joined together. Notwithstanding this, the great variety afforded by the mixture of them in the same poem, has been a strong inducement to some poets to use them; who wanted more forcibly to express the imitation of sounds; and who could not resist so tempting a mode of effecting their purpose. By these means they expected to have the command of all movements, slow and solemn, or quick and hurrying, more completely than they could, by confining themselves to verses of one and the same cadence. In none of the lyrical poetry of Gray is this triple cadence used at all; nor has he wished to push the imitative harmony of his numbers further, than the regular even cadence, with its proper variation, would allow. In the third stanza of the Progress of Poetry,' where the change is made from quick to slow measure; it is effected by a change of accent, (throwing the acute accent on the first syllable,) but never by a change of

cadence:

"Thée the voice | the dánce | obéy,
Tém|per’d to | thy warb|led láy,

O'ér Idália's vél vet gréen."

These three lines belong to the four-footed verse, with the omission of the first syllable of the first foot; and are the same as the first line in The Bard:

"Rú in séize thee rúth less king.|"

The next verse in the stanza is the entire four-footed, and the verse following that, the three-footed:

"The rósy crowned Loves | are seen |

On Cytheré a's dáy. | "

The more equal movement of these two latter lines, forms a strong contrast with another change of measure, now going to take place, more brisk than the first three lines, in which the supernumerary, or hypercatalectic

VOL. I.

syllable, is found; and in which six lines there are three varieties of measure, the truncated five-footed verse, the truncated four-footed verse, and the four-footed verse complete:

"With antic Sport | and blue-eyed Pleasures,

Frisking light in | frolic | measures;

Now pursuing, now retreating, |

Now in circling troops | they meet. |

This quick and hurrying movement is now suddenly changed to a slow and dignified motion; the verse is the five-footed, or heroic, with alternate rhyme, like the Elegy in a Country Church-yard; and the syllables abounding with long quantities.

"Slōw melting strains their queen's approach declare:
Wheree'er she turns, the Graces homage pay;

With arms sublime that float upon the air,

In gliding state she wins her easy way.”

And the whole stanza is concluded with the full and stately march of the Alexandrine line:

"O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move

The bloom of young desire, and purple light of love."

How exquisitely beautiful the harmony of this stanza is; and how finely it has succeeded in its imitative powers, will be felt by all. If we now turn to the Ode to St. Cecilia by Pope, we shall find that his peculiar and express purpose was, to shew how well he could display the imitative powers of his language. To effect this, he has changed the cadence of his verse backwards and forwards, as best suited his design. One cannot but acknowledge the disagreeable effect of this change, and indeed, the total failure of the imitation.

"In a sadly pleasing strain,

Let the warbling lute complain,

Let the loud trumpet soúnd, |
Till the roofs all around |

The shrill échos rebound, |

While in more lengthen'd notes, and slow,

The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow.

Hark, the numbers soft and clear,

Gently steal upon the ear,

Now louder, and now louder rise,

And fill with spreading sounds the skies;
Exúlting in triumph now swell | the bold notés,

In brójken air trém bling the wild | music flóats |."

and hell

I have chosen this stanza in preference to others, because the poetical language of it is unexceptionable, and the disagreeable effect can only be attributed to the numbers. In the whole stanza, "He sang, consented," it is difficult to say whether the flow of the numbers, or the choice of the expression, is the most injudicious. Dryden, though not in so great a degree, has fallen into the same error, in his ode on the same subject. That which led both poets to make use of this unpleasant mixture of cadences, was the desire of imitating forcibly the expression of sounds and motions; on which subject I shall take the liberty of offering a few remarks. The radical error in the design, has produced the failure in the execution; the order and arrangement of harmony is lost, and the symmetry and proportion of the poem is disfigured. Collins, like Gray, has preserved himself entirely free from this faulty versification.

The lyrical poems of Gray consist in general of the mixture of the heroic, or five-footed verse, with that of four feet; and this latter is either perfect, or else variety is produced by dropping the first syllable of the first foot. If we add to them the six-footed, or Alexandrine line, at the end of the stanza, we shall possess all the variety of measure of which

The Progress of Poetry' is composed. Its metrical beauty it owes to those measures, with a distribution of the acute accent, according to circumstances, and an attentive change of the quantity of the syllables. Another measure, and rather a singular one, is found in the epodes of The Bard:

"No more I weep,

They do not sleep,

I see them sit,

They linger yet."

This is a very unusual metre in odes of a serious kind; and would look more strange if the lines were printed as I have now placed them; and as they are perfect and entire lines, each of two feet, they ought properly to be so arranged. Except in this one variation, the verse of The Bard is of the same kind as that of The Progress of Poetry and The Installation Ode; the latter of which is the only irregular ode ever written by Gray.*

" that in

The same critic whom I lately had occasion to mention, says, reviewing the examples he had given, it appeared, contrary to expectation, that in passing from the strongest resemblances, to those that are fainter, every step affords additional pleasure. Renewing the experiment again and again, he says, I feel no wavering, but the greatest pleasure constantly from the faintest resemblances; and yet how can this be? for if the plea

* It is well known that Dryden's Ode to St. Cecilia was finely set to music by Handel; and Mr. Mason says, " Mr. Smith, a worthy pupil of Handel, intended to have set Mr. Gray's ode, The Bard,' to music; and Mr. Gray, whose musical feelings were exquisite, with a knowledge of the art, gave him an idea for the overture, which seemed equally proper and striking." Pope knew nothing of music; and asked Dr. Arbuthnot, whether Handel really deserved the applause he met with.

sure lie in the imitation, must not the strongest resemblances afford the greatest pleasure? From this vexing dilemma, I am happily relieved by reflecting on a doctrine established in the chapter of Resemblance and Contrast, that the pleasure of resemblance is the greatest when it is least expected, and when the objects compared are in their capital circumstances widely different."* It appears to me that Lord Kames's observation on the different effects produced by the stronger and fainter resemblances of the sound to the image is correct; but I think that the cause of the inferior pleasure he received in reading such lines as the following, which he quotes from Pope's Homer, Od. xi. 736, is to be attributed to another source:

And,

"With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone."

"When the tide rushes from her trembling caves,
The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves."

In these, and lines similar to these, I should observe, that the design of producing a direct imitation of sound or motion, which is beyond the power of language to perfect, has betrayed the poet into such a structure, of verse, as (if not contrary to that which is common, and which the ear

* See Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism, vol. ii. p. 92. The observations by Lord Kames, on the pleasure of resemblance, are rather generally and loosely laid down. The truth is ; that which imitates, may agree too closely with, or differ too widely from the object of imitation, to produce the proper degree of pleasure. A painted statue, would resemble real life too closely, and therefore be liable to the first objection. On the other hand, the produce of the needle, and the loom, and also what is called Topiary-work in gardens, is subject to the latter: " as the coarseness of their materials, cannot by any art be brought to a sufficient nicety for the purpose of imitation: Painting, or colours spread on a flat surface, seem to occupy the place between the two extremes.