either aspire to the former character of the sublime and noble, or it may descend to the latter of the pleasant and the gay; and between these, there is, also, a middle region of the mild and temperate emotions, which the ode may often occupy to advantage. All odes may be comprised under four denominations. First, sacred odes; hymns addressed to God, or composed on religious subjects. Of this nature are the Psalms of David, which exhibit to us this species of lyric poetry, in its highest degree of perfection. Secondly, heroic odes, which are employed in the praise of heroes, and in the celebration of martial exploits and great actions. Of this kind are all Pindar's odes, and some few of Horace's. These two kinds ought to have sublimity and elevation, for their reigning character. Thirdly, moral and philosophical odes, where the sentiments are chiefly inspired by virtue, friendship, and humanity. Of this kind, are many of Horace's odes, and several of our best modern lyric productions; and here the ode possesses that middle region, which, as I observed, it some times occupies. Fourthly, festive and amorous odes, calculated merely for pleasure and amusement. Of this nature, are all Anacreon's, some of Horace's; and a great number of songs and modern productions, that claim to be of the lyric species. The reigning character of these, ought to be elegance, smoothness and gaiety. One of the chief difficulties in composing odes, arises from that enthusiasm which is understood to be a characteristic of lyric poetry. A professed ode, even of the moral kind, but more especially if it attempt the sublime, is expected to be enlivened and animated, in an uncommon degree. Full of this idea, the poet, when he begins to write an ode, if he has any real warmth of genius, is apt to deliver himself up to it, without controul or restraint; if he has it not, he strains after it, and thinks himself bound to assume the appearance of being all fervour, and all flame. In either case, he is in great hazard of becoming extravagant. The licentiousness of writing without order, method, or connexion, has infected the ode more than any other species of poetry. Hence in the class of heroic odes, we find so few that one can read with pleasure. The poet is out of sight in a moment. He gets up into the clouds; becomes so abrupt in his transitions; so eccentric and irregular in his motions, and of course so obscure, that we essay in vain to follow him, or to partake of his raptures. I do not require, that an ode should be as regular in the structure of its parts, as a didactic or an epic poem. But still in every composition, there ought to be a subject; there ought to be parts which make up a whole; there should be a connexion of those parts with one another. The transitions from thought to thought may be light and delicate, such as are prompted by a lively fancy; but still they should be such as preserve the connexion of ideas, and shew the author to be one who thinks, and not one who raves. Whatever authority may be pleaded for the incoherence and disorder of lyric poetry, nothing can be more certain, than that any composition which is so irregular in its method, as to become obscure to the bulk of readers, is so much worse upon that account.* The extravagant liberty which several of the modern lyric writers assume to themselves in their versification, increases the disorder of *La plupart des ceux qui parlent de l'enthousiasme de l'ode, en parlent comme s'ils étoient aux-mêmes dans le trouble qu'ils veulent definir. Ce ne sont que grands this species of poetry. They prolong their periods to such a degree, they wander through so many different measures, and employ such a variety of long and short lines, corresponding in rhyme at so great a distance from each other, that all sense of melody is utterly lost. Whereas lyric composition ought, beyond every other species of poetry, to pay attention to melody and beauty of sound; and the versification of those odes may be justly accounted the best, which renders the harmony of the measure most sensible to every common ear. Pindar, the great father of lyric poetry, has been the occasion of leading his imitators into some of the defects I have now mentioned. His genius was sublime; his expressions are beautiful and happy; his descriptions, picturesque. But finding it a very barren subject to sing the praises of those who had gained the prize in the public games, he is perpetually digressive, and fills up his poems with fables of the gods and heroes, that have little connexion either with his subject, or with one another. The ancients admired him greatly; but as many of the histories of particular families and cities, to which he alludes, are now unknown to us, he is so obscure, partly from his subjects, and partly from his rapid, abrupt manner of treating them, that, notwithstanding the beauty of his expression, our pleasure in reading him is much diminished. One would imagine, that many of his modern imitators thought the best way to catch his spirit, was to imitate his disorder and obscurity. In several of the chorusses of Euripides and Sophocles, we have the same kind of lyric poetry as in Pindar, carried on with more clearness and connexion, and at the same time, with much sublimity. Of all the writers of odes, ancient or modern, there is none that in point of correctness, harmony, and happy