POE 
tton in goodnefs, infinity, or power, of courfe loves the 
higheft tone that can he gained. This figure is proper 
and exquifite when fpeaking of God, or the intellect; for 
there can be no expreflion invented to overrate fuch ob- 
je&s: but when applied, as it is done, to unworthy topics, 
it diminifhes force. Still, within certain limits, it is 
plealing, and therefore right. The hyperbole is a favourite 
figure with pafiionate themes; it predominates in tragedy. 
We have endeavoured thus to fiiow, that the pleafure 
we derive from poetry arifes from the contemplation of 
our own faculties in it; that thus pictures of truth, fad- 
nefs, terror, rage, jealoufy, love, friendmip, courage, rea- 
fon, judgment, humour, all give us fome kind of grati¬ 
fication; that the imagination, in forming or viewing 
fuch pictures, receives unalloyed delight only when they 
tire mixed with the beautiful and fublime principles 
which arife in our moral and metaphyfical conclufions ; 
that natural objeCts which excite thefe latter principles 
are alfo plealing. Moreover, we have endeavoured to 
trace the caules that lead mankind to exprefs the work¬ 
ings of the imagination in verfe, rather than in profe; 
and why a peculiar language is necelfary, whether poe¬ 
try or profe be the vehicle of thefe'thoughts. It remains to 
apply' thefe principles to the confiderations of the various 
artificial divifions of poetry. 
III. Of the various Forms of Poetical Composi¬ 
tion. 
There are in one point of view but two kinds of poetry ; 
namely, dramatic and deferiptive. In the former, the 
author, having fuppofed the exiftence of certain beings, 
tells us their charaCfer and their aCtions by their own 
language, and by that alone. In the other, or deferiptive 
kind of poetry, he unfolds his own opinions and obfer- 
vations; or, if he deferibes the characters and aCtions of 
mankind, he performs the tafk in his own words. The 
dramatic poem admiis as an embellilhment much of the 
deferiptive; and again, few deferiptive poems of any 
length intereft us, unlefs they have a dramatic intereft to 
fupport them ; that is, unlefs they fpeak of characters 
and aCtions. The various names which have been ap¬ 
plied to poems have little precife fignificat-ion. Tiie ode, 
for inllance, is applied by Horace to productions of very' 
oppofite natures. We (hall endeavour, therefore, to give 
a more definite import to the terms we ufe, than lias here¬ 
tofore been adopted. 
The grandeft productions which have refulted from the 
union ot the two above-named orders of poetry, are cal¬ 
led Epic Poems. In general opinion they hold the higheft 
place in literature, though, for our own parts, we are 
inclined to rank the (erious drama, or Tragedy, above 
them. The two are, however, very clofely allied to each 
other; the chief difference being, that the Epopoea nar¬ 
rates a feries of adventures tending to an event; an ac¬ 
count of the development of characters and. circum- 
ftances, embracing often a long interval of time ; while 
the Tragedy is the winding up of ultimate adventures, 
which is brought about fuddenly and violently by the 
collifion cf particular characters and circumftances, al¬ 
ready approaching fome crifis. Yet fo nearly are the two 
allied, that the firft epic poem anfwers either of thefe de- 
feriptions in many remarkable particulars. 
There has been fome difficulty in properly defining an 
epic poem. It deferibes, fay fome, the aCtions of mankind : 
fo does any little narrative poem, but this is not epic. 
It fpeaks of one aCtion, having a beginning, middle, and 
end; and has a moral deducible*from it. “John Gilpin’s 
Hiftory” hath all thefe merits. The popular fir Walter 
Scott (Supplement to Ency. Brir. Article Romance,) 
diltinguifhes an epic from a narrative poem chiefly by its 
execution. He fays, “ Where the art and the ornaments of 
ike poet chiefly altrail our attention ; where each part of the 
narrative bears a due proportion to the others, and the 
whole draws gradually towards a final and fatisfaCtory con- 
clufion ; where the characters are iketched with force, and 
Vql. XX. No. 1406. 
