POETRY. 
At S 
The wild blast rising from the western cave, 
Drives the huge billows from their heaving 
bed, 
Tears from their grassy tombs the village 
dead, 
And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave. 
With shells and sea-weed mingled on the 
shore, 
To ! their bones whiten on the frequent wave. 
But vain to them the winds and waters rave. 
They hear the warring elements no more ; 
While I am doom’d, by life's long storm op- 
prest, 
J o gaze with envy on their gloomy rest.” 
Pope’s Elegy to an Unfortunate Lady, and 
his Eloisa, are in heroic verse ; which, in the 
hands of that great master, is adequate to the 
expression of every feeling. 
Lyric poetry is versatile arid miscel- 
laneous, admitting almost every diversity 
of measure and of subject. Love and he- 
roism, friendship and devotional sentiment, 
the triumphs of beauty and the praises 
of patriotism, are all appropriate to lyrical 
composition. The soui of enthusiasm, the 
spirit of philosophy, the voice of sympathy, 
may all breathe in the same ode. Of our 
lyrical writers, Dryden is confessedly emi- 
nent ; Gray is distinguished by the majesty 
and delicacy of his expression, and the cor- 
rectness of his style ; Collins is occasionally 
animated by a portion of Pindaric spirit. 
Among our heroic odes there are, perhaps, 
none that breathe a loftier strain than the 
foilo.ving patriotic invocation by Burns : 
“ Scots, who have with Wallace bled, 
Scots, whom Bruce hath often led. 
Welcome to the gory bed. 
Or to glorious victory. 
Now’s the day, and now's the hour, 
See the front of battle lower; 
See approach proud Edward’s power, 
Edward’s chains and slavery. 
Who will be a traitor knave ? 
Who can ask a coward’s grave ? 
Who so base to be a slave? 
Traitor, coward, turn and flee. 
Who for Scotland, king, and law, 
Freedom’s sword will strongly draw. 
Freeman stand, and freeman fa’ ? 
Caledonian, on wi’ me. 
By oppressions, woes, and pains, 
By your master’s servile chains, 
We will draw our dearest veins. 
But they shall be, shall be free. 
Lay the proud usurpers low; 
Ty rants fall in every foe, 
Liberty’s in every, blow: 
Forward let us do, or die.” 
In the minor lyrics-. are included Songs, a 
species of composition sedulously cultivated 
by English writers. The themes of songs are 
in general amatory or convivial; there are 
however some, of which the strain is purely 
patriotic and martial ; and not a few are of 
the humorous cast. Shakspeare, Jen- 
son, and our other elder bards, have be- 
queathed to us songs of exquisite beauty. In 
the last century the most popular song-writer 
was Gay. Allan Ramsay has left some en- 
chanting airs. Percy’s collection has restored 
many ly rical pieces of inimitable p tiios and 
simplicity. In latter times, many songs oi 
classical eminence have been supplied by 
Stevens, Sheridan, and Burns. 
Didactic poetry is minutely preceptive, 
and professes to convey useful instruction on 
someparticular subject. It is obviously not 
easy to discover situations in which an author 
may become a practical teacher, w ithout ceas- 
ing to be the poet: and this difficulty is ag- 
gravated to the English writer, who lias not 
the resources of tiie Greek and Roman in the 
metrical capacities of his language. 
Virgil’s georgical poem is the performance 
of the first master, operating with the best 
materials. In imitation of Virgil, a poem was 
composed by John Phillips on cyder, which 
is now little read. Towards the middle of 
the iast century, w hen the didactic muse had 
most votaries, polemics, physics, and meta- 
physics, were successively expounded in 
verse. But verse is not the medium by which 
information can be communicated with most 
advantage; and is less. suitably employed in 
elucidating abstract speculation, than in en- 
forcing popular and acknowledged truths. 
The philosophy of Akenside is relished only 
for his imagery and harmonious language. 
The aphorisms of Armstrong are remember- 
ed only where the author was more sensible 
to the influences of Apollo than of Eseula- 
pius. The Economy of Vegetation, and 
the Loves of the Plants, are formed on a plan 
not only original, but new. . It is probable 
that the primary idea of this work was sug- 
gested to the author by the perusal of Cow- 
ley’s Garden ; but on that simple site he 
has erected a magnificent palace, in which 
no vestige of the antient edifice remains. 
