poet, which could accompany the drowned body of his friend beneath the ocean, through a variety of fuppofed fituations, in which he imagines it attended by the newly separated fpirit. His apoftrophe to the dolphins must however relate to the inanimate form; for the affistance of dolphins to convey an incorporeal fubject, would certainly be unneceffary:

V. 154. Ay me! whilft thee the shores and founding feas
Wafh far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd,
Whether beyond the ftormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Vifit'ft the bottom of the monstrous world;
Or whether thou to our moift vows deny'd,
Sleep'ft by the fable of Bellerus old,
Where the great vifion of the guarded mount
Looks tow'rds Namancos and Bayona's hold;
Look homeward angel now, and melt with ruth:
And O ye dolphins waft the hapless youth!

The common conclufion of a funeral elegy, is the beatification of the deceafed. Milton has not deviated from this plan, but he has executed it with unufual

ufual grandeur, both of thought and expreffion. But the paffage, however sublime, is not wholly free from faults. The day-star is very poetically, but not correctly introduced, both as a perfon, repairing his drooping head, &c. and as an orb of radiance, flaming in the forehead of the morning fky. There seems alfo fome incongruity in the fcriptural idea of Lycidas having the tears wiped from his eyes, and the claffical one of his becoming the genius of the shore:

V.165. Weep no more, woful fhepherds, weep no

more,

For Lycidas your forrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watry floor;
So finks the day-ftar in the ocean bed,
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky :
So Lycidas funk low, but mounted high
Through the dear might of him who walk'd the

waves,

Where other groves and other ftreams along

With

With nectar pure his oozy locks he leaves,
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,
In the bleft kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the faints above,
In folemn troops and sweet focieties,
That fing and finging in their glory move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.
Now Lycidas the shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the genius of the fhore,
In thy large recompence, and fhalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.

The termination of the Piece has great merit. The Shepherd elegiaft, who, contrary to the general practice, has not been yet formally introduced, but only fuppofed prefent; is now fet before us among his oaks and rills, warbling his Dorick lay from morning to evening. Milton, always peculiarly happy in the measurement of time, has marked the above-mentioned periods, the one by a fine profopopoeia, the other by a pictu

Shakespeare and Milton are high authorities, but they cannot authorize such a violent fubftitution of one word for another, as unexpreffive; the negative of expreffive, for inexpreffible.

refque

refque natural circumftance; the Morn goes forth in her grey fandals, and the fun, after stretching out all the hills, finks into the ocean :

Thus fang the uncouth fwain to the oaks and rills,
While the ftill morn went out with fandals grey,
He touch'd the tender ftops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Dorick lay:
And now the fun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was drop'd into the western bay;
At laft he rofe, and twitch'd his mantle blue :
To-morrow to fresh woods and paftures new.

Milton has been generally fuppofed to have introduced in this poem, a great number of antiquated phrases. This opinion, however it came to obtain, is erroneous. On a close examination, there will not be found, in near two hundred lines, a dozen words of obfolete character.*

Whether Lycidas fhould be confidered as a model of compofition, has

Viz. Rathe, ferannel, felf-fame, fwart, ruth, freakt, trick, as a substitute for adorn, and perhaps two or three

more.

been

been doubted. Some have fuppofed that the arbitrary difpofition of the rhymes produces a wild melody, adapted to the expreffion of forrow. Some have thought the couplet and tetraftick with their stated returns of chime, preferable. To decide the point by argument, might be difficult; but fuppofing two elegies, one of each structure, to be equally well written in other respects, probably most readers would incline to favour the regular form.||

Lycidas is a noble poem: the author's name is not wanted to recommend it: its own enthusiasm and beauty will always make it please, and abundantly atone for its incorrectness.

There is a Paftoral on the death of Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, printed with SPENSER's works, a poem of fome merit, nearly of the fame conftruction as LYCIDAS.

ESSAY