755 
POETRY. 
knows how to difcriminate between vice and virtue ; and 
the frailty and crimes of Helen are beautifully c'ontraft- 
ed by the charter loves and tender forrows of Andromache. 
Paris is, as he ought to be, a mixture of gallantry and 
effeminacy; Diomed is bold, but prudent; Ajax is arro¬ 
gant and brutal; Heftor aftive, vigilant, and humane; 
Agamemnon is actuated by ambition, and a third for 
empire ; Menelaus, by milder virtues; Neftor is a fage 
talkative old man ; Jdomeneus is a plain blunt foldier; 
and Sarpedon is gallant and generous. All have diftin- 
guifliing marks. 
Of the machinery of this -poem, we mull allow that many 
parts of it are truly beautiful; nor, as a general rule, can we 
juftiy object to the introduction of thofe gods who were 
univerfally popular, and from whofe dock many Grecian 
families traced their defcent. We have, when treating 
of the epic in general, fliown in what points of his machi¬ 
nery Homer was erroneous. But he has often been un- 
juftly blamed on this point. The fpeaking of Achilles’s 
liorfes has been cenfured as unnatural; but it is a beau¬ 
tiful and affefting miracle. The purfuit of the fame hero 
by the river Scamander has been alfo derided ; but is cer¬ 
tainly a fine allegory. 
In his narrative of events, Homer is concife, fplrited, 
and rapid. In his fpeeches he mull be admitted to be 
tedious 5 but they fhould be confidered as flowing from 
the characters, as perfect or defedlive in proportion as they 
agree or difagree with the manners of thofe who utter 
them. There is much more dialogue in Homer than in 
Virgil. What Virgil informs us of by two words of narra¬ 
tion , Homerbrings about by a fpeech. It is copying diredlly 
from nature, giving a plain rehearfal of what parted, or 
was fuppofed to pafs, in converfation between the perfons 
of whom the author treats. The fpeeches of Homer are 
however, upon the whole, charafteriftic and lively ; and 
to them we owe, in a great meafure, that admirable dif- 
piay which he has given of human, nature. But it is in 
the defcriptive parts of his narrative that he more particu¬ 
larly excels. They are fometimes reprefentations of 
fuch fcenes as we ourfelves may have beheld. At others 
they are merely fiftitious, but always pleafing. The 
defcription of the lights arifing from the fires of the 
Grecian camp, in the eighth book, beginning with this line, 
If; S' or' e? ov^ata a^r^cc ipaeirn” apCpt <re\eu/v)P, exhibits as 
beautiful and exquilite a night-fcene as is to be met with 
in ancient or modern poetry. Of fictitious fcenery there 
is a linking fpecimen in the fame book, in the fublime 
and piflurefque defcription of the almighty thunderer 
fcaling the heavens, darting through the (kies with the 
rapidity of lightning, and feating himfelf at laft on his 
throne in awful majefty, while the heavens and the earth 
tremble under his feet. There is alfo a remarkable ex¬ 
ample of vivacity and ftrength of defcription in the lamen¬ 
tations of Achilles, when brooding over the injury done 
him by Agamemnon, in depriving him of his fair captive. 
Indignation, grief, and difdain rend his heart, which 
feems ready to burft with the conflidl of impetuous paf- 
fions. 
-- —avTag AjgtAAsvs 
A ajc(ivffa% cetpap s£tro toatpi AtasjStK 
©w>’ etp' aXoq nroXvnq, agosop ettj ovvowa vovtov, 
TloXXec St pyT^i (pvXn ngneraro agtyvv%. Lib. 5 . 
Not fo his lofs the great Achilles bore 5 
But fad, retiring to the founding (hore, 
O’er the broad margin of the deep he hung, 
That kindred deep from whence his mother fprung; 
There bath’d in tears of anger and difdain. 
Thus loud lamented to the ftormy main. Pope. 
The imagery of Homer is, in general, grand, awful, and 
beautiful. It may perhaps be urged, that the fimilies oc¬ 
cur too often, and fometimes interrupt the courfe of his 
narration. He was fo naturally poetical, that he faw all 
the fentiments and a£tions of men through the mirror of 
fome correfponding image. His mind, teeming with poe¬ 
tical allufions, pofleffed greater elevation than delicacy, 
and was more capable of abundance than of choice. He is 
fo prolific in images, that he may be faid to have fupplied 
every poet who has fucceeded him. He has more daring 
figures, and more linking metaphors, than any other. 