expression, can vie with Horace. He has descended from the Pindaric rapture to a more moderate degree of elevation: and joins connected thought, and good sense, with the highest beauties of poetry. He does not often aspire beyond that middle region, which I mentioned as belonging to the ode; and those odes, in which he attempts the sublime, are perhaps not always his best. The peculiar character, in which he excels, is grace and elegance; and in this style of composition, no poet has ever attained to a greater perfection than Horace. No poet supports a moral sentiment mots de fureur divine, de transports de l'âme de mouvemens, de lumières, qui mis boutà-bout dans des phrases pompeuses, ne produisent pourtant aucune idée distincte. Si on les en croit, l'essence de l'enthousiasme est de ne pouvoir être compris que par les esprits du prémiere ordre, à la tête desquels ils se supposent, et dont ils excluent tous ceux que ôsent ne les pas entendre.-Le beau désordre de l'ode est un effet de l'art; mais il faut prendre garde de donner trop d'étendue à ce terme. On autoriseroit par la tous les écarts imaginables. Un poëte n'auroit plus qu'à exprimer avec force toutes les pensées qui lui viendroient successivement; il se tiendroit dispensé d'en examiner le rapport, et de se faire un plan, dont toutes les parties se pretassent mutuellement des beautés. Il n'y auroit ni commencement, ni milieu, ni fin, dans son ouvrage; et cependant l'auteur se croiroit d'autant plus sublime, qu'il seroit moins raisonable. Mais qui produiroit une pareille composition dans l'esprit du lecteur? Elle ne laisseroit qu'un étourdissement, causé par la magnificence et l'harmonie des paroles, sans y faire naître que des idées confuses, qui chasseroient l'une ou l'autre, au lieu de concourir ensemble à fixer et á eclairer l'esprit.' OEUVRES DE M. DE LA MOTTE, tome 1. Discours sur l'Ode. * There is no ode whatever of Horace's, without great beauties. But though I may be singular in my opinion, I cannot help thinking that in some of those odes which have been much admired for sublimity (such as Ode iv. lib. 4. Qualem ministrom fulminis alitem,' &c.) there appears somewhat of a strained and forced effort to be lofty. The genius of this amiable poet shews itself, according to my judgment, to greater advantage in themes of a more temperate kind. with more dignity, touches a gay one more happily, or possesses the art of trifling more agreeably, when he chooses to trifle. His language is so fortunate, that with a single word or epithet, he often conveys a whole description to the fancy. Hence he has ever been, and ever will continue to be, a favourite author with all persons of taste. Among the Latin poets of later ages, there have been many imitators of Horace. One of the most distinguished is Casimir, a Polish poet of the last century, who wrote four books of odes. In graceful ease of expression he is far inferior to the Roman. He often affects the sublime; and in the attempt, like other lyric writers, frequently becomes harsh and unnatural. But, on several occasions, he discovers a considerable degree of original genius, and poetical fire. Buchanan, in some of his lyric compositions, is very elegant and classical. Among the French, the odes of Jean Baptiste Rousseau, have been much, and justly celebrated. They possess great beauty, both of sentiment and expression. They are animated, without being rhapsodical; and are not inferior to any poetical productions in the French language. In our own language we have several lyric compositions of considerable merit. Dryden's ode on St. Cecilia, is well known. Mr. Gray is distinguished in some of his odes, both for tenderness and sublimity; and in Dodsley's Miscellanies, several very beautiful lyric poems are to be found. As to professed Pindaric odes, they are, with a few exceptions, so incoherent, as seldom to be intelligible. Cowley, at all times harsh, is doubly so in his Pindaric compositions. In his Anacreontic odes, he is much happier. They are smooth and elegant; and indeed the most agreeable and the most perfect in their kind, of all Mr. Cowley's poems. LECTURE XL. DIDACTIC POETRY....DESCRIPTIVE POETRY. HAVING treated of pastoral and lyric poetry, I proceed next to didac tic poetry; under which is included a numerous class of writings. The ultimate end of all poetry, indeed, of every composition, should be to make some useful impression on the mind. This useful impression is most commonly made in poetry, by indirect methods; as by fable, by narration, by representation of characters; but didactic poetry openly professes its intention of conveying knowledge and instruction. It dif fers, therefore, in the form only, not in the scope and substance, from a philosophical, a moral, or a critical treatise in prose. At the same time, by means of its form, it has several advantages over prose instruction. By the charm of versification and numbers, it renders instruction more agreeable; by the descriptions, episodes, and other embellishments, which it may interweave, it detains, and engages the fancy; it fixes also useful circumstances more deeply in the memory. Hence, it is a field, wherein a poet may gain great honour, may display both much genius, and much knowledge and judgment. It may be executed in different manners. The poet may choose some instructive subject, and he may treat it regularly, and