sense, and natural feeling; as in the following beautiful lines of Virgil: Sepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala (Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem; The next inquiry is what are the proper sub. jects of pastorals? For it is not enough that the poet give us shepherds discoursing together.Every good poem has a subject that in some way interests us. In this lies the difficulty of pasto ral writing. The active scenes of country life are too barren of incidents. The condition of a shepherd has few things in it that excite curiósiSurprise. Hence of all poems the pastoral is most meagre in subject, and least diversified in strain. Yet this defect is not to be ascribed solely to barrenness of subjects It is in a great measure the fault of the poet. For human na ture and human passions are much the same in every situation and rank of life. What a varie ty of objects, within the rural sphere, do the passions present! the struggles and ambition of shepherds; their adventures; their disquiet and felicity; the rivalship of lovers ; unexpected suc cesses and disasters, are all proper subjects for the pastoral muse. Theocritus and Virgil are the two great fa thers of pastoral writing. For simplicity of sen timent, harmony of numbers, and richness of scenery, the former is highly distinguished. But he sometimes descends to ideas that are gross and mean, and makes his shepherds abusive and immodest. Virgil, on the contrary, preserves the pastoral simplicity without any offensive rusticity. Modern writers of pastorals have in general imitated the ancient poets. Sannazarius, however, a latin poet in the age of Leo X. attempted a bold innovation by composing piscatory eclogues, and changing the scene from the woods to the sea, and the character from shepherds to fishermen. But the attempt was so unhappy that he has no followers. The toilsome life of fishermen has nothing agreeable to present to the imagination. Fishes and marine productions have nothing poetical in them. Of all the modcrns, Gesner, a poet of Switzerland, has been, the most happy in pastoral composition. Many new ideas are introduced in his Idyls. His scenery is striking and bis descriptions lively. He is pathetic, and writes to the heart. Neither the pastorals of Pope nor Philips, do much honor to English poetry. The pastorals of Pope are barren; their chief merit is the smoothness of the numbers. Philips attempted to be more simple and natural than Pope, but wanted genius to suppport the attempt. His topics, like those of Pope are beaten ; and instead of being natural, or simple, he is flat and insipid. Shenstone's pastoral ballad is one of the most elegant poems of the kind in the English language. In latter times pastoral writing has been extended into regular drama and this is the chief improvement the moderns have made in it. Two pieces of this kind are highly celebrated, Guarini's Pastor Fido, and Tasso's Aminta.-Both possess great beauties; But the latter is the pref erable poem, because less intricate, and less af fected; though not wholly free from Italian refinement. As a poem, however, it has great merit. The poetry is pleasing and gentle, and the Italian language confers on it much of that softness which is suited to the pastoral. The Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramsay is a pastoral drama which will bear comparison with any composition of the kind in any language. To this admirable poem it is a disadvantage that it is written in the old rustic dialect of Scotland, which must soon be obsolete; and it is a farther disadvantage that it is formed so entirely on the rural manners of Scotland, that none but a native of that country can thoroughly understand and relish it. It is full of natural description and excels in tenderness of sentiment. The characters are well drawn, the incidents affecting, the scenery and manners lively and just. LYRIC POETRY. The ode is a species of poetry, which has much dignity, and in which many writers in ev ery age have distinguished themselves. Ode in Greek is the same with song or hymn and lyric poetry implies that the verses are accompanied with a lyre, or musical instrument. In the ode, poetry retains its first form, and its original union with music. Sentiments commonly constitute its subject. It recites not actions. Its spirit and the manner of its execution mark its character. It admits a bolder and more passionate strain than is allowed in simple recital. Hence F the enthusiasm that belongs to it. Hence that neglect of regularity, those digressions, and that disorder it is supposed to admit. All odes may be classed under four denominations. 1. Hymns addressed to God, or composed on religious subjects. 2. Heroic odes, which concern the celebration of heroes and great actions. 3. Moral and philosophical odes, which refer chiefly to virtue, friendship and hu. manity. 4. Festive and amorous odes, which are calculated merely for amusement and pleas ure. Enthusiasm being considered as the characteristic of the ode, it has often degenerated into licentiousness. This species of writing has above all others been infected by want of order, method and connexion. The poet is out of sight in a moment. He is so abrupt and eccentric, so irregular and obscure that we cannot follow him. It is not indeed necessary that the structure of the ode be so perfectly regular as an epic poem. But in every composition there ought to be a whole; and this whole should consist of connected parts. The transition from thought to thought may be light and delicate, but the connexion of ideas should be preserved; the author should think, and not rave, Pindar, the father of lyric poetry, has led his imitators into enthusiastic wildness. They imitate his disorder without catching his spirit. In Horace's odes every thing is correct, harmoni. ous, and happy. His elevation is moderate, not rapturous. Grace and elegance are his characteristics. He supports a moral sentiment with dignity, touches a gay one with felicity, and has the art of trifling most agreeably. His languag too is most fortunate. Many Latin poets of later ages have imitated him. Casimir, a Polish poet of the last century, is of this number; and discovers a considerable degree of original genius and poetic fire. He is however, far inferior to the Roman in graceful expression. Buchanan, in some of his lyric com positions is very elegant and classical, In our own language, Dryden's ode on St Cecilia is well known. Mr. Gray, in some of his odes is celebrated for tenderness and sublimity; and in Dodsley's Miscellanies are several very beautiful lyric poems. Professedly Pin. daric odes are seldom intelligible. Cowley is doubly harsh in his pindaric compositions. His Anacreontic odes are happier and perhaps the most agreeable and perfect in their kind of all his poems. DIDACTIC POETRY. Of didactic poetry it is the express intention to convey instruction and knowledge. (It may be executed in different ways The poet may treat some instructive subject in a regular form: or without intending a great or regular work he may inveigh against particular vices, or make some moral observations on human life and characters. The highest species of didactic poetry is a reg ular treatise on some philosophical, grave or useful subject. (Such are the books of Lucretius de Rerum Natura, the Georgics of Virgil, Pope's |