Attention is irresistibly awakened and engaged by that air of folemnity, and enthusiasm, that reigns in the following ftanzas: The oracles are dumb *, No voice or hideous hum, Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; Infpires the pale-ey'd prieft from the prophetic cell. Such is the power of true poetry, that one is almost inclined to believe the superstitions here alluded to, to be real; and the fucceeding circumftances make one start and look around; In confecrated earth, And on the holy hearth, The lars and lemurs moan with midnight plaint; In urns and altars round A drear and dying found Affrights the flamens at their fervice quaint! Methinks we behold the priests interrupted in the middle of the fecret ceremonies they were performing, "in their temples dim,” gazing with ghaftly eyes on each other, and * Pag. 28. terrified, terrified, and wondering from whence these aërial voices should proceed! I have dwelt chiefly on this ode as much less celebrated than L'Allegro and Il Penferofo, which are now univerfally known; but which by a ftrange fatality lay in a fort of obfcurity, the private enjoyment of a few curious readers, till they were fet to admirable mufic by Mr. Handel. And indeed this volume of Milton's miscellaneous poems has not till very lately met with fuitable regard. Shall I offend any rational admirer of POPE by remarking, that thefe juvenile defcriptive poems of Milton, as well as his latin elegies, are of a strain far more exalted than any the former author can boaft? Let me add at the fame time, what juftice obliges me to add, that they are far more incorrect. For in the very ode before us, occur one or two paffages, that are puerile and affected, to a degree not to be parallelled in the purer, but lefs elevated, compofitions of POPE. The feafon being winter, when Jefus was born, Milton fays, Nature, in awe to HIM *, Had dofft her gawdy trim. And afterwards obferves, in a very epigrammatic and forced thought, unsuitable to the dignity of the subject and of the rest of the ode, that," fhe wooed the air, to hide her guilty front with innocent fnow," And on her naked fhame +, Pollute with finful blame, The faintly veil of maiden white to throw, Should look fo near upon her foul deformities. "C'est affez, to apply the words of the fenfible Voltaire, d'avoir cru appercevoir quelques erreurs d'invention dans ce grand genie; c'eft une confolation pour un efprit auffi bornè que le mien, d'etre bien perfuadé que le plus grands hommes fe trompent comme le vulgaire." This conceit, with the reft, however is more excufable, if we recollect how great a reader, efpecially at this time, Milton was of the Italian Poets. It is certain that Milton, in the beginning of the ode, had the third fonnet of Petrarch strong in his fancy, Era 'l giorno, ch'al fol fi fcoloraro Per la pietà del fuo fattore i rai; + Milton's Mifcellaneous Poems, vol. ii. pag. 19. It would be unpardonable to conclude these remarks on defcriptive poefy, without taking notice of the SEASONS of Thomson, who had peculiar and powerful talents for this fpecies of compofition. Let the reader therefore pardon a digreffion, if such it be, on his merits and character. THOMSON was bleffed with a strong and copious fancy; he hath enriched poetry with a variety of new and original images, which he painted from nature itself, and from his own actual obfervations: his defcriptions have therefore a diftinctness and truth, which are utterly wanting to thofe, of poets who have only copied from each other, and have never looked abroad on the objects themselves. Thomson was accustomed to wander away into the country for days and for weeks, attentive to, each rural fight, each rural "found;" while many a poet who has dwelt for years in the Strand, has attempted to defcribe fields and rivers, and generally fucceeded accordingly. Hence that nauseous repetition repetition of the fame circumftances; hence that disgusting impropriety of introducing what may be called a set of hereditary images, without proper regard to the age, or climate, or occafion in which they were formerly ufed. Though the diction of the SEASONS is fometimes harsh and inharmonious, and fometimes turgid and obfcure, and though in many inftances, the numbers are not fufficiently diverfified by different pauses, yet is this poem on the whole, from the numberlefs ftrokes of nature in which it abounds, one of the moft captivating and amufing in our language, and which, as its beauties are not of a tranfitory kind, as depending on particular customs and manners, will ever be perufed with delight. The fcenes of Thomfon are frequently as wild and romantic as thofe of Salvator Rofa, varied with precipices and torrents, and "caftled cliffs," and deep vallies, with piny mountains, and the gloomiest caverns. Innumerable are the little circumftances in his defcriptions, totally unobserved by all his pre deceffors. |