T R Y. 745 
fuftained with precifion ; where the narrative is enlivened 
and adorned with fo much, and no more, of poetical or¬ 
nament and defeription, as may adorn, without impeding 
its progrefs; where this art and tafte is difplayed, fup- 
ported, at the fame time, by a fufticient tone of genius, 
and art of compofition; the work produced muff be termed 
an Epic Poem, and the author may claim his feat upon 
the high and honoured feat occupied by Homer, Virgil, 
and Milton. On the other hand, when a ltory languilhes 
in tedious and minute details, and relies for the intereft 
which it propofes to excite, rather upon the wild excur- 
Cons of an unbridled fancy than upon the (kill of the 
poet; when the fupernatural and the extraordinary are- 
relied upon exclufively as the fupporrs of the intereft; 
the author, though it is production may be diftinguifhed 
by occafional flafhes of genius, and though it maybe inte- 
refting to the hiftorian, as containing fome minute frag¬ 
ments of real events, and ftill more fo to the antiquary, 
from the light which it throws upon ancient manners, is 
ftill no more than a humble Romancer, and his work 
muff: rank amongft thofe rude ornaments of a dark age 
which are at prefent the fubjeCi of our confuleration.” 
Were it not that almoft every critic has failed to define 
the epopcea, it would feem affonifhing that any man of 
reflection could have penned fo abfurd a character of it as 
the preceding. In the firft place, if the art of the poet 
fiiould “chiefly attraCt our attention ;” it would entirely 
prove the ruin of all fublimity. Who looks upon art and 
toil as fublime ? Do not all mankind,by a common confenr, 
defpife every attempt at fublimity which bears the marks 
of effort ? Secondly, that the narrative is well propor¬ 
tioned, that it gradually draws to a fatisfaCfory con- 
clufion, and that the characters are iketched with force 
and preciliqn, are qualities that belong as much to a good 
ftory as to an epic poem : they are all to be met with in 
the “Lady of the Lake.” But could Milton himfelf have 
made an epic of the adventures of a gay king and an ad¬ 
venturous robber ? No: the fubjeCt makes the epic. It 
is neceflary that it fhould fpeak of fome grand and mighty 
change in theftate of man ; the ruin or the rife of mighty 
empires, with all the glorious and fearful changes fuch 
events excite. On fuch a tale alone can a fuftained fub¬ 
limity be indulged without bombaft. But, fo far from 
the higheft of thefe works requiring exquifite ornaments to 
fupport them, they can overlook fuch adventitious means 
of pleafure. Addreffing themfelves to the higheft facul¬ 
ty of our nature, they may difdain an appeal to the fenfes. 
What is more beautiful than Homer, tranflated into Eng- 
liffi profe! The thoughts are what we look to in his 
works; and they pleafe all who read them; upon them 
is ereCted his fame. The beauty of his verfe is known 
only to the few. The great war which occupied the civi¬ 
lized world for ten years; which arofe from nothing; 
which ended in the ruin of the conquered, an.d in the dif- 
perfion and mifery of the conquerors ; which, by bringing 
together the beft and higheft of the race, with the lowelt 
and bafeft, formed for the obferver a picture which, pain¬ 
ted as it has been, muft ever be a lefibn to the ftudent of 
the human mind ; is a fubjeCt, indeed, for an epic. Who 
that had a heart to feel could fail to be fublime on fuch a 
theme? a theme, pleafing not only to the Greeks, vvhofe 
character it flattered and exalted, but to all mankind, by 
the fine moral and didaCtic inftruCtions it teemed with, 
by the fublime images it forced from the mind of the 
poet. The Trojan war was an epoch in the hiftory of 
man. 
The next great event on which we have an epic poem 
was the origin of that lofty empire which ruled for ages 
over the known world, which cultivated the fei ences, and 
left deathlefs fparks of poetry and oratory to our times. 
The poet funk beneath the fubjeCt; he imitated too 
clofely the Greek; and his poem, though deathlefs on ac¬ 
count of its beauty, is too much of a narration; it has 
not, as a whole, the fublimity of the Iliad. 
The Jerufalem Delivered of Taflb had alfo a mod im- 
9 D portant 
