Be mine to read the visions old,
Which thy awakening bards have told:
And, left thou meet my blasted view,

HOLD EACH STRANGE TALE DEVOUT:

LY TRUE.

On that thrice hallow'd eve, &c.

There is an old traditionary fuperfition, that on St. Mark's eve the forms of all fuch perfons as fall die within the ensuing year, make their folemn entry into the churches of their refpeétive parishes, as St. Patrick fwam over the channel, without their heads.

ode, on account of the subject, and it has, indeed, an air of fimplicity not altogether unaffecting

By all the honey'd store

On Hybla’s thymy shore,
By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear,

By her whose love-lorn woe,

In evening musings flow,
Sooth'd sweetly fad Electra's poet's ear.

This allegorical imagery of the honey'd store, the blooms, and mingled murmurs of Hybla, alluding to the fweetness and beauty of the attig poetry has the finest and the happiest effect: yet, possibly, it will bear a question

whether

whether the ancient Greek tragedians had a general claim to fimplicity in any thing more than the plans of their drama. Their language, at least, was infinitely metaphorical; yet it must be owned that they justly copied Dature and the passions, and so far, certainly, they were entitled to the palm of true fimplicity : the following most beautiful speech of Polynices, will be a monument of this so long 23 poetry shall last,

-πολυδακρυς δαφικομην
Χρονιος ιδων μελαθρα, και βωμες θεων,
Γυμνασια 9', οισιν ενετραφην, Διρκης Ψύδωρ.
ειν δικαιως απελαθεις, ξενην πολιν
Ναι, δε άσσων όμμ' έχων δακρυρούν.
Αλλ' (εκ γαρ αλγες αλγος) αν σε δερκομαι
Καρα ξυρηκες, και πεπλες μελαγχιμες
Ez8o av,

Eurip.

But staid to sing alone
To one distinguish'd throne,

The

The poet cuts off the prevalence of Simplicity among the Romans with the reign of Auguftus, and indeed, it did not continue much longer, most of the compositions, after that date, giving into false and artificial ornament.

No more in hall or bower,

The passions own thy power,
Love, only love her forceless numbers mean.

In these lines the writings of the provencial poets are principally alluded to, in which, fimplicity is generally facrificed to the rhapsodies of romantic love.

0 D E

ON THE POETICAL CHARACTER;

Procul! O! procul este profani !

HIS ode is so infinitely abstracted and

replete with high enthusiasm, that it will find few readers capable of entering into the spirit of it, or of relishing its beauties. There is a style of sentiment as utterly unintelligible to common capacities, as if the subjeét were treated in an unknown language ; and it is on the same account that abstracted poetry will never have many admirers. The authors of such poems must be content with the approbation of those heaven-favoured geniuses, who, by a similarity of taste and fentiment, are enabled to penetrate the high mysteries of inspired fancy, and to pursue the 9

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