NUMBER XXV. -Hail, ye mighty masters of the lay, Nature's true sons, the friends of man and truth! Whose song, sublimely sweet, serenely gay, Amused my childhood, and inform'd my youth. O let your spirit still my bosom sooth, Inspire my dreams, and my wild wanderings guide! Your voice each rugged path of life can smooth; For well I know, where-ever ye reside, There harmony, and peace, and innocence, abide. Beattie. It is the remark of an author of exquisite taste that "the moderns have perhaps practised no species of poetry with so little success, and with such indisputable inferiority to the anci ents, as the Ode."* Greatly as I respect the abilities and critical acumen of Dr. Warton, I am tempted in this instance to form a very dif * Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, ferent judgment, and shall endeavour to rescue the poets of this island at least, from an imputation they probably have not merited. This ingenious writer conceives their want of success to be owing to the harshness and intractability of the language they have had the misfortune to compose in; now, though it may be readily conceded that the English in sweetness and smoothness must, in general, yield to the Greek, and sometimes even to the Latin, yet have we, especially among our later poets, many specimens of versification, and of selec tion of language, peculiarly musical and har monious, and fully adequate to prove that all its asperities may be worn down by the judicious application of the file, and rendered sufficiently terse and polished for the more delicate effusions of the lyre. Could it be indeed for a moment supposed that mere smoothness of diction constituted the sole, or even the principal merit of lyric poetry, it might justly be deemed the most worthless of all the branches of literature, and entirely dependent on mere melifluence of cadence; on the contrary, however, it will probably be admitted that those combinations of phrase, those felicities of diction, those expressions of a lyric hue, the words that breathe and burn, so essential to this department, are the creations of the poet, and through the medium of genius may be drawn from the bosom of any language. Conceiving, therefore that excellence in lyric composition is attached to no peculiar tongue, but the product of ability working even on the most rugged materials, and, by condensation and selection, subduing them to its purpose, an oppressive idea, impeding all effort to excel, is removed, and we may cheerfully proceed to compare, and to rank the productions of the modern lyric bard with the more applauded ones of the ancient. Under the classes of the Sublime, the Pathe tic, the Descriptive, and the Amatory, may be arranged most of the productions of the lyric muse. To the first belong vivid enthusiasm, richness of imagery and metaphor, abruptness of transition, and a peculiar warmth and impe tuosity of diction. To excel in this species. of Ode demands a felicity and strength of genius that has seldom been attained; all the higher beauties of poetry, vastness of conception, brilliancy of colouring, grandeur of sentiment, the terrible and the appalling must combine, and with mysterious energy alarm and elevate the imagination. A lightning of phrase should pervade the more empassioned parts, and an awful and even dreadful obscurity, from prophetic, or superhuman agency, diffuse its influence over the whole. Of the lyric poetry of the greeks a small portion only has descended to posterity, and of the productions of Pindar, all whose remaining odes fall under the present class, most probably the noblest part has been buried in the gulph of time. What we have, however, is dear to the man of poetic taste, though, perhaps, not fully equal to the ideas formed of it from the praises of his contemporaries, and their relation of effects upon the minds of his countrymen; a circumstance that leads to the supposition that the pieces lost were of superior merit to those we possess. Had his dithyrambics been preserved our opinion of this celebrated poet had, in all probability, corresponded with that of the ancients, as a more enthusiastic, a more independent and vigorous tone were, it is said, their characteristic. As it is, no piece can now be selected from his works that can justly come into competition with the Bard of Gray; over this inimitable ode a tinge so wildly aw its |