Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

There mighty nations shall inquire their doom,
The world's great oracle in times to come;
There kings shall sue, and suppliant states be

seen

Once more to bend before a British queen.

6

Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods,

385

391

And half thy forests rush into thy floods;
Bear Britain's thunder, and her cross display
To the bright regions of the rising day;
Tempt icy seas, where scarce the waters roll,
Where clearer flames glow round the frozen pole;
Or under southern skies exalt their sails,
Led by new stars and borne by spicy gales!
For me the balm shall bleed and amber flow,
The coral redden, and the ruby glow,
The pearly shell its lucid globe infold,
And Phoebus warm the ripening ore to gold.

395

Roman buildings. The circular court is a picturesque thought, but without meaning or utility.'

It is true that he equally doubts the published design to be the final one. The four great sheets are evidently made up from general hints; nor could such a source of invention and taste, as the mind of Inigo, ever produce such sameness.' But whether the design were regal or not, the situation showed a regal sense. The position of the palace on the Thames was fit for the sea-king: its command of the rising country in front gave it the brightness and beauty of the English landscape, before that fine space was overrun with graceless building. The king of England has now a new palace near the Thames, but without communication; and near the country, but without prospect. Yet the architecture has been needlessly criticised: with some striking errors, it has many beauties. Blackened by smoke and buried in fog, what architecture can struggle against its location? A happier site would discover in it details of elegance, novelty, and grandeur.

400

The time shall come, when free as seas or wind,
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind,
Whole nations enter with each swelling tide,
And seas but join the regions they divide;
Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold,
And the new world launch forth to seek the old.
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide,
And feather'd people crowd my wealthy side;
And naked youths and painted chiefs admire 405
Our speech, our color, and our strange attire.
O, stretch thy reign, fair Peace! from shore to
shore,

411

415

Till conquest cease, and slavery be no more;
Till the freed Indians in their native groves
Reap their own fruits, and woo their sable loves;
Peru once more a race of kings behold,
And other Mexicos be roof'd with gold.
Exiled by thee from earth to deepest hell,
In brazen bonds shall barbarous Discord dwell:
Gigantic Pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care,
And mad Ambition shall attend her there:
There purple Vengeance bathed in gore retires,
Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires:
There hated Envy her own snakes shall feel,
And Persecution mourn her broken wheel:
There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain,
And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain.'
Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd
lays

420

Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days:
The thoughts of gods let Granville's verse recite,
And bring the scenes of opening fate to light. 426

My humble Muse, in unambitious strains, Paints the green forests and the flowery plains, Where Peace descending bids her olive spring, And scatters blessings from her dove-like wing. Ev'n I more sweetly pass my careless days, Pleased in the silent shade with empty praise: Enough for me, that to the listening swains First in these fields I sung the sylvan strains.

431

428 Paints the green forests. Pope, 'it seems, was of opinion that descriptive poetry is a composition as absurd as a feast made up of sauces.' So says Warton: but Pope expresses nothing of the kind; and Warton's illustration is idle, unless the crime of descriptive poetry were in its piquancy. Its failure is in the want of sauces: it wearies by its insipidity. He attempts a renewal of the panegyric by reminding its contemners, that, in a sister art, landscape painting claims the very next rank to history painting, being ever preferred to single portraits, to pieces of still life,' &c. Even this is not always true; but if it were, the critic overlooks the palpable distinction between the pencil and the pen. The natural province of the pencil is to represent things fixed; its difficulty is to represent things in motion: the natural province of the pen is to represent things in motion, changes of action, character, and thought; its natural difficulty is to represent things fixed, scenery, &c. Thus, in the natural employment of the pencil, landscape painting, it may rise to great power: on the other hand, the pen, in the unnatural province of description, always encounters a difficulty, and always has a tendency to fail.

ELOISA TO ABELARD.

O Abelard, ill-fated youth!
Thy tale shall justify this truth;
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler poet's song:

Dan Pope, for thy misfortune grieved,
With kind concern and skill has weaved
A silken web; and ne'er shall fade

Its colors: gently has he laid
The mantle o'er thy sad distress,

And Venus shall the texture bless.

PRIOR.

« AnteriorContinuar »