图书图片
PDF
ePub

a scene that scarce could exist in the imagination of an European, and of its attendant distresses he could have no idea. These are very happily and minutely painted by our descriptive poet. What sublime simplicity of expression! what nervous plainness in the opening of the poem

!

"In silent horror o'er the boundless waste

The driver Hassan with his camels past."

The magic pencil of the poet brings the whole scene before us at once, as it were by enchantment, and in this single couplet we feel all the effect that arises from the terrible wildness of a region unenlivened by the habitations of men. The verses that describe so minutely the camel-driver's little provisions, have a touching influence on the imagination, and prepare the reader to enter more feelingly into his future apprehensions of distress:

"Bethink thee, Hassan, where shall Thirst assuage, When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage!"

Mr. Collins speaks like a true poet, as well in sentiment as expression, when, with regard to the thirst of wealth, he says,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Why heed we not, while mad we haste along, The gentle voice of peace, or pleasure's song? Or wherefore think the flowery mountain's side, The fountain's murmurs, and the valley's pride, Why think we these less pleasing to behold, Than dreary deserts, if they lead to gold?" But however just these sentiments may appear to those who have not revolted from nature and simpli city, had the author proclaimed them in Lombardstreet, or Cheapside, he would not have been complimented with the understanding of the bellman.A striking proof, that our own particular ideas of happiness regulate our opinions concerning the sense and wisdom of others!

It is impossible to take leave of this most beautiful eclogue, without paying the tribute of admiration se justly due to the following nervous lines.

"What if the lion in his rage I meet!Oft in the dust I view his printed feet: And, fearful! oft, when day's declining light Yields her pale empire to the mourner night, By hunger rouz'd, he scours the groaning plain, Gaunt wolves and sullen tigers in his train: Before them death with shrieks directs their way, Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey." This, amongst many other passages to be met with in the writings of Collins, shews that his genius was perfectly capable of the grand and magnificent in description, notwithstanding what a learned writer has advanced to the contrary, Nothing, certainly, could be more greatly conceived, or more adequately expressed, than the image in the last couplet.

ECLOGUE III.

THAT innocence and native simplicity of manners, which, in the first eclogue, was allowed to constitute the happiness of love, is here beautifully described in its effects. The Sultan of Persia marries a Georgian shepherdess, and finds in her embraces that genuine felicity unperverted which nature alone can bestow. The most natural and beautiful parts of this eclogue are those where the fair Sultana refers with so much pleasure to her pastoral amusements, and those scenes of happy innocence in which she had passed her early years; particularly when, upon her first departure, "Oft as she went, she backward turn'd her view, And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu." This picture of amiable simplicity reminds one of that passage, where Proserpine, when carried off by Pluto, regrets the loss of the flowers she has been gathering.

"Collecti flores tumicis cecidere remissis: Tantaque simplicitas pnerilibus adfuit annis, Hæc quoque virgineam movit jactura dolorem."

[merged small][ocr errors]

TIIE beautiful, but unfortunate country, where the scene of this pathetic eclogue is laid, had been recently torn in pieces by the depredations of its savage neighbours, when Mr. Collins so affectingly described its misfortunes. This ingenious man had not only a pencil to pourtray, but a heart to feel for the miseries of mankind, and it is with the utmost tenderness and humanity he enters into the narrative of Circassia's ruin, while he realizes the scene, and brings the present drama before us. Of every circumstance that could possibly contribute to the tender effect this pastoral was designed to produce, the poet has availed himself with the utmost art and address.

The opening of the dialogue is equally happy, natural, and unaffected; when one of the shepherds, weary and overcome with the fatigue of flight, callupon his companion to review the length of way, they had passed. This is, certainly, painting from nature, and the thoughts, however obvious, or destitute as refinement, are perfectly in character. But, as the closest pursuit of nature is the surest way to excellence in general, and to sublimity in particular, in poetical description, so we find that this simple suggestion of the shepherd is not unattended with magnificence: there is grandeur and variety in the landscape he describes ཎྜནཱ;,

And first review that long-extended plain,
And yon wide groves, already past with pain;
Yon ragged cliff, whose dang'rous path we try'd,
And last this lofty mountain's weary side.

There is, in imitative harmony, an act of expressing a slow and difficult movement by adding to the usual

number of pauses in a verse. This is observable in the line that describes the ascent of the mountain;

And last this lofty mountain's || weary side ||.

Here we find the number of pauses, or musical bars, which in an heroic verse is commonly two, increased to three.

[ocr errors]

Nothing can be more beautifully conceived, or more pathetically expressed, than the shepherd's apprehensions for his fair countrywomen, exposed to the ravages of the invaders

In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves,
For ever fam'd for pure and happy loves:
In vain she boasts the fairest of the fair,

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair! Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief shall send Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hand shall rend. There is certainly some very powerful charm in the liquid melody of sounds. The editor of these poems could never read or hear the following verse-repeated without a degree of pleasure otherwise entirely unac countable:

[ocr errors]

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair. Such are the Oriental Eclogues, which, we leave with the same kind of anxious pleasure we feel upon a temporary parting with a beloved friend.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE ODES, DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL

THE genius of Collins was capable of every degree of excellence in lyric poetry, and perfectly quali fed for that high province of the Muse. Possessed

of a native ear for all the varieties of harmony and modulation, susceptible of the finest feelings of tenderness and humanity; but, above all, carried away by that high enthusiasm which gives to imagination its strongest colouring, he was at once capable of soothing the ear witli the melody of his numbers, of influencing the passions by the force of his pathos, and of gratifying the fancy by the luxury of his description.

In consequence of these powers, but more particu. larly in consideration of the last, he chose such subjects for his lyric essays as were most favourable for the indulgence of description and allegory; where he could exercise his powers in moral and personal painting; where he could exert his invention in conferring new attributes on images or objects already known, and described by a determinate number of characteristics; where he might¡ give an uncommon eclat to his figures, by placing them in happier attitudes, or in more advantageous lights, and introduce new forms from the moral and intellectual world into the society of impersonated beings.

Such no doubt were the privileges which the Poet expected, and such were the advantages he derived from the descriptive and allegorical nature of his themes.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

It seems to have been the whole industry of our author (and it is at the same time, almost all the claim to moral excellence his writings can boast) to promote the influence of the social virtues, by paint. ing them in the fairest and happiest lights.

"Melior fieri tuendo"

would be no improper motto to his poems in general, but of his lyric poems it seems to be the whole moral tendency and effect. It therefore, it should appear to some readers that he has been more industrious to cultivate description than sentiment, it may be ob

« 上一页继续 »