With an imagination luxuriant as that oi Ov id, 
and with powers of description scarcely less 
universal, he has invented a machinery ap- 
propriate to his subject, and which is also 
derived solely from the philosophy of mo- 
dern times. From the extensive notes ap- 
pended to his poems, it is however obvious, 
that though he might thus embody the prin- 
ciples of science to the eye ot fancy, he de- 
spaired of rendering them intelligible with- 
out the agency of prose. Mason’s English 
Garden is more descriptive than didactic. 
De Lille’s Jardins is a chef-d'oeuvre in its 
kind. In the Essay on Criticism, Pope has 
most happily enlivened didactic style with 
wit and satire. 
Satip.ical poetry is' descriptive of men 
and manners; its aim is to delineate the 
follies and chastise the vices of the age. 
Satire is evidently the offspring of poll nod 
times; and, unlike other poets, the satirist 
finds his empire enlarged, and his influence 
extended, by the progress ot society. 
Satire is either pointed or oblique: elo- 
quence is the soul of tne one, ridicule of the 
other. Tiie one rush s on its object in a tor- 
rent of vehemence and declamation; the 
other pursues a smooth tortuous course, oc- 
casion all v reflecting to the mind the most 
momentous trutns in t:. playful aspect oi 
wit and humour. In the Jti udibras of Butler, 
the Lutrui of Boileau, and the Rane oi tne 
Lock, tne effect of onlique satire is height- 
ened by an assumption of the heroic style, 
the perversion ot w.iich pro luces an effect 
exquisite!' ludicrous. Gay’s Siiepherd’sVv eck 
and Gresset » Ver-vee he ong to this species, 
as do many of Note.- hg mer poems, and 
many of La Fontaine’s ones. > . satire is 
commonly of a similar cast, i ue satire of 
Young is always pointed and saturnine, Lr 
Churchill the pointed and the oblique are 
happily united : as they are in Dry den and 
Pope, the two great original masters of Eng- 
lish satire, who both possessed with wit anil 
fancy a knowledge of men and manners, and 
an intuitive discernment of characters, with the 
aptitude of describing them, which are its 
first requisites. The following extracts afford 
a specimen of the manner of each in the 
delineation of character : it must, however, 
be remembered, that Pope moralizes whilst 
Dryden declaims : 
“ Some of their chiefs were leaders of the 
land: 
In the first rank of these did Zimri stand ; 
A man so various, that he seem’d to be 
Not one, but all mankind’s epitome. 
Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong, 
Was every thing by starts, and nothing long;. 
But in the course of one revolving moon, 
Was chemist, fuller, statesman, and buffoon ; 
l hen all for women, painting, rhyming,, 
drinking, 
Beside ten thousand freaks that died in think- 
, ing. 
Blest madman ! who could every hour eia- 
.p'°y 
W ith something new to wish, or to enjoy. 
Railing and praising were his usual themes; 
And both to shew his judgment in extremes.. 
Is ever violent, or ever civil. 
That every man with him was God or devil. 
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art ; 
Nothing went unrewarded but desert: 
Beggar’d by fools, whom still he found too*, 
late, 
He had his jest, and they had his estate. 
He laugh’d himself from court ; then sought 
relief 
In forming parties, but would ne’er be chief.”' 
Dryden. 
u In the worst inn’s worst room, with mat 
half-hung. 
The walls of plaister, and the floor of dung ; 
On once a flock-bed, now repair’d with straw. 
With tape-tied curtains never meant to 
draw ; 
T he George and garter dangling from his 
head, > 
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red ; 
Great \ iiliers lies: alas! how chang’d from, 
him 
The life of pleasure, and tiie soul of whim, 
Gallant and gay, in Cliveden’s proud al- 
cove, 
The bower of wanton Shrewsbury, and love; 
Or just as gay at council, in a ring 
Ot mimic statesmen and their merry king. 
No wit to flatter left of all his store ; 
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. 
The victor ot his health, his fortune, friends. 
And fame, this lord oi useless thousands ends.” 
it would be amusing to pursue the compa- 
rison between those two great poets in the 
Dunciad and Mac hlecnoe ; to observe 
the unpruned exuberance and careless vigour 
oi the elder bard, and the exquisite judgment 
oi his incomparable imitator. 
Epic poetry concentrates all that is sublime 
in action, description, or sentiment. In the 
struct' ireoi a regular epic poem, criticism re- 
quires that the faille should be founded in 
fact, and that fiction should fill the picture of 
which the outline is traced by truth. In the 
conduct of the poem, it is exacted that the 
machinery be subservient to the main design,. 