But it is wonderful with what propriety his expre(lions are 
always fuited to his ideas. They are never too big for the 
fenfe, but are great in proportion to the grandeur of the 
fentiment. It is the fentiment that fwelis the diflion, 
which rifes with it in exaft proportion. Such are the 
arrow impatient to be on the wing, a weapon thirfling to 
drink the blood of the enemy, See. Thefe are what Arif- 
totle juftiy calls living words. The mod beautiful figures 
are what we have already mentioned ; the fires in the 
camp compared to the moon and liars by night; Paris 
going to battle, to the war-borfe prancing to the river; 
the companion of Achilles, in the asd book, to the dog- 
ftar; and above all, the following beautiiul limile on the 
death of Euphorbus: 
Oiov St Tpspti epvoq arnp tXainn 
Xapa eii otowoXa, o0>./U{ ccvxGtSgvxz* vSag, 
KffiAon rnXeQczov, to Ss ti nvoiott, Saetaat 
TlavTotav cx.vtp.av, y.ai rs ffpvev a.v9e 1 XtvMJ’ 
EX9vv S' teamans avtpoq, avv XctiXanri nroXXri, 
Bofipa r.M t^vreenva-' tm yarn. Lib. xvn. 
As the young olive, in fome fylvan feene, 
Crown’d by frelh fountains with eternal green. 
Lifts the gay head in (nowy flowrets fair, 
And plays and dances to the gentle air; 
When lo! a whirlwind from high heaven invades 
The tender plant, and withers all its (hades *. 
It lies uprooted from its genial bed, 
A lovely ruin now defac’d and dead. Pope. 
It is impoffible to feleft a finer image from nature to 
reprefent the untimely death of a young warrior, celebra¬ 
ted for hissbeauty. 
It is alfo in fentiment that Homer has principally excel¬ 
led. This remark originally made by Longinus, is veri¬ 
fied by a variety of paffages in the Iliad. An example 
of fublimity of fentiment occurs in the fame book, in the 
abrupt and (Inking prayer of Ajax, when the Grecian 
army is enveloped in fudden and impenetrable darknefs ; 
Zev Tramp, exXKa. erv pvera si wn'ns^oq Ayaiav, 
IIoi»icrov S'eaOpnP, Soq S'o(p9aXpoicnv iSeqSca 
Ed Ss (pa, ut y.xv oXttrcrov, ettei sv toi svaStv ovraq. 
■ -—Lord of earth and air, 
O King 1 O Father ! hear my humble prayer; 
Dsfpel this cloud, the light of heaven reftore; 
Give me to fee, and Ajax a(ks no more. 
If we muft perifti, we thy will obey; 
But let us perifti in the face of day.. Pope. 
We have another inftance of fublimity of fentiment in 
the beginning of the 8th book, in the fpeech of Jupiter 
to the inferior deities. The pafiage is too long fortran- 
feription ; but the reader is aftoniftied at the awful denun¬ 
ciations again ft the offenders, and the bold defiance which 
he gives to the power of all the gods combined againft 
him. The idea contained: in the two following lines, is 
one. of the grandeft that can be prefented to the human 
imagination s 
AAA’ ots Sn xoa tya TTpafppav sGgAoipu e^VT ctch. 
Awn xts yah j t^vaoevp', avTn ts OaXacren. 
--—If I but ftretch this hand, 
I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land. 
It bears a ftrong refemblance to the reprefentation 
which is given us in the Sacred Writings of the power of 
Jehovah, when he is faid 48 to weigh the hills in feales, 
and the mountains in a balance, and to take up the ides 
as a very little thing.” But there is a remarkable parity 
between fome paffages in Homer, and thofe in the Scrip¬ 
tures. 
As Homer gave the firft example of an epic, fo has he 
left the earliell fpecimen of a narrative poem. In the 
Odyjjey we have a perfect difplay of the latter ftyle of 
compofition. 