in form; or, without intending a great or regular work, he may only inveigh against particular vices, or make some moral observations on human life and characters, as is commonly done in satires and epistles. All these come under the denomination of didactic poetry. The highest species of it, is a regular treatise ou some philosophical, grave, or useful subject. Of this nature we have several, both ancient and modern, of great merit and character: such as Lucretius's six books De Rerum Natura, Virgil's Georgics, Pope's Essay on criticism, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, Armstrong on Health, Horace's, Vida's, and Boileau's Art of Poetry. In all such works, as instruction is the professed object, the fundamental merit consists in sound thought, just principles, clear and apt illustrations. The poet must instruct; but he must study, at the same time, to enliven his instructions, by the introduction of such figures, and such circumstances, as may amuse the imagination, may conceal the dryness of his subject, and embellish it with poetical painting. Virgil, in his Georgics, presents us here with a perfect model. He has the art of raising and beautifying the most trivial circumstances in rural life. When he is going to say, that the labour of the country must begin in spring, he expresses himself thus: Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus humor Instead of telling his husbandman in plain language, that his crops will fail through bad management, his language is, Heu magnum alterius frustra spectabis acervum. Instead of ordering him to water his grounds, he presents us with a beautiful landscape: Ecce supercilio ciivosi tramitis undam Elicit; illa cadens, raucum per lævia murmur Saxa ciet; scatebrisque arentia temperat arva.‡ In all didactic works, method and order are essentially requisite; not so strict and formal as in a prose treatise; yet such as may exhibit clear "While yet the spring is young, while earth unbinds Her frozen bosom to the western winds; On others crops you may with envy look, + Behold when burning suns, or Syrius' beams DRYDEN. DRYDEN. WHARTON ly to the reader a connected train of instruction.—Of the didactic poets, whom I before mentioned, Horace, in his Art of Poetry, is the one most censured for want of method. Indeed, if Horace be deficient in any thing throughout many of his writings, it is in this, of not being sufficiently attentive to juncture and connexion of parts. He writes always with ease and gracefulness; but often in a manner somewhat loose and rambling. There is, however, in that work much good sense, and excellent criticism; and, if it be considered as intended for the regulation of the Roman drama, which seems to have been the author's chief purpose, it will be found to be a more complete and regular treatise, than under the common notion, of its being a system of the whole poetical art. With regard to episodes and embellishments, great liberty is allowed to writers of didactic poetry. We soon tire of a continued series of instructions, especially in a poetical work, where we look for entertainment. The great art of rendering a didactic poem interesting, is to relieve and amuse the reader, by connecting some agreeable episodes with the principal subject. These are always the parts of the work which are best known, and which contribute most to support the reputation of the poet. The principal beauties of Virgil's Georgics lie in digressions of this kind, in which the author has exerted all the force of his genius; such as the prodigies that attended the death of Julius Cæsar, the praises of Italy, the happiness of a country life, the fable of Aristeus, and the moving tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. So also the favourite passages in Lucretius's work, and which alone could render such a dry and abstract subject tolerable in poetry, are the digressions on the evils of superstition, the praise of Epicurus and his philosophy, the description of the plague, and several other incidental illustrations, which are remarkably elegant, and adorned with a sweetness and harmony of versification peculiar to that poet. There is, indeed, nothing in poetry, so entertaining or descriptive, but what a didactic writer of genius may be allowed to introduce in some part of his work; provided always, that such episodes arise naturally from the main subject; that they be not disproportioned in length to it; and that the author know how to descend with propriety to the plain, as well as how to rise to the bold and figured style. Much art may be shewn by a didactic poet in connecting his episodes happily with his subject. Virgil is also distinguished for his address in this point. After seeming to have left his husbandmen, he again returns to them very naturally by laying hold of some rural circumstance, to terminate his digression. Thus, having spoken of the battle of Pharsalia he subjoins immediately, with much art: Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis, Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes, Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris." In English, Dr. Akenside has attempted the most rich and poetical form of didactic writing in his Pleasures of the Imagination; and though, * Then, after length of time, the lab'ring swains Shall rusty arms from the plough'd furrows take, Eee DRYDEN. |