immediately after, to fix the class of poets to which he belongs, he fays

Quod fi me Lyricis vatibus inferes.

To answer this purpose of mufical adaptation, Lyric poetry has always been in poffeffion of a variety of measures, differing indeed greatly among themselves, but all very diftinguishable from the ftately regular march of Heroics, and the languid inequality of elegy. Thus the Anacreontic is smart and lively, the Sapphic tender and melodious, the irregular Pindaric fuited to the fudden changes and unbounded flights of the wild various mufic of the paffions. Horace affords a fine profufion of regularly returning measures fuited to all the varieties of mufical expreffion, many of which one can scarcely read without falling into a natural music.

So far Lyric poetry is characterized by

its

its manner of compofition; will it also admit of a character from the nature of its fubjects? It has been already observed that the pieces of Sappho and Anacreon are formed entirely upon gay and amorous topics. A beautiful variety of poems of this caft is to be met with in Horace, and he frequently mentions the peculiar fuitableness of them to the Lyric muse. Thus

Nos convivia, nos prælia virginum
Strictis in juvenes unguibus acrium
Cantamus

Nolis longa feræ bella Numantiæ,
Nec dirum Hannibalem, nec Siculum mare
Pæno purpureum fanguine, mollibus
Aptari citharæ modis.

Non hoc jocofæ conveniet lyræ.
Quo Mufa tendis? define pervicax

Referre fermones Deorum, et
Magna modis tenuare parvis.

BUT what muft we think of thefe declarations when he nobly breaks out "Quem virum aut heroa," &c. when he undertakes with fuch fuccefs to fing the great actions of Auguftus, the praises of Drufus, and the poetical character of Pindar, with Pindar's own fire and fublimity? In that beautiful ode, the 9th of the 4th book, where he sketches out the Grecian bards, his predeceffors in Lyric poetry, we find the

Ceæque, Alceique minaces
Stefichorique graves Camenæ,

as well as the wanton gaiety of Anacreon and the amorous foftness of the Lesbian maid. One of the oldeft pieces of Grecian Lyric poetry extant, is a heroic ode fung by the Athenians at their public feafts in commemoration of Harmodius and Ariftogiton. The odes of Pindar celebrate

1

lebrate the victors at the Olympic games, and the hymns of Callimachus rife to the praises of the Gods.

FROM these instances it appears that Lyric poetry does not admit of any diftinguishing characteristic from its fubject, but merely from the circumftance of its accompanyment with mufic: thus Horace briefly defines it "verba focianda chordis." But this circumftance will in fome measure influence the choice of a fubject, as it is evident that long continued narration, the didactic part of any art or fcience, and fatire, are not fuitable topics for a species of poetry which above all others is calculated to please, elevate and furprize.

If we now compare the idea here given of Lyric poetry, with what was before obferved concerning fong-writing, it will plainly appear that the lattter is one branch

of the former; that, to wit, which in its fubject is confined to gaiety and tendernefs, or, to exprefs it claffically, the Sapphic and Anacreontic. The graver and fublimer ftrains of the Lyric Mufe are exemplified in the modern ode, a fpecies of compofition which admits of the boldest flights of poetical enthusiasm, and the wildest creations of the imagination, and requires the affiftance of every figure that can adorn language, and raise it above its ordinary pitch.

CRITICS have very commonly lamented that the moderns fall fhort of the antients more particularly in this fpecies of poetry than in any other; yet, did it belong to my prefent fubject, I fhould not defpair of convincing an impartial reader, that the English names of Dryden, Gray, Akenfide, Mafon, Collins, Warton, are not inferior in real poetical elevation to the moît renowned