ENGLISH VERSIFICATION. NATIONS, whofe language and pronunciation were musical, refted their verfification chiefly on the quantities of their fyllables; but mere quantity has very little effect in English verfe. For the difference, made between long and fhort fyllables in our manner of pronouncing them, is very inconfiderable. The only perceptible difference among our fyllables arifes from that ftrong percuffion of voice, which is termed accent. This accent however does not always make the fyllable longer; but only gives it more force of found; and it is rather upon a certain order and fucceffion of accented and unaccented fyllables, than upon their quantity, that the melody of our verse depends. In the conftitution of our verfe there is another effential circumstance. This is the cæfural paufe, which falls near the middle of each line. This paufe may fall after the fourth, fifth, fixth, or seventh fyllable ; and by this mean uncommon variety and richness are added to English verfification. Our English verfe is of Iambic structure, composed of a nearly alternate fucceffion of unaccented and accented fyllables. When the paufe falls earlieft, that is, after the fourth fyllable, the briskest melody is thereby formed. Of this the following lines from Pope are a happy illuftration; On her white breaft | a sparkling cross she wore, When the pause falls after the fifth fyllable, dividing the line into two equal portions, the melody is fenfibly altered. The verfe, lofing the brisk air of the former pause, becomes more smooth and flowing. Eternal funfhine | of the spotless mind, Each prayer accepted, and each wish refign'd. When the pause follows the fixth fyllable, the melody becomes grave. The movement of the verfe is more folemn and measured. The wrath of Peleus' fon, | the direful spring The grave cadence becomes ftill more fenfible, when the paufe follows the feventh fyllable. This kind of verfe however feldom occurs; and its effect is to diver fify the melody. And in the smooth, descriptive | murmur ftill. Our blank verfe is a noble, bold, and difencumbered mode of verfification. It is free from the full close, which rhyme forces upon the ear at the end of every couplet. Hence it is peculiarly fuited to fubjects of dignity and force. It is more favorable, than rhyme, to the fublime and the highly pathetic. It is the most proper for an epic poem and for tragedy. Rhyme finds its proper place in the middle regions of poetry; and blank verfe in the highest. The prefent form of our English heroic rhyme in couplets is modern. The measure, ufed in the days of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I. was the ftanza of eight lines. Waller was the firft, who introduced couplets; and Dryden established the ufage. Waller fmoothed our verfe, and Dryden perfected it. The verfification of Pope is peculiar. It is flowing, fmooth, and correct in the highest degree. He has totally thrown afide the triplets, fo common in Dryden. In eafe and variety Dryden excels Pope, He frequently makes his couplets run into one another with somewhat of the freedom of blank verfe. IT PASTORAL POETRY. T was not, before men had begun to affemble in great cities, and the bustle of courts and large focieties was known, that paftoral poetry affumed its pref ent form. From the tumult of a city life men look. ed back with complacency to the innocence of rural retirement. In the court of Ptolemy Theocritus wrote the first pastorals, with which we are acquainted; and in the court of Auguftus Virgil imitated him. The paftoral is a very agreeable fpecies of poetry. It lays before us the gay and pleafing scenes of nature. It recalls objects, which are commonly the delight of our childhood and youth. It exhibits a life, with which we affociate ideas of innocence, peace, and leisure. It tranfports us into Elyfian regions. It prefents many objects favorable to poetry; rivers and mountains, meadows and hills, rocks and trees, flocks and. fhepherds void of care. A paftoral poet is careful to exhibit, whatever is moft pleasing in the pastoral state. He paints its fimplicity, tranquillity, innocence, and happiness; but conceals its rudeness and mifery. 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 confider, 1. The fcenery. 2. The characters; and laftly the fubjects, it fhould 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 picturefque. In every pastoral a rural profpect should be drawn with diftinctness. It is not enough to have unmeaning groups of rofes and violets, of birds, breezes, and brooks thrown together. A good poet gives fuch a landscape, as a painter might copy. His objects are particularifed. 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 allufions to natural objects as well, as in profeffed descriptions of the scenery, the poet muft ftudy variety. He must diverfify his face of nature by prefenting us new images. He muft alfo fuit the scenery to the fubject of his pastoral; and exhibit nature under fuch forms, as may correfpond with the emotions and. fentiments, he defcribes. Thus Virgil, when he gives the lamentation of a despairing lover, communicates a gloom to the fcene. Tantum inter denfas, umbrofa cacumina, fagos, With regard to the characters in paftorals it is not fufficient, that they be perfons refiding in the country. Courtiers and citizens, who refort thither occafionally, are not the characters, expected in paftorals. We expect to be entertained by fhepherds, or perfons wholly engaged in rural occupations. The fhepherd must be plain and unaffected in his manner of thinking. An amiable fimplicity must be the groundwork of his |