imagine some degree of felicity there superior to what they enjoyed; then the poets wrote their pastorals, and were admired. Q. What is there peculiarly agreeable in Pastoral Poetry? A. It recalls to our imagination the gay scenes and pleasing views of nature, which are the delight of our childhood; and exhibits to us a life of peace, leisure, and innocence. Q. Have many excelled in it? A. Very few. Q. What state of the pastoral life should the poet exhibit? A. That which we may suppose once to have been in the more simple and early ages, when it was a life of ease and abundance; avoiding the mean, servile, and laborious state, and that which is too refined and elevated ever to exist but in imagination. Q. Where should the scene of a pastoral poem lie, and what characters should be introduced into it? A. The scene should lie in the country, and the characters should be those whose occupations are wholly rural. Q. What should be the subject? A. Rural employments, enlivened by scenes of domestic felicity or disquiet; the attachment of friends and brothers; the rivalship and competition of lovers; the unexpected successes and misfortunes of families. Q. Who are the two great fathers of Pastoral Poetry? A. Theocritus and Virgil.* Q. Where did Theocritus lay the scene of his pastorals? A. In Sicily, his native country. He is the original, of which Virgil is the imitator. Q. What has been the character of the modern writers of Pastorals? A. They have generally contented themselves with copying the descriptions of the ancient poets. Q. Who of all the moderns have most excelled? A. Gesner; a poet of Switzerland. Q. What is the character of Pope's and Philip's Pastorals? A. They do no great honour to the English poetry. Pope wrote too young, and Philips wanted genius. Q. What of Shenstone's Pastoral ballad? A. It is one of the most elegant poems of this kind in English. *The following beautiful lines are a translation from Virgil. "Happy old man! here mid th' accustomed streams, WARTON. Q. In what new form has pastoral writing appeared in latter ages? A. In the form of a play, or regular drama; as Tasso's Aminta; Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd. Q. What is Lyric Poetry? A. That which is intended to be sung, or accompanied with music ;-that, in which poetry retains its first and most ancient form. Q. How many kinds of Odes are there? A. Four. Sacred Odes, as the Psalms of David; heroic odes, as those of Pindar; philosophical and moral odes, as the odes of Horace; and festive odes, as some of Horace's and all Anacreon's. Q. Whence arises one of the chief difficulties in composing odes ? A. From that enthusiasm which is a characteristic of lyric poetry. The poet is in danger of becoming extravagant, obscure, and wandering through so many different measures as to lose all melody. Q. Who is the great father of Lyric Poet ry? A. Pindar. His genius was sublime; his expressions beautiful; but he was digressive and obscure. Q. Who has most excelled in this? A. Horace. He joins connected thought and good sense, with the highest beauties of poetry. Q. Whose odes among the French, have been much and justly admired? A. Those of Rosseau. They possess great beauty both of sentiment and expression. Q. What lyric poets have appeared among the English? A. Dryden, Gray, and Cowley. DIDACTIC POETRY-DESCRIPTIVE POETRY. Q. What is Didactic Poetry? A. Poetry, the professed intention of which is to convey knowledge and instruction. Q. What is the highest species of it? A. A regular treatise on some philosophical or useful subject; as Virgil's Georgics, Horace's Art of Poetry, Pope's Essay on Criticism, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination. Q. In what consists its fundamental merit ? A. In sound thought, just principles, clear and apt illustrations. Q. What is essentially requisite in didactic works? A. Method and order; so that a connected train of instruction may be exhibited to the reader. Q. Who has failed most here? A. Horace, in his art of poetry. Q. What liberty is here allowed in episodes and embellishments? A. Great; as on these depends the interest of the poem. In his digressions lie the principal beauties of Virgil's Georgics. Q. Who has attempted the richest and most poetical form of didactic writing in English? A. Dr. Akenside, in his Pleasures of the Imagination; a work of much genius. Q. What is the style of Satires and Epistles ? A. More familiar than solemn philosophical poetry. Q. Who were the principal satirists amongst the ancients? A. Horace, Juvenal, and Persius. A. The reformation of morals. They boldly censured vice and vicious characters. Q. Whose ethical epistles deserve to be mentioned with signal honour as a model. A. Pope's. Q. What is his standing as a poet? A. In the more sublime parts of poetry he is not so distinguished as some; but, within a certain limited region, he has been outdone by none. He is remarkable for a concise, spirited style, which gives animation to satires and epistles. Q. What are some of his principal productions ? A. A translation of the Iliad; his Rape of the Lock; Essay on Man; Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard; and Imitations of Horace. Q. What moral and didactic poet, among the English, deserves particular notice? |