Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

Just here and there a standard work appears,

Too great, too good to fade with mouldering years;
And some, in truth, of genuine worth possest,
By reckless blast are buried with the rest.

Look, now, across the drear Egyptian plain!
Few traces of magnificence remain;
Conceal'd in sand, a thousand temples lie,

And only PYRAMIDS still brave the sky.

NOTES.

NOTES.

PREFACE, p. xiii.

"Of any other, indeed, there would be no end."

Or the collection of the British Poets, that of Chalmers, in 21 volumes, is the most complete. Anderson's, though not so extensive, is a very excellent work. But the reader will probably find all he may desire, in Mr. Campbell's "Specimens of the British Poets," in 6 vols. 8vo. a work that renders larger collections almost useless, and is a valuable acquisition to the library of the man of taste. The antiquarian in Poetry will derive great gratification from "Ellis's Specimens." In these Notes nothing more is attempted than the criticisms of the Bardiad required. From the great Epic Poets, particularly, extracts are as unnecessary, as their selection would be difficult.

Page 8.

Seraphic Young! whose wilderness of thought."

The extracts from Young are reserved for a place under the observations presented upon a subsequent passage.

Page 8.

"Mid tombs and stars the florid Hervey glows,

Writes as a Poet, though he writes in prose."

The style of Hervey has usually been denominated bombastic. In a few instances, there may be a turgidity and pomp, to which the squeamish critic may object. But Hervey ought not to be regarded a prose, so much as a poetic, writer. Hervey possesses Description, Imagery, and Sentiment, which are the essence of Poetry, in a degree, which entitle him to rank with the sublimest Poets. If his "Meditations" do not possess the charms of melody, resulting from the measured collocation of words and successive correspondence of sounds, (such as we find, in great perfection, in Goldsmith, Pope, and Campbell,) they possess what is of an infinitely higher character. It is the Poetry of Imagination. It's genius is displayed in the figures and similes, more than in the words. It is a mistake to suppose that the floridity lies in the style. It was in the mind of the author. His work contains the essence of Poetry; a quality which suffers little even by translation; and which, sometimes, even gains by it; as, in those instances, where the foreign language can display the conception of the Poet, with greater vividness, strength, and adaptation, than his vernacular tongue. Let the compositions of Pope be presented in the dress of another language; they will lose their fascination at once; because the genius of the writing is more in words and sounds, than in thoughts and figures. Thus, there may be Melody without Poetry, and there may be Poetry in Prose. Let the GREAT Poets be subjected to the same ordeal.

« ElőzőTovább »