Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

exist in the imagination of an European, and of its attendant dis. tresses he could have no idea. These are very happily and minutely painted by our descriptive Poet. What sublime simplicity of expression! what nervous plainness in the opening of the poem!

In silent horror o'er the boundless waste
The driver Hassan with his camels past.

The magic pencil of the Poet brings the whole scene before us at once, as it were by enchantment, and in this single couplet we feel all the effect that arises from the terrible wildness of a region unenlivened by the habitations of men. The verses that describe so minutely the camel-driver's little provisions have a touching influence on the imagination, and prepare the reader to enter more feelingly into his future apprehensions of distress;

Bethink thee, Hassan! where shall Thirst assuage,
When fails this cruise, his unrelenting rage?

Mr. Collins speaks like a true poet, as well in sentiment as
expression, when, with regard to the thirst of wealth, he says,
Why heed we not, while mad we haste along,
The gentle voice of Peace, or Pleasure's song?
Or wherefore think the flow'ry mountain's side,
The fountain's murmurs, and the valley's pride;
Why think we these less pleasing to behold

Than dreary deserts, if they lead to gold?

But however just these sentiments may appear to those who have not revolted from nature and simplicity, had the Author proclaimed them in Lombard-street or Cheapside he would not have been complimented with the understanding of the bellA striking proof that our own ideas of happiness regu. late our opinions concerning the sense and wisdom of others! It is impossible to take leave of this most beautiful eclogue without paying the tribute of admiration so justly due to the following lines;

man.

What if the lion in his rage I meet !-----
Oft in the dust I view his printed feet;
And fearful oft, when Day's declining light
Yields her pale empire to the mourner Night;
By hunger rouz'd he scours the groaning plain
Gaunt wolves and sullen tygers in his train;
Before them Death with shrieks directs their way,
Fills the wild yell, and leads them to their prey.

This, amongst many other passages to be met with in the wri tings of Collins, shews that his genius was perfectly capable of the grand and magnificent in description, notwithstanding what a learned writer has advanced to the contrary. Nothing certainly could be more greatly conceived, or more adequately expressed, than the image in the last couplet.

ECLOGUE III.

THAT innocence and native simplicity of manners which, in the first eclogue, was allowed to constitute the happiness of love, is here beautifully described in its effects. The Sultan of Persia marries a Georgian shepherdess, and finds in her embraces that genuine felicity which unperverted nature alone can bestow. The most natural and beautiful parts of this eclogue are those where the fair Sultana refers with so much pleasure to her Pastoral amusements, and those scenes of happy innocence in which she had passed her early years; particularly when, up. on her first departure,

Oft as she went she backward turn'd her view,
And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu.

This picture of amiable simplicity reminds one of that passage where Proserpine, when carried off by Pluto, regrets the loss of the flowers she had been gathering:

Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis:

Tantaque simplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis,
Hæc quoque virgineum movit jactura dolorem.

ECLOGUE IV.

THE beautiful but unfortunate country where the scene of this pathetic eclogue is laid had been recently torn in pieces by the depredations of its savage neighbours, when Mr. Collins se affectingly described its misfortunes. This ingenious man had not only a pencil to pourtray, but a heart to feel for the miseries of mankind; and it is with the utmost tenderness and humanity he enters into the narrative of Circassia's ruin, while he realizes the scene, and brings the present drama before us. Of every circumstance that could possibly contribute to the tender effect this Pastoral was designed to produce, the Poet has availed himself with the utmost art and address.

The opening of the dialogue is equally happy, natural, and unaffected, when one of the shepherds, weary and overcome with the fatigue of flight, calls upon his companion to review the length of way they had passed. This is certainly painting from nature, and the thoughts, however obvious, or destitute of refinement, are perfectly in character. But as the closest pursuit of nature is the surest way to excellence in general, and to sublimity in particular, in poetical description, so we find that this simple suggestion of the shepherd is not unattended with magnificence: there is grandeur and variety in the landscape he describes ;

And first review that long extended plain,

And

you wide groves, already past with pain;

Yon ragged cliff, whose dang'rous path we try'd,
And last this lofty mountain's weary side.

There is, in imitative harmony, an act of expressing a slow and difficult movement by adding to the usual number of pauses in a verse. This is observable in the line that describes the ascent of the mountain;

And last this lofty mountain's || weary side ||,

Here we find the number of pauses, or musical bars, which in heroic verse is commonly two, increased to three.

Nothing can be more beautifully conceived, or more pathetic-
ally expressed, than the shepherd's apprehensions for his fair
Country-women, exposed to the ravages of the invaders;
In vain Circassia boasts her spicy groves,
For ever fam❜d for pure and happy loves:
In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair,

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair!
Those eyes in tears their fruitless grief shall send,
Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hand shall rend.

There is certainly some very powerful charm in the liquid melody of sounds. The editor of these poems could never read or hear the following verse repeated without a degree of pleasure otherwise entirely unaccountable;

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair.

Such are the Oriental Eclogues, which we leave with the same kind of anxious pleasure we feel upon a temporary parting with a beloved friend.

[ocr errors]

CONTENTS.

The Life of the Author

Page

3

MISCELLANIES.

To Miss Aurelia C―r, on her weeping at her

sister's wedding,

An Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, on his edi-
tion of Shakespeare's works,

Dirge in Cymbeline, sung by Guiderus and Ar-
viragus over Fidele supposed to be dead,
Verses written on a Paper which contained a
piece of Bride-cake,

ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.

Eclogue I. Selim; or, The Shepherd's Moral,
Eclogue II. Hassan; or, The Camel-driver,
Eclogue III. Abra; or, The Georgian Sultana,
Eclogue IV. Agib and Secander; or, The Fugi-
tives,

ODES DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Ode I. To Pity,

Ode II. To Fear,

38

40

« AnteriorContinuar »