— 
which there are various kinds: 
_of three ftanzas, canada 
Mr. Dyer on Englifh Verfification. 
poet has allowed him(felf, is in the follow- 
“ang lines? 
Th’ applayfe of lif?ning fenates to command, 
The tireats of pain and ruin to defpife, 
Yo featter plenty o’er aimiling land, 
And read their hiitory in a nation’s eyesy 
Their lot forbad : 
Our Englifh writers fee, in this re- 
{pect, to have imitated the precition i 
Ovid, who never indulges himéelf . 
greater liberties than Gray: though He 
Greeks, from whom the Elegiac meafure 
‘ 
is borrowed, frequently fuffered the laft 
iyllable of si Pentametre to run into the 
next line; of which we have examples in 
the exquifite verfes of Tyrteus, sees rns 
TOME AsnNS Agerns, in “ Theognis 5 Elegies,” 
and ‘* Solon’s Sentences :’’ ex. ¢ 
Huvov oO eo bAov TLTO TOANITE, WaT) TE o: NpAe) s 
Osts avne dreSas Ev Ton vorrt aad Od 
Nwreuews, Sc. 
I have faid, that inte meafures are 
more generally ufed in the elegy: for 
{ome Writers, I am aware, fhorten the 
Elegiac meafure, as in the ‘* LoveElegies.”” 
nothing elfe, however, need be faid on 
this meatfure. 
We come next to confider the ODE; of 
as, 
The Pixdaric, fo called from Pindar, 
the celebrated Theban poet. Whether 
Pindar was the original inventor of this 
mealure, or only ufed it more gene- 
rally than other poets, is a matter of 
{mall confequence. The ancient He- 
brew poets: fung feveral of their facred 
odes. with alternate chor uffes, accom- 
panied with mufic, of which fome ex- 
amples remain: in conformity, to thele, 
the : ayriPwros UPVC, or refponforia 
among. the primitive Chr iftians were 
formed ; as to the latter the chaunting of 
¢athedral-worfhip. This has been no- 
ticed by Bifhop Lowth: but no example 
produced by that elegant writer of the 
ancient Hebrew poetry 1 refen nbles the. Pin- 
daric *; though the contrary has been 
afferted by fome authors. 
. The Pindaric ede was formed in refer- 
wnce tothe heavenly {pheres, and confifted 
a Strophe, an An- 
tiftrophe, and Epode: in the ttrophe the 
dancers moved from right to left; in the 
antiftrophe from left to right; in the 
epade they ftood fill: for the ftrophe and 
antiitrophe were accompanied with danc- 
ing; all the ftanzas were accompanied 
with mufic; and the antiftrophe corre- 

* Vid. 
Poel.” 
6¢ Lowrth 
Lib. xxiv, 
de Sacra Hebr @orum 
fions, 
26% 
fponded in the length of its fyllables to 
the ie and the epode of the firft 
fyftem of ftanzas to the epode of the fee 
fy ftem*; ** Gray's Progrefs of Poetry,” 
an example of a complete Pindaric. 
In the former letter, the impropriety of 
calling certain irregular’ odes pindaric 
was hinted at; fach, for example, ‘as 
Cowley’s: this impropriety has been no- 
ticed likewife by Mr. Wett, the clegant 
tranflator of fome of Pindai’s odes, and 
by other writers. This  oblervation, 
however, means to cenfure the appellation, 
not the meafure. The ancient lyric wri- 
ters, in their Scholia, Pans, and Dithy- — 
rambics, ufed an irregular and uncertain 
meafure: and, it feems to be in reference 
to dithyrambics, properly fo called, that 
Horace {peaks of the irregularity of Pin- 
dar’s verfe, for other odes befides thofe 
that have come down to us, were written 
by Pindart. ©The fine Pean of Ari- 
phron is an example of the irregular mea~ 
jure, beginning, 
— Lyseie Teeceose Pano ewy 
and the much admired ode of Arifotle, 
Agety TroAvuoy Ge 
Teves Cooter, &c. 
Of the fame character alfo were the any 
cient Hyporchemata, 
Tis 0 BoguGoc outros, &c f. 
‘There is an irregular kind of verfe, in- 
deed, well adapted to eccahons of grief 
and melancholy, in which the artifice of 
{trophe, antiftrophe, and epode, would 
be improper; fuch ts the Monopy. 
Milton’s Lycidas, Lord Lytttelon’s Mo- 
nody on the Death of his Lady, and Cole- 
ridge’s Monody on the death of Chattex- 
ton, are odes of this character. The 
true pindaric odes, on the contrary, were 
more imnediately adapted to occafions of 
victory and triumph; hence called Em- 
VIZtZ. 
Collins’s admirable ‘* Ode ox the Paf- 
218) a8 irregular ode of this kind: 
~—-Particular rules are not to be laid down 
for fuch edes; the writer’s own feelings 
and a correct ear are his bef guides |]. 
% 66 Wels Pr face to his: Tranflation. of nee 
of Pindar’s “Odes.” 
+ Laurea donandus Apollinari ! 
Scu per audaces nova Dithyrambos 
‘Verba devolvit, numerilq fertur 
Lege folutis, 
sen Deosy &c, Horat. Od. L. iv. it, 
t % Fubi Scalig. Poet. Lib. 1.’ ‘cap. xlive 
A ae 
|| It may be proper to hint, that the intro 
ductory ode to the 6 Monthly Dlyganine, 
ig 
