Lyric Poetry. admits a bolder and more passionate strain than is allowed in simple recital. Hence the enthusiasm that belongs to it. Hence that neglect of regularity, those digressions, and that disorder, it is supposed to admit. All odes may be classed under four denominations. 1. Hymns addresed to God, or composed on religious subjects. 2. Heroic odes, which concern the celebration of heroes and great actions. 3. Moral and philosophical odes, which refer chiefly to virtue, friendship, and humanity. 4. Festive and amorous odes, which are calculated merely for amusement and pleasure. Enthusiasm being considered as the characteristic of the ode, it has often degenerated into licentiousness. This species of writing has above all others been infected by want of order, method and connexion. The poet is out of sight in a moment. He is so abrupt and eccentric, so irregular and obscure, that we cannot follow him. It is not indeed necessary that the structure of the ode be so perfectly regular as an epic poem. But in every composition there ought to be a whole; and this whole should consist of connected parts. The transition from thought to thought may be light and delicate, but the connexion of ideas should be preserved; the author should think, and not rave. Pindar, the father of lyric poetry, has led his imitators into enthusiastic wildness. They imitate his disorder without catching his spirit. In Horace's odes every thing is correct, harmonious, and happy. His elevation is moderate, not rapturous. Grace and elegance are his characteristics. He supports a moral sentiment with Didactic Poetry. dignity, touches a gay one with felicity, and has the art of trifling most agreeably. His language too is most fortunate. Many Latin poets of latter ages have imitated him. Casimir, a Polish poet of the last century, is of this number; and discovers a considerable degree of original genius and poetic fire. He is, however, far inferior to the Roman in graceful expression. Buchanan, in some of his lyric compositions is very elegant and classical. In our own language, Dryden's ode on St. Cecilia is well known. Mr. Gray, in some of his odes is celebrated for tenderness and sublimity; and in Dodsley's Miscellanies are several very beautiful lyric poems. Professedly Pindaric odes are seldom intelligible. Cowley is doubly harsh in his Pindarie compositions. His Anacreontic odes are happier, and perhaps the most agreeable and perfect in their kind of all his poems. DIDACTIC POETRY. Or didactic poetry, it is the express intention to convey instruction and knowledge. It may be executed in different ways. The poet may treat some instructive subject in a regular form; or without intending a great or regular work he may inveigh against particular vices, or make some moral observations on human life and characters. The highest species of didactic poetry is a regular treatise on some philosophical, grave, or use T Didactic Poetry. ful subject. Such are the books of Lucretius de Rerum Natura, the Georgics of Virgil, Pope's Essay on Criticism, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, Armstrong on Health, and the Art of Poetry by Horace, Vida, and Boileau. In all such works, as instruction is the professed object, the chief merit consists in sound thought, just principles, and apt illustrations.-It is necessary however that the poet enliven his lessons by figures, incidents, and poetical painting. Virgil in his Georgies embellishes the most trival eircumstances in rural life. When he teaches that the labour of the farmer must begin in spring, he expresses himself thus: Vere novo gelius canis cum montibus humor In all didactic works such method is requisite as will clearly exhibit a connected train of instruction. With regard to episodes and embellishments, writers of didactic poetry are indulged great liberties. For in a poetical performance a continued series of instruction without embellishment soon fatigues. The digressions in the Georgies of Virgil are his principal beauties.-The happiness of a country life, the fable of Aristeus, and the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, cannot be praised too much. A didactic poet ought also to connect his episodes with his subject. In this, Virgil is eminent. Among modern didactic poets, Akenside and Armstrong are distinguished. The former is rich and poetical; but the latter maintains great Didactic Poetry. er equality, and more chaste and correct elegance. Of didactic poetry, satires and epistles run into the most familiar style. Satire seems to have been at first a rélie of ancient comedy, the grossness of which was corrected by Ennius and Lueilius. At length, Horace brought it into its present form. Reformation of manners is its professed end; and vice and vicious characters are the objects of its censure. There are three dif ferent modes in which it has been conducted by the three great ancient satirists, Horace, Juvenal, and Persius. The satires of Horace have not much elevation. They exhibit a measured prose. Ease and grace characterise his manner; and he glances rather at the follies and weaknesses of mankind, than at their vices. He smiles while he reproves. He moralises like a sound philosopher, but with the politeness of a courtier. Juvenal is more declamatory and serious; and has greater strength and fire. Persius has distinguished himself by a noble and sublime, morality. Poetical epistles, when employed on moral or critical subjects seldom rise into a higher strain of poetry, than satires. But in the epistolary form, many other subjects may be treated; as love, poetry, or elegiac. The ethical epistles of Pope are a model; and in them he shows the strength of his genius. Here he had a full opportunity for displaying his judgment and wit, his concise and happy expression, together with the harmony of his numbers. His imitations of Horace are so happy, that it is difficult to say, whether the original or the copy ought to be most admired. Descriptive Poetry. Among moral and didactic writers, Dr. Young ought not to be passed over in silence. Genius appears in all his works; but his universal passion may be considered as possessing the full merit of that animated conciseness, particularly requisite in satirical and didactic compositions. At the same time it is to be observed, that his wit is often too sparkling, and his sentences too pointed. In his Night Thoughts there is great energy of expression, several pathetic passages, many happy images, and many pious reflections. But the sentiments are frequently overstrained and turgid, and the style harsh and obscure. DESCRIPTIVE POETRY. IN descriptive poetry the highest exertions of genius may be displayed. In general, indeed, description is introduced as an embellishment, not as the subject of a regular work. It is the test of a poet's imagination, and always distinguishes an original from a second rate genius. A writer of an inferior class sees nothing new or peculiar in the object he would paint; his conceptions are loose and vague; and his expressions feeble and general. A true poet places an object before our eyes. He gives it the colouring of life; a painter might copy from him. The great art of picturesque description lies in the selection of circumstances. These ought never to be vulgar or common. They should mark strongly the object. No general description is |
