Pastoral Poetry. The pastoral is a very agreeable species of poetry. It lays before us the gay and pleasing scenes of nature. It recals objects which are commonly the delight of our childhood and youth. It exhibits a life with which we associate ideas of innocence, peace and leisure. It transports us into Elysian regions. It presents many objects favorable to poetry; rivers and mountains, meadows and hills, rocks and trees, flocks and shepherds void of care. A pastoral poet is careful to exhibit whatever is most pleasing in the pastoral state. He paints its simplicity, tranquility, innocence and happiness; but conceals its rudeness and misery. If his pictures be not those of real life, they must resemble it. This is a general idea of pastoral poetry. But, to understand it more perfectly, let us consider, 1. The scenery: 2. The characters: and lastly, the subjects it should exhibit. The scene must always be in the country; and the poet must have a talent for description. In this respect, Virgil is excelled by Theocritus, whose descriptions are richer and more picturesque. In every pastoral, a rural prospect should be drawn with distinctness. It is not enough to have unmeaning groups of roses and violets, of birds, breezes, and brooks thrown together. A good poet gives such a landscape as a painter might copy. His objects are particularized. The stream, the rock, or the tree, so stands forth as to make a figure in the imagination, and give a pleasing conception of the place where we are. In his allusions to natural objects as well as in professed descriptions of the scenery, the poet must study variety. He must diversify his face Pastoral Poetry. of nature by presenting us new images. He must also suit the scenery to the subject of his pastoral; and exhibit nature under such forms as may correspond with the emotions and sentiments he, describes. Thus Virgil, when he gives the lamentation of a despairing lover, communicates a gloom to the scene. Tantum inter densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos, With regard to the characters in pastorals, it is not sufficient that they be persons residing in the country. Courtiers and citizens who resort thither occasionally, are not the characters expected in pastorals. We expect to be entertained by shepherds, or persons wholly engaged in rural occupations. The shepherd must be plain and unaffected in his manner of thinking. An amiable simplicity must be the ground work of his character; though there is no necessity for his being dull and insipid. He may have good sense, and even vivacity; tender and delicate feelings. But he must never deal in general reflections, or abstract reasonings; nor in conceits of gallantry; for these are consequences of refinement. When Aminta in Tasso is disentangling his mistress's hair from the tree, to which a savage had bound it, he is made to say," Cruel tree, how couldst thou injure that lovely hair, which did thee so much honour? Thy rugged trunk was not worthy of so lovely knots. What advantage have the servants of love, if those precious chains are common to them and to trees ?” Strained sentiments like these, suit not the woods. The Pastoral Poetry. language of rural personages is that of plain sense, and natural feeling; as in the following beautiful lines of Virgil : Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala (Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem; The next enquiry is, what are the proper subjects of pastorals? For it is not enough that the poet give us shepherds discoursing together.— Every good poem has a subject that in some way interests us. In this lies the difficulty of pastoral writing. The active scenes of country life are too barren of incidents. The condition of a shepherd has few things in it that excite curiosity or surprize. Hence, of all poems the pastoral is most meagre in subject, and least diversified in strain. Yet this defect is not to be ascribed solely to barrenness of subjects. It is in a great measure the fault of the poet. For human nature and human passions are much the same in every situation and rank of life. What a variety of objects, within the rural sphere, do the passions present! The struggles and ambition of shepherds; their adventures; their disquiet and felicity; the rivalship of lovers; unexpected successes and disasters; are all proper subjects for the pastoral muse. Theocritus and Virgil are the two great fathers of pastoral writing. For simplicity of sentiment, harmony of numbers, and richness of scenery, the former is highly distinguished. But he sometimes descends to ideas that are gross and Pastoral Poetry. mean, and makes his shepherds abusive and immodest. Virgil, on the contrary, preserves the pastoral simplicity without any offensive rusticity. Modern writers of pastorals have in general imitated the ancient poets. Sannazarius, however, a Latin poet in the age of Leo X. attempted a bold innovation by composing piscatory eclogues, and changing the scene from the woods to the sea, and the character from shepherds to fishermen. But the attempt was so unhappy that he has no followers. The toilsome life of fishermen has nothing agreeable to present to the imagination. Fishes and marine productions have nothing poetical in them. Of all the moderns, Gesner, a poet of Switzerland, has been the most happy in pastoral composition. Many new ideas are introduced in his Idyls. His seenery is striking, and his descriptions lively. He is pathetic, and writes to the heart. Neither the pastorals of Pope nor of Philips, do much honour to English poetry. The pastorals of Pope are barren; their chief merit is the smoothness of the numbers. Philips attempted to be more simple and natural than Pope; but wanted genius to support the attempt. His topics, like those of Pope, are beaten ; and instead of being natural or simple, he is flat and insipid. Shenstone's pastoral ballad is one of the most elegant poems of the kind in the English language. In latter times pastoral writing has been extended into regular drama; and this is the chief improvement the moderns have made in it. Two pieces of this kind are highly celebrated, Guarini's Pastor Fido, and Tasso's Aminta.Both possess great beauties; but the latter is the Lyric Poetry. preferable poem, because less intricate, and less affected; though not wholly free from Italian refinement. As a poem, however, it has great merit. The poetry is pleasing and gentle, and the Italian language confers on it much of that softness which is suited to the pastoral. The Gentle Shepherd of Allen Ramsay is a pastoral drama which will bear comparison with any composition of the kind in any language. To this admirable poem it is a disadvantage that it is written in the old rustic dialect of Scotland, which must soon be obsolete; and it is a farther disadvantage, that it is formed so entirely on the rural manners of Scotland, that none but a native of that country can thoroughly understand and relish it. It is full of natural description, and excels in tenderness of sentiment. The characters are well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and just. LYRIC POETRY. THE ode is a species of poetry, which has much dignity, and in which many writers in every age have distinguished themselves. Ode in Greek is the same with song or hymn; and lyric poetry implies that the verses are accompanied with a lyre, or musical instrument. In the ode, poetry retains its first form, and its original union with music. Sentiments commonly constitute its subject. It recites not actions. Its spirit and the manner of its execution marks its character. It |
