Or his, who to maintain a critic's rank, These, and th' unnumber'd shoals of smaller fry, While the warm blood bedews my veins, THE TEARS OF SCOTLAND. Written in the Year 1746. The wretched owner sees afar The rural pipe and merry lay O baneful cause, oh, fatal morn, The sons against their fathers stood, VERSES ON A YOUNG LADY PLAYING ON A HARPSICHORD AND SINGING. WHEN Sappho struck the quiv'ring wire, But had the nymph, possest with these, The worm of grief had never prey'd LOVE ELEGY. IN IMITATION OF TIBULLUS. WHERE now are all my flatt'ring dreams of joy? Let happy lovers fly where pleasures call, Or press her wanton in love's roseate bower. For me, no more I'll range th' empurpled mead, Where shepherds pipe, and virgins dance around, Nor wander thro' the woodbine's fragrant shade, To hear the music of the grove resound. I'll seek some lonely church, or dreary hall, Where fancy paints the glimm'ring taper blue, Where damps hang mould'ring on the ivy'd wall, And sheeted ghosts drink up the midnight dew: There leagued with hopeless anguish and despair, To kindred dust my weary limbs consign. Wilt thou, Monimia, shed a gracious tear On the cold grave where all my sorrows rest? Strew vernal flow'rs, applaud my love sincere, And bid the turf lie easy on my breast? SONG. WHILE with fond rapture and amaze, On thy transcendent charms I gaze, My cautious soul essays in vain My breast, by wary maxims steel'd, But, when invok'd to beauty's aid, SONG. To fix her 'twere a task as vain I know it, friend, she's light as air, It's joys she'll neither share nor prove; Blushing at such inglorious reign, sometimes strive to break her chain; My reason summon to my aid, Resolv'd no more to be betray'd. Ah! friend! 'tis but a short-liv'd trance, So soft, so elegant, so fair, Sure something more than human's there; I must submit, for strife is vain, 'Twas destiny that forg'd the chain. ODES. BURLESQUE ode'. WHERE wast thou, wittol Ward, when hapless fate From these weak arms mine aged grannam tore: These pious arms essay'd too late, To drive the dismal phantom from the door. Dr. Smollett, imagining himself ill treated by lord Lyttleton, wrote the above burlesque o that nobleman's monody on the death of his lady. Could not thy healing drop, illustrious quack, Could not thy salutary pill prolong her days; For whom, so oft, to Marybone, alack! Thy sorrels dragg'd thee thro' the worst of ways! Oil-dropping Twick'nham did not then detain Thy steps, tho' tended by the Cambrian maid ⚫; Nor the sweet environs of Drury-lane; Nor dusty Pimlico's embow'ring shades; Nor Whiteball, by the river's bank, Beset with rowers dank; Nor where th' Exchange pours forth its tawny sons; Nor where to mix with offal, soil, and blood, Steep Snow-hill rolls the sable flood; Nor where the Mint's contaminated kennel runs: Ill doth it now beseem, That thou shouldst doze and dream, And struck with ruthless dart the gentle danie. The strutting cock she daily fed, And turky with his snout so red; Of chickens careful as the pious hen, Nor did she overlook the tomtit or the wren; While redbreast hopp'd before her in the ball, As if she common mother were of all. For my distracted mind, O best of grannams! thou art dead and gone, To sing thy dirge in sad funereal lay, TO MIRTH. PARENT of joy! heart-easing Mirth! Yet goddess sure of heavenly birth, So shall each hill in purer green array'd, The grove shall smooth the horrours of the And streams in murmurs shall forget to flow. Labour with thee forgets his pain, And on the world doth pour His glories in a golden shower, Lo! Darkness trembling 'fore the hostile ray Shrinks to the cavern deep and wood forloru: The brood obscene, that own her gloomy sway, Troop in her rear, and fly th' app.vach of Morn. That pours his purple stream O'er the long prospect wide? 'Tis Mirth. I see her sit With Laughter at her side. Nor fear ye aught in evil hour, Save the tardy hand of Age. Now Mirth hath heard the suppliant poet's prayer; No cloud that rides the blast, shall vex the troubled air. TO SLEEP. SOFT Sleep, profoundly pleasing power, By bowers of birch, and groves of pine, TO BLUE-EY'D ANN. WHEN the rough North forgets to howl, No more shall flowers the meads adorn; No more shall joy in hope be found; When rolling seasons cease to change, TÓ LEVEN-WATER. ON Leven's banks, while free to rove, Pure stream! in whose transparent wave TO INDEPENDENCE. STROPHE. THY spirit, Independence, let me share! Hath bleach'd the tyrant's cheek in every varying clime. What time the iron-hearted Gaul Charlemagne obliged four thousand Saxon prisoners to embrace the Christian religion, and immediately after they were baptized ordered their The par is a small fish, not unlike the smelt, throats to be cut.-Their prince Vitikind fled for which it rivals in delicacy and flavour. shelter to Gotric king of Denmark. ANTISTROPHE. The Saxon prince in horrour fled In safety to the bleak Norwegian shore. He stopt: he gaz'd; his bosom glow'd, And straight compress'd her in his vig'rous arms. STROPHE. The curlieu scream'd, the Tritons blew He flourish'd bold and sinewy as his sire; ANTISTROPHE. Accomplished thus, he wing'd his way, STROPHÉ. Arabia's scorching sands he cross'd 5, To Freedom's adamantine shrine; And many a Tartar hord forlorn, aghast 6! Even now he stands on Calvi's rocky shore, ANTISTROPHE. Those sculptur'd halls my feet shall never tread, STROPHE. In Fortune's car behold that minion ride, And warm with patriot thoughts the aspiring And Nature, still to all her feelings just, soul. On desert isles2 it was be that rais'd Those spires that gild the Adriatic wave, Where Tyranny beheld amaz'd In vengeance hang a damp on every scene, ANTISTROPHE, Nature I'll court in her sequester'd haunts Fair Freedom's temple, where he mark'd her By mountain, meadow, streamlet, grove, or cell, grave, He steel'd the blunt Batavian's arms To burst the Iberian's double chain3; And cities rear'd, and planted farms, Won from the skirts of Neptune's wide domain. Although Venice was built a considerable time before the era here assigned for the birth of Independence, the republic had not yet attained to any great degree of power and splendour. 