300 HENRY KIRKE WITITE's REMAINS. 



Yet does my mind with sweeter transport glow, 



As, at the root of mos-y trunk reclin"d, 



In magic Spenser's wildly warbled song 



I see deicrted Una wander wide 



Through wasteful solitudes and lurid hoatl;3, 



V.'eary, forlorn ; than wlicre the fated* fair 



Upon the bosom bright of silver Thames, 



Launches in all the lustre of brocade, 



Amid the sijlendours of the laughing sun ; 



The gay description ])all3 upon the sense 



And coldlj'^ strikes the mind with feeble bliss." 



Pleasures of Mclandwhf. 



Warton's mind was formed for the grand and the sub- 

 lime. Were his imitations less verbal and less nnmerous, 

 I should be led to imagine, that the peculiar beauties of 

 his favourite authors had sunk so impressiv^ely into his 

 mind, that he had unwittingly appropriated them as his 

 own ; but they are in general such as to preclude the 

 idea. 



To the metrical, and other intrinsic ornaments of style, 

 he appears to have paid due attention. If we meet with 

 an uncouth expression, we immediately perceive that it 

 is peculiarly appropriate, and that no other term could 

 have been made use of with so happy an eifect. His 

 poems abound with alliterative lines. Indeed, this figure 

 seems to have been his favourite ; and he studiously seeks 

 every opportunity to introduce it : however, it must be 

 acknowledged, that his " daisy-dappled dale," &c., occur 

 too frequently. 



The poem on which Warton's fame [as a poet) prin- 

 cipally re?ts, is the " Pleasures of Melancholy," and (not- 

 v.'ithstanding the perpetual recurrence of ideas which are 

 borrowed from other poets) there are few pieces which I 

 have perused with more exquisite gratification. The 

 gloomy tints with which he overcasts his descriptions ; his 

 highly figurative language ; and, above all, the antique 

 air which the poem wears, convey the most sublime ideas 

 to the mind. 



Of the other pieces of this poet, some are excellent, and 

 they all rise above mediocrity. In his sonnets he has suc- 

 ceeded wonderfully ; that written at Winslade, and the 



• Eelinda T'^V/c Pope's " Rape of tlic Lock." 



