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I. 3.

e the voice, the dance, obey (1), mper'd to thy warbled lay.

r Idalia's velvet-green

e rosy-crowned Loves are seen Cytherea's day

th antic Sport, and blue-ey'd Pleasures, sking light in frolic measures;

w pursuing, now retreating,

Now in circling troops they meet:
brisk notes in cadence beating,
Glance their many-twinkling feet (m).

(1) Thee the voice, the dance obey.

wer of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body.

(m) Glance their many-twinkling feet.

Μαρμαρυδὰς θηεῖτο ποδῶν· θαύμαζε δὲ θυμῷ.

Homer, Od. .

arm cheek, and rising bosom, move young Desire and purple light of

of

-e. (n)

melting strains their Queen's approach declare.

five flowing lines which follow are (as Mr. Mason obntroduced by the short and unequal measures that prewhole stanza is indeed a master-piece of rhythm, and by its well-varied cadence, as much as the imagery is ravishes the fancy. "There is" (says Mr. Gray in one pt papers) "a tout ensemble of sound, as well as of etical composition always necessary to its perfection. before still dwells upon the ear, and insensibly harmoe present line, as in that succession of fleeting notes ed Melody." Nothing can better exemplify the truth of tion than his own poetry.

eems to have been imitated from Dryden's Fable of the Leaf:

wheresoe'er she turn'd her face they bow'd."

loom of young Desire, and purple light of Love. πει δ' ἐπὶ πορφυρέησι

ιρείησι φῶς ἔρωτα.

Phrynicus apud Athenæum.

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has he giv'n in vain

and all her sickly d
Spectres wan, and bi
ges to range the dre
down the eastern cif
Brion's march they s
of war (7)

(6) Man's feeble race whe
pensate the real or imagin
e same Providence that s.n
e gloom and terrors of th
(t) Till doren the eastern
Or seen the Morning
Come marching up

An ancormous writer sugges
Euripides Phænissæ, ver.
Exstow questa phar
Bog takd

e fond complaint, my song, disprove, d justify the laws of Jove.

, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse? ght and all her sickly dews,

Spectres wan, and birds of boding cry, gives to range the dreary sky:

down the eastern cliffs afar (p)

perion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts

of war [7]

(0) Man's feeble race what ills await!

compensate the real or imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence pel the gloom and terrors of the night.

(p) Till down the eastern cliff's afar.

Or seen the Morning's well-appointed star

Come marching up the eastern hills afar.

Cowley.

An anonymous writer suggests, that Mr. Gray has here been in

ed to Euripides Phænissæ, ver. 173.

Εωοισιν όμοια φλελεθών

Βόλαις τελίδ.

boundless forests laid,

to hear the savage Youth repeat

mbers wildly sweet

er-cinctur'd Chiefs, and dusky Loves. where'er the Goddess roves,

ue, and generous Shame,

querable Mind, and Freedom's holy

le.

(q) In climes beyond the solar road.

luence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uns: its connection with liberty, and the virtues that na n it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welsh Fragments, American songs, &c.]

Extra anni solisque vias-"

Virgil.

"Tutta lontana dal camin del sole."

Petrarch, Canzon. 2.

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ngering Lab'rinths creep,

How do your tuneful Echoes languish,
Tute, but to the voice of Anguish!
ere each old poetic Mountain
nspiration breath'd around;

ry shade and hallow'd Fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:

the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. ke they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power, And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.

(r) Woods that wave o'er Delphi's steep.

ogress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. ■cer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch. Earl of Surry and Sir Thomas Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and ed their taste there. Spenser imitated the Italian writers, and on improved on them; but this school expired soon after the Oration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has sted ever since.

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