and makes frowning nature smile. 

 Let me enjoy the social walk ; with him 

 Falhion the winding path, the mantling grove, 

 The Ijwn wooi-skirtcd, the meandering brook, 

 7be /like lu'itb 'wilk-zv^d margin, lb'' tbelijt. 

 Or fane, inscribed luUh th' honour' d names of iucb 

 As have by valiant deed, or counsel sage, 

 Or laurel earn'd by science or the muse, 

 Enhanc'd the glory of their native land. 



•' Might not these lines be altered somehow thus .' 



The lake with willov/'d maigin, the proud fane, 

 Orobelilk, inscrib'd with names of such, &c. 



-There are several instances of wrong punctuation occur in this poeiu, 

 J,vhich marr the sense : 



While th' azure gleam, from yonJer distant grove 

 Of nodding hyacinths, seems like th' expanse 

 Of a thin vapour, frelh exhal'd. 

 The idea is here new and beautiful, were it not marred by the smb'gu- 

 Vty which is occasioned by our thinking of the incorgruity of a r.odding 