3 The Low Countries were not only oppressed by grievous taxations, but likewise threatened with the establishment of the Inquisition, when the Seven Provinces revolted, and shook off the yoke of Spain. Alluding to the known story of William Tell and his associates, the fathers and founders of the confederacy of the Swiss Cantons. Where the poised lark his evening ditty chaunts, 5 The Arabs, rather than resign their independency, have often abandoned their habitations, and encountered all the horrours of the desert. 6 From the tyranny of Jenghis-Khan, TimurBec, and other eastern conquerors, whole tribos of Tartars were used to fly into the remoter wastes of Cathay, where no ariny could follow them. The noble stand made by Paschal Paoli and his associates against the usurpations of the French king, must endear them to all the sons of liberty and independence. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ODE TO INDEPENDENCE. White-mantled Innocence, ethereal sprite, OBSERVATIONS ON DR. SMOLLETT'S ODE TO INDEPENDENCE. 589 The poet, full of enthusiasm and admiration, continues his prosopopeia; and, in a strain of poetry exceedingly wild and romantic, gives us the genealogy of Independence. "A goddess violated brought thee forth, Immortal Liberty, whose look sublime Hath bleach'd the tyrant's cheek in every varying ". ime." According to the acceptation of our author, liLYRIC poetry imitates violent and ardent pas-berty means the security of our lives and possessions. It is therefore bold, various, and impetu- sions, and freedom from external force: indeous. It abounds with animated sentiments, glow-pendence is of higher import, and denotes that ing images, and forms of speech often unusual, but commonly nervous and expressive. The composition and arrangement of parts may often appear disordered, and the transitions sudden an obscure; but they are always natural, and are governed by the movements and variations of the imitated passion. The foregoing ode will illustrate these observations. The introduction is poetical and abrupt. "Thy spirit, Independence, let me share! Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky." The picture exhibited in these lines is striking, because the circumstances are happily chosen, briefly, and distinctly delineated. It is sublime, because the images are few, and in themselves great and magnificent. The lion-heart and eagle-eye" suggest an idea of the high spirit and commanding aspect of Independence: and the poet following with "bosom bare" denotes, in a picturesque manuer, the eagerness and enthusiasm of the votary. The last circumstance is peculiarly happy. "Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky." It marks the scene: it is unexpected, and excites surprise: it is great and awful, and excites astonishment. Combined with the preceding circumstance, it conveys a beautiful allegorical meaning; and signifies that a mind truly independent is superior to adversity, and unmoved by external accidents. We may observe too, in regard to the diction, that the notions of sound and motion communicated by the words " howl" and " along,” contribute, in a peculiar manner, to the sublimity of the description. "Lord of the lion-heart and eagle-eye, Thy steps I follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.” These lines are written in the true spirit of lyric poetry. Without preparing the mind by a cool artificial introduction, rising gradually to the impetuosity of passion, they assail the imagination by an abrupt and sudden impulse; they vibrate through the soul, and fire us instantaneously with all the ardour and enthusiasm of the poet. Many of the odes of Horace are composed in the same spirit, and produce similar effects. Without any previous argument or introduction, in the fulness of passion and imagination, he breaks out in bold, powerful, and impetuous figures. 2uo me, Bacche, rapis, tui Plenum? Quæ nemora aut quos agor in specus tualem ministrum fulminis alitem internal sense and consciousness of freedom which beget magnanimity, fortitude, and that becoming pride which leads us to respect ourselves, and do nothing unworthy of our condition. Liberty therefore is, with perfect propriety, said to be the mother of Independence, and Disdain his father Disdain arising from indignation against an oppressor, and triumph on having frustrated or escaped his malice. This stern personage is strongly characterized in the following direct description. "Of ample front the portly chief appear'd: The hunted bear supply'd a shaggy vest; The drifted snow hung on his yellow beard; And his broad shoulders braved the furious blast." But if their they may be secure in their persons and possesMen may enjoy liberty without independence: sions, without feeling any uncommon elevation of liberty is attacked, they are alarmed, they feel mind, or any sense of their freedom. the value of their condition, they are moved with indignation against their oppressors, they exert the danger that threatened them, they triumph, themselves, and if they are successful, or escape they reflect on the happiness and dignity conferred by freedom, they applaud themselves for their exertions, become magnanimous and independent. There is therefore no less propriety in deducing the origin of Independence from Disdain and Liberty, than in fixing the era of his birth. The Saxons, according to our author, free, simple, and inoffensive, were attacked, escaped the violence of their adversary, reflected on the felicity of their condition, and learned independence. The education of Independence, and the scene of his nativity, are suited to his illustrious lineage, and to the high achievements for which he was destined. "The light he saw in Albion's happy plains, The auspicious fruit of stol'n embrace was born- merous. Independence thus descended, and thus divinely instructed and endowed, distinguishes himself accordingly by heroic and beneficent actions. "Accomplish'd thus, he winged his way, And zealous rov'd from pole to pole, The rolls of right eternal to display, And warm with patriot thoughts the aspiring soul." |