LETTER V.

is no incurious fubject to enquire, what

is the spirit of lyric poetry? Or, in what does its difcrimination from other kinds of poetry confift? Those who have even pretended to write in this ftyle have often betrayed perfect ignorance of the very principles of fo exquifite a mode of composition.

THE Greeks, the Greeks alone, my friend, are the masters, and their works the models of

this kind of poetry. If we examine these models with care, we fhall perceive that this fpecies of poetry divides itself, in resemblance of the works of nature, into two kinds, the fublime, and the beautiful. In the first clafs Pindar stood without a rival till Gray appeared. In the fecond Anacreon and Sappho ftill remain without equal competitors.

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FROM thefe writers, therefore, the genuine fpirit of lyric poetry may be discovered. From Pindar we learn that fudden tranfitions, bold and abrupt métaphors, a regular cadence, and a warm and impetuous glow of thought and language,

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, are effentials of the higher mode of lyric writ ing. I place a regular cadence among thefe requifites in fpite of Dryden's wonderful ode; which is of itfelf worth all that Pindar has written, as a large diamond is worth a vaft heap of gold, because that mafter-piece is a dithyrambic poem, not a lyric one. And that as well for its want of regularity, as for ts fubject, which, being perfectly convivial as its title fpeaks, falls with much propriety into that clafs which the ancients called dithyrambic, and which were moft commonly facred to Bacchus.

In the fecond divifion of lyric poetry the effentials are lefs eafily fixed. Harmony of cadence, and beauty and warmth of fentiment, paffion, and expreffion, feem the principal. Above all, uncommon elegance in turns of

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fanguage, and in transition, are so vital to this kind of lyric poetry in particular, that I will venture to say they conftitute its very foul; a particular that none of our lyric writers, before Gray, at all attended to. His mode of expres fion is truly lyrical; and has a claffic brevity and terfeness, formerly unknown in English, fave to Milton alone. Of which to produce a few inftances from his very firft Ode: purple year, for flowers of Spring: infect youth, for young infects: bonied fpring, for honey of Spring: liquid noon, for liquid air of noon, with many others, are all modes of expreffion of the genuine and uncommon lyric hue.

HUME has well obferved, in his Effay on Simplicity and Refinement, that no criticism can be inftructive which defcends not to particulars, and is not full of examples and illuftrations. It may be added to this very just remark, that the more minute criticism is, the more need it has of example, to give a kind of body to its evanefcence. For this reafon, fince I have spoken of transition as so material a form of the ode, I fhall beg leave to confider al moment one of the beft in any language with regard

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regard to this beauty in particular, namely Dr. Beattie's Ode on Lord Hay's birth-day: a 'production which that fupreme judge of lyric poetry, Mr. Gray, praises with great justice for the lyric texture of the thoughts.

THE opening of this fine piece is however unhappy. A Mufe for a poet is a violent and bad metaphor. The Mufe in any good modern writer only means Poefy perfonified by another name. A Mufe unftained is worse. Unftained is an inelegant epithet even when applied in its proper fenfe to garments, &c. as it gives au idea that they might have been ftained. Unftained with art is a mixed metaphor, one of the worst faults of compofition: but, leaving thofe painful remarks, these lines,

No gaudy wreath of flowers fhe weaves,
But twines with oak the laurel leaves
Thy cradle to adorn,

are exquifite: the civic crown being of oak, the victor's of laurel. The image is beautiful to a degree of lyric perfection. But obferve the tranfition to the next ftanza, and pronounce it truly lyric:

For not on beds of gaudy flowers
Thine ancestors reclined, &c.

This

This tranfition in profe were ridiculous; for what connexion between not giving a child a wreath of flowers, and the reafon affigned, namely, because his ancestors did not recline on them? Yet this want of connexion forms the beauty of this very lyric transition.

THE next To hurl the dart,' &c. may be called a tranfition from a distance as the laft was to a distance. It is equally claffic with the former.

IN the 4th ftanza the Mufe is as happily introduced as she was unhappily brought in at first. It would require too much length to difplay the rest of the tranfitions in this ode, which are all of them fine; but none more fo than that in this ftanza, Yon caftle's glittering towers', &c. which brings the very object before your eyes.

As fuch microfcopic parts of criticism are rather fatiguing to the mental eye, I shall here conclude with affuring you, tho perhaps with a lyric transition in profe, that I am very truly,

&c.

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LET