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erable celebrity.-(See Montgomery's Lectures, p. 149, 150, 151.)

500

CHAPTER XV.

OF HYMNS, ELEGY, ETC.

Q. What do you understand by a Hymn?

A. A religious poem, fit for being set to music and sung, for the purpose of awakening devotional feelings. Q. Can you mention some of the most distinguished writers of hymns?

A. Watts, Pope, Addison, Logan, Cowper, Montgom ery, Edmeston, with almost all our most distinguished modern poets.

Q. What is an Elegy?

A. A short pathetic poem, in commemoration of the dead, though it often assumes a different character, and is applied to any plaintive subject. (See Part VI., sec. vii.)

Q. Can you give an example of an elegy?

4. The following is an ironical elegy, from the pen of Goldsmith, and discovers more wit than pathos: AN ELEGY

ON THE GLORY OF HER SEX, MRS. MARY BLAIZE.

Good people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madame Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word-
From those who spoke her praise
The needy seldom pass'd her door,
And always found her kind;
She freely lent to all the poor-
Who left a pledge behind.

She strove the neighborhood to please,
With manners wond'rous winning ·
And never follow'd wicked ways—
Unless when she was sinning.
At church in silks and satins new
With hoop of monstrous size,
She never slumber'd in her pew-
But when she shut her eyes.
Her love was sought, I do aver,
By twenty beaux and more;
The king himself has follow'd her-
When she has walk'd before.

But now, her wealth and finery fled,

Her hangers-on cut short all;

The doctors found, when she was dead-
Her last disorder mortal.

Let us lament in sorrow sore,

For Kent-street well may say,

That had she lived a twelvemonth more-
She had not died to-day.

Q. What is a Satire?

A. A species of writing, not entirely, though chiefly, confined to poetry, and intended to correct the vices and follies of mankind, by holding them up to laughter and ridicule.

Q. Can you name any poetical satirists of note?

A. Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, among the Romans; with Dryden, Pope, Young, Churchill, and Wal cot, among the British, are all famous for this description of writing.

Q. What do you mean by an Epigram?

A. A short, witty poem, containing some peculiar conceit or point of humor, usually expressed in the concluding lines.

Q. Can you give an example of an epigram?

A. The following lines from Wordsworth may serve as a specimen :

"Swans sing before they die-'twere no bad thing

Did certain persons die before they sing."

Q. What do you mean by an Epitaph?

A. An inscription upon a tombstone, or some pub lic building, written sometimes in verse, sometime: in prose?

Q. Can you give an example of an epitaph?

A. Thomas Gray has produced one that is de servedly admired. We quote it, though familiar:

"Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,

A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send :

He gave to misery all he had, a tear;

He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend

No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode (There they alike in trembling hope repose), The bosom of his Father and his God."

EPITAPH ON JOHNSON,

BY COWPER.

• Here Johnson lies-a sage by all allow'd,
Whom to have bred may well make England proud:
Whose prose was eloquence, by wisdom taught,

The graceful vehicle of virtuous thought;

Whose verse may claim-grave, masculine, and strong-
Superior praise to the mere poet's song;

Who many a noble sight from Heaven possess'd,

And faith at last, alone worth all the rest.

O man, immortal by a double prize,
By fame on earth-by glory in the skies!"

EPITAPH ON HENRY K. WHITE,
BY BYRON.

No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep,
But living statues there are seen to weep;
Affliction's semblance bends not o'er thy tomb,
Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom

Q. Are not letters sometimes written in verse?

A. Frequently; and much excellent poetry has appeared under the character of epistles, particularly from the pen of Pope.

Q. Is the line of distinction between the different descriptions of poetry very clear?

A. Far from it; the one sort runs always less or more into the other; and all the species are, to a cortain extent, entitled to the character of descriptive and didactic, as they are almost all used, in some degree, for the purpose both of describing and teaching.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF THE SONNET.

Q. What is a Sonnet?

A. A short, pointed poem, of fourteen lines, either expressive of some strong feeling, or descriptive of

some striking object; and so constructed, that the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth; the second and third; the sixth, and seventh; the ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth; and the tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth lines, form rhymes with each other.

Q. Can you give an example of a sonnet?.

A. The following, "To Sleep," is a very fine spec men of one from Wordsworth:

"A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by,

One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds, and seas,
Smooth fields; white sheets of water, and pure skv.
thought of all by turns, and yet I lie

Sleepless! and soon the small birds' melodies
Must hear, first utter'd from my orchard trees,
And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry.

Even thus last night, and two nights more, I lay
And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth,
So do not let me wear to-night away.

Without Thee, what is all the morning's wealth!
Come, bless'd barrier between day and day,

Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health.”

Q. Is the sonnet a common species of poetry?

A. It is far from being common in English; but it is frequently to be met with in Italian.

Q. To what is this difference owing?

A. To the circumstance chiefly of the Italian language being better adapted to this kind of poetry than the English.

Q. Can you mention some of the most distinguished writers of sonnets?

A. Petrarch stands at the head of the Italian sonneteers; while Shakspeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, are the most distinguished among the English.

Q. Why should a sonnet be confined to fourteen lines rather than any other number?

A. "The quota of lines (says Montgomery), and the arrangement of rhymes and pauses, already established in the regular sonnet, have been deemed, after the experience of five centuries, incapable of improvement by extension or reduction; while the form itself has been proved to be the most convenient and graceful that ever was invented, for disclosing, embellishing, and encompassing the noblest or the loveliest, the gayest or the gravest idea, that genius, in its happiest moments of rapture or of melancholy, could inspire. The employment of this form by the fines. Italian poets, for expressing, with pathos and power irresistible

their selectest and purest conceptions, is an argument of fact against all speculative objections, in favor of the intrinsic excellence and unparalleled perfection of the sonnet."

He adds:

"Mr. Wordsworth has redeemed the English language from the opprobrium of not admitting the legitimate sonnet in its se verest, as well as its most elegant construction. The following, though according to the strictest precedents, and therefore the least agreeable to unaccustomed ears, is full of deep harmony, strong sentiment, and chastened, yet impassioned feeling. The Tyrolese, amid their Alpine fastnesses, are represented as returning this lofty answer to the insulting demand of unconditional surrender to French invaders. If their own mountains had spoken, they could not have replied more majestically.

"The land we, from our fathers, had in trust,

And to our children will transmit, or die;

This is our maxim, this our piety,

And God and Nature say that it is just:

That which we would perform in arms we must'
We read the dictate in the infant's eye,

In the wife's smile; and in the placid sky,

And at our feet, amid the silent dust

Of them that were before us. Sing aloud
OLD SONGS-the precious music of the heart!
Give, herds and flocks, your voices to the wind,
While we go forth, a self-devoted crowd,
With weapons in the fearless hand, to assert
Our virtue, and to vindicate mankind."

[See the sketch of Wordsworth, Part VI., sec. xxiii.]

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LITERARY MERIT AND STYLE OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

[Dr. G. Spring, of New-York, in a recent course of lectures, has presented this subject in a just and striking light. The following remarks are gleaned from one of his lectures.]

THE world is filled with books that are the product of the mightiest sons of genius; but they are sterile and jejune, deformed and ungainly, in comparison with the riches of thought, the extent of research, the accuracy, the grace, and beauty which distinguish the Bible.

Without the Scriptures, the world would be profoundly ignorant of some of the most important and interesting points of historical inquiry. The narrative of Moses completely covers that period of history which, with other nations, is called fabulous, and which is merged in the regions of fabrication and conjecture.

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