Eray's Poems. ODE I. ON THE SPRINGa. LO! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, a The original manuscript title which Mr. Gray gave to this Ode was NOONTIDE; probably he then meant to write two more, descriptive of Morning and Evening. His unfinished Ode* opens with a fine description of the former, and his Elegy with as beautiful a picture of the latter; which perhaps he might, at that time, have meditated upon for the exordium of an Ode; but this is only conjecture. It may, however, be remarked, that these three capital descriptions abound with ideas which affect the ear more than the eye, and therefore go beyond the powers of picturesque imitation.—MASON. The common reader will probably acquiesce in the judgment Mr. Wakefield passes on the sentiments of this Ode-that they are unaffected, instructive, and sublime. About the language there may be greater difference of opinion. Dr. Johnson, who has truth even in his spleen, says it is too luxuriant. Ver. 1. Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours.] -" The rosy-bosom'd Spring To weeping Fancy pines." Thomson's Spring, v. 1007. "The Graces and the rosy-bosom'd Hours." Milton's Comus, v.986. It is observable, that the epithet rosy-bosom'd is employed by these Poets, with unusual latitude, to signify, with bosoms full * On the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. a Disclose the long-expecting flowers, of roses; very differently from the pedodaкrvλog Hws of Homer, and the rosy-finger'd morn of Milton.-WAKEFIeld. Hours.] This application of the hours-the par of the Greeks, is conceived in the genuine spirit of ancient poetry. Nonnus has two verses worth quoting on this occasion. Θυγατέρες λυκαβαντος αελλοποδοιο τοκηος Εις δόμον ηιθεοιο ῥοδωπιδες ηιον Ωραι. With rosy-blooming face the hours appear, The daughters of the tempest-footed year.-WAKefield. Ver. 2. Fair Venus' train.] Venus is here employed, in conformity to the mythology of the Greeks, as the source of creation and beauty-as the principle that pervades and invigorates universal nature; and with peculiar propriety on this occasion, because a new creation, as it were, takes place with the commencement of the Spring, after the languor and inactivity of Winter. Καλειται δε ἡ Αφροδιτη παναιτιη, δια το καν τῳ ουρανῳ και εν τη γη και θαλασση την δυναμιν αυτής θεωρεισθαι. Venus is stiled the universal cause, inasmuch as her energy is visible even in the heavens, the earth, and the sea. de Nat. Deor.-WAKEFIELD. Ver. 3. Disclose the long-expecting * flowers.} Phornut. "In that soft season, when descending showers Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers." Pope's Temple of Fame, b. i. 1.-WAKEFIELD. Ver. 4. The purple year.] "Vere rubenti." Virgil. Geo. ii. 319.-WAKEFIELD. * One or two early editions have long-expected. This was probably an error of the press, since the expression, as it now stands, is new and far more poetical. Besides this, it bears a resemblance to an idea in West's Ode on the Backwardness of Spring, of which Gray expressed his approbation. See Sect. III. Letter VII. The Attic warbler pours her throat, The untaught harmony of Spring: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch Ipsa gemis purpurantem pinget annum floribus." 5 ΙΟ Ver. 5. The Attic warbler pours her throat.] "Where the attic bird Past. i. 28. Trills her thick-warbled notes the Summer long." Par. Reg. iv. 245. Pours her throat.] This is a very bold and poetical expression, and an admirable improvement of the original form in the Greek and Roman classics. Ver. 8. χεει αυδην. Hes. Scut. Herc. 396.-WAKEFIELD. "Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?" Now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils." Ver. 12. Par. Lost, iv. 156. -Browner shade.] "And breathes a browner horror on the woods." Pope's Eloisa to Abelard. a. Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech O'er-canopies the glade, Beside some water's rushy brink With me the Muse shall sit, and think (At ease reclin❜d in rustic state) How vain the ardour of the crowd, 15 How low, how little are the proud, 20 Still is the toiling hand of Care; -"Highest woods Spread their umbrage broad, Par. Lost, ix. 1087. Mason has adopted the same expression : Chills the pale plain beneath him." Ver. 14. O'er-canopies the glade.] "A bank O'er-canopied with lucious woodbine." Caract. 4. Shakspeare's Mids. Night's Dream. "I sat me down to watch upon a bank With ivy canopied, and interwove With flaunting honey-suckle. Milton's Comus, 543.-WAKEFIELD. Ver. 19. How low, how little are the proud, How indigent the great! VARIATION. How low, how indigent the proud, Thus it stood in Dodsley's Miscellany, where it was first published. The author corrected it on account of the point of little and great. It certainly had too much the appearance of a con Yet hark, how through the peopled air The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied Spring, cetto, though it expressed his meaning better than the present reading.-MASON. Ver. 24. The busy murmur glows.] Mr. Wakefield quotes from Virgil, and from Lucretius, legiones-classem-opus fervere ; and an anonymous critic remarks, that the English language contains few instances of a metaphor formed by applying to objects, which are subject to one sense, terms which exclusively belong to another. It is done in the verse before us; and the following lines from Sophocles afford good examples of it. Παιαν δε λαμπει. Edip. Tyr. 187. Ελαμψε γαρ του νιφόεντος, Αρτίως Ψανεισα, Ραμα Παρνασσου. Ib. 473. Ver. 25. The insect youth are on the wing.] 66 'Luditque favis emissa juventus." Virg. Georg. iv. 22. There is also much similarity between this verse and one quoted by Wakefield from Thomson's Summer, v. 241. "Waked by his warmer ray, the reptile young Come winged abroad. Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes Ver. 26. -The honied Spring.] "While the bee with honied thigh." Il Pens. 14. "That on the green turf suck the honied flowers." Lycidas. 140. "The bait of honied words." Sams. Agon. 1066.-WAK. In reference to this place Dr. Johnson complains, " that a late practice has arisen of giving to adjectives derived from substantives, the termination of the participle." The passages above cited by Mr. Wakefield, if they do not afford sufficient authority for the practice, at least shew that it is not a recent one. |