SUMMARY. Peculiar Geniuses: Chaucer · · Spenser — Dante —Cowley — Dryden — Pope-Southey― Milman - Shakspeare.—On sacred Poetry.-Episode on Palestine.-Hebrew Poets: Moses-Job-David-Solomon-Isaiah-Jeremiah -Ezekiel, &c.-The Koran of Mohammed.-Union of Saint and Poet; English sacred Poets: Herbert-Crashaw-Waller-Roscommon-Pomfret— West-Parnel-Milton-Klopstock-Gessner-Young-Addison-Barbauld Blair-Porteus-Cowper-Watts-Grahame —Montgomery, &c.—The abuse of poetic Genius; Lord Byron —Shelley.—Influence of Poetry-Guilt of it's misapplication.-Connexion with Sculpture, Painting, and Music.-Address to the King-On George the Third-Misanthropy-Address to CriticsTo Lord Liverpool.-Penitential Recollections: Chaucer-Waller-Petrarch. -Conclusion-To Poesy.-Influence of Time on works of Genius. Canto H. SOME lofty spirits to no class belong, Father of Bards that breathe a British air, Thy Knights appear embattling in our sight: From every Bard two hundred Bard two hundred years remote. Ah! peerless SPENSER! Fiction's favorite child! Thy mind, full-fraught with virgin fancies wild, Itself, the soul of harmony, is found Knights, palmers, fairies, giants, all are seen, To bring great Virtues, in their turn, to view, Just at the day-break of Italia's light, When Gothic darkness scarce had wing'd its flight, Great DANTE shone; o'erwhelming, mystic, bold, Piercing the clouds o'er deepest mystery roll'd. A gloomy satirist! painting fiends so well, That Milton chose to copy Dante's “hell.” Such "Il Inferno" as, he saith, withal, Found in this world it's dark original; A better copy then, or, may be, now, Than most indulgent moralists allow; * D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, vol. i. * And sure he knew, for whom the tragic light 'Twas Dante's praise to' express, with richer glow, The monkish visions of "ALBERICO;" To rescue Genius, lost in Learning's tomb, And scare the midnight of monastic gloom. In fancy's reign, with awful Dante, glow'd Whose verse, mellifluent, as sweet nectar flows: In whom appear, in rich communion placed, A hallow'd judgment, and a perfect taste. Of Dramatists, a countless host we find From roving Thespis, with his face besmear'd, * The reader who feels disposed to have accurate and ample criticisms upon the genius and writings of Shakspeare, will find all he wants in Mr. Dryden's Delineation; in the Preface to Dr. Johnson's edition of Shakspeare; in Mr. Hazlitt's Lectures; and in many other places. To have entered more fully into criticisms upon dramatic compositions, would have introduced us to such poets as Archilochus, Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Menander, Terene, Plautus, Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Alfieri, Göthe, Schiller, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, &c. &c.; an undertaking for which the author of the Bardiad feels himself to possess neither competence of knowledge; nor, from higher motives, the smallest inclination. |