ར ton, who flew the tyrant Hipparchus, and thereby restored the liberty of Athens. THE fall of Rome is here most nervously described in one line: With heaviest found, a giant-statue, fell. The thought feems altogether new, and the imitative harmony in the ftructure of the verfe is admirable. AFTER bewailing the ruin of ancient liberty, the poet confiders the influence it has retained, or still retains, among the moderns; and here the republics of Italy naturally engage his attention.-Florence, indeed, only to be lamented on the account of lofing its liberty under those patrons of letters, the Medice. an family; the jealous Pifa, justly fo called in refpect to its long impatience and regret under the fame yoke; and the fmall Marino, which, however unrefpectable with regard to power or extent of territory, has, at leaft, this distinction to boaft, that it has preferved its liberty longer than any other state ancient or modern, having, without any revolution, retained its prefent mode of government near 1 400 years. Moreover the patron faint who founded it, and from whom it takes its name, deferves this poetical record, as he is, perhaps, the only faint that ever contributed to the establishment of freedom. Nor e'er her former pride relate, In thefe lines the poet alludes to thofe ravages in the ftate of Genoa, occafioned by the unhappy divifions of the Guelphs and Gibelines. When the favour'd of thy choice, The daring archer heard thy voice. For an account of the celebrated event referred to in thefe verfes, fee Voltaire's Epiftle to the King of Pruffia. Those whom the rod of Alva bruis'd, THE Flemings were fo dreadfully oppressed by this fanguinary general of Philip the fecond, that they offered their fovereignty to Elizabeth; but, happily for her fubjects, fhe had policy and magnanimity enough to refuse it. Deformeaux, in his Abrége Chronologique de l'Hiftoire d'Espagne, thus defcribes the fufferings of the Flemings. "Le Duc d'Albe achcvoit de réduire les Flamands au défefpoir. Aprés avoir inondé les echafauts du fang le plus noble et le plus précieux, il fasoit construire des citadelles en di vers endroits, et vouloit établir l'Alcavala, ce tribute onéreux qui avoit été longtems en ufage parmi les Efpagnols." Abreg. Chron. Tom. IV. -Mona, Where thousand Elfin fhapes abide. Mona is properly the Roman name of the Ifle of Anglesey, anciently fo famous for its Druids; but fometimes, as in this place, it is given to the Isle of Man. Both these ifles ftill retain much of the genius of fuperstition, and are now the only places where there is the least chance of finding a fairy. 1 To a Lady, on the Death of Colonel CHARLES Ross in the Action at Fontenoy. Written MAY, MDCCXLV. HE iambic kind of numbers, in which this ode THE is conceived, feems as calculated for tender and plaintive fubjects, as for those where ftrength or rapidity is required-This, perhaps, is owing to the repetition of the strain in the fame ftanza; for forrow rejects variety, and affects an uniformity of complaint. It is needless to observe that this ode is replete with harmony, fpirit, pathos; and there, furely, appears no reason why the seventh and eighth ftanzas fhould be omitted in that copy printed in Dodfley's collection of poems. ODE TO EVENING. HE blank ode has for fome time folicited ad TH miffion into the English poetry; but its efforts hitherto feem to have been vain, at least its reception has been no more than partial. It remains a queftion, then, whether there is not fomething in the nature of blank verfe less adapted to the lyric than to the heroic meafure, fince, though it has been generally received in the latter, it is yet unadopted in the former. In order to discover this, we are to confider the different modes of thefe different fpecies of poetry. That of the heroic is uniform; that of the lyric is various and in thefe circumftances of uniformity and variety, probably, lies the cause why blank verse has been fuccefsful in the one, and unacceptable in the other. While it prefented itfelf only in one form, it was familiarized to the ear by custom; but where it was obliged to affume the different fhapes of the lyric mufe, it seemed ftill a ftranger of uncouth figure, was received rather with curiofity than with pleafure, and entertained without that eafe, or fatisfaction, which acquaintance and familiarity produce - Moreover, the heroic blank verfe obtained a fanction of infinite importance to its general reception, when it |