Dr. Warton has mentioned, with juft approbation, the following beautiful O ftretch thy wings, fair Peace! from shore Till conqueft cease, and flavery be no more; The conclufion of the Poem does not feem to be the most happily managed. Father Thames is difmiffed, without any notice of his difmiffion; the Poet seems to take up the matter in his own perfon, as if he himself had been speaking, and brings in another fuperfluous unmeaning compliment to his friend Granville, and another unneceffary mention of the green forests and flowery plains: Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays, recite, And bring the fcenes of opening fate to light; My My humble mufe in unambitious strains, That Pope, in his advanced age, had no very high opinion of Descriptive Poetry, is generally understood; and it has been thought that he had really no very powerful talents for it. Some of the foregoing quotations however fufficiently evince, that he could have excelled as much in Description, as in Fiction or Satire. ESSAY ESSAY IV. On DYER'S GRONGAR HILL. GR RONGAR-HILL is a Defcriptive Poem, of very confiderable merit, fpirited and pleafing. Few poetical pieces have reprefented an extenfive and beautiful profpect in fo agreeable a manner. But it is not without its imperfections; there is a redundance of thought in some instances, and a careleffnefs of language in others. The verfification, like that of Milton's L' Allegro and Il Penforofo, is an irregular mixture of iambick and trochaick lines: a circum ftance rather difpleafing to a nice ear. The Poem opens thus: Silent Nymph, with curious eye! Draw the landscape bright and strong. Dyer in general wrote with remarkable fimplicity and clearnefs, but here is an inftance in which his fenfe is almoft inexplicable. What fictitious Perfon is addreffed by the appellation of Silent Nymph, it seems scarcely poffible to difcover. Painting, from the expreffions Sifter Mufe, and various hues, might be meant; but why fhould Painting be defcribed described as lying on the mountain's lonely van? Evening, as a profopopoiea, could not be intended, for Evening cannot with any propriety be faid to paint the form of things. Fancy may be thought to have a better claim to the title, but to her, fome of the above circumstances are not applicable. That Fancy, however, was really defigned, is a fact that can be fully ascertained. Few readers are perhaps apprized that Grongar Hill was originally written, and even printed, as an irregular ode. There is a Miscellany volume of poems, collected and published by the celebrated Richard Savage, in the year 1726, in which it appears in that form, very incorrect, and with the initial lines as follows: FANCY, nymph that loves to lie On the lonely eminence; Darting notice through the eye, Forming thought and feasting sense: |