ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

The first are truly figurative; the others may be called emphatical.-Rollin obferves, that Virgil has upon many occafions poetized (if we may allowed the expreffion) a whole fentence by means of the fame word, which is pendere.

Ite meæ, felix quondam pecus, ite capellæ.
Non ego vos pofthac, viridi projectus in antro,
Dumofa pendere procul de rupe videbo.

At ease reclin'd beneath the verdant shade,
No more fhall I behold my happy flock

Aloft hang brouzing on the tufted rock.

Here the word pendere wonderfully improves the landscape, and renders the whole paffage beautifully picturesque. The fame figurative verb we meet with in many different parts of the Æneid.

Hi fummo in fluctu pendent, his unda dehifcens
Terram inter fluctus aperit.

Thefe on the mountain billow hung; to those
The yawning waves the yellow fand disclose.

In this inftance, the words pendent and dehifcens, bung and yawning, are equally poetical. Addifon feems to have had this paffage in his eye, when he wrote his Hymn, which is inserted in the Spectator: -For though in dreadful worlds we hung,

High on the broken wave.

And in another piece of a like nature, in the fame collection :

Thy Providence my life fuftain'd
And all my wants redress'd,

When in the filent womb I lay,
And hung upon the breast.

Shakespeare, in his admired defeription of Dover cliff, ufes the fame expreffion :

-half way down

Hangs one that gathers famphire, dreadful trade!

Nothing

Nothing can be more beautiful than the following picture, in which Milton has introduced the fame expreffive tint :

-he, on his fide

Leaning half rais'd, with looks of cordial love
Hung over her enamour'd.

We shall give one example more from Virgil, to show in what a variety of fcenes it may appear with propriety and effect. In defcribing the progrefs of Dido's paffion for Æneas, the Poet fays,

Iliacos iterum demens audire labores
Expofcit, pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore.

The woes of Troy once more the begg'd to hear ;
Once more the mournful tale employ'd his tongue,
While in fond rapture on his lips the hung.

The reader will perceive in all thefe inftances that no other word could be substituted with equal energy; indeed no other word could be ufed without degrading the fenfe, and defacing the image.

There are many other verbs of poetical import fetched from Nature, and from Art, which the Poet ufes to advantage both in a literal and metaphorical fenfe; and these have been always tranflated for the fame purpose from one language to another; fuch as quaffo, concutio, cio, fufcito, lenio, fævio, mano, fluo, ardeo, mico, aro, to fhake, to wake, to rouse, to footh, to rage, to flow, to fhine or blaze, to plough.-Quaffantia teclum limina Æneas, cafu concuffus acerbo-Ere ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu-Æneas acuit Martem & fe fufcitat ira-Impium lenite clamorem. Lenibant curas-Ne fævi magna facerdos-Sudor ad imos manabat folos-Sufpenfæque "diu lachrymæ fluxere per ora-Juvenali ardebat amore -Micat areus enfis-Nullum maris æquor arandum. It will be unneceffary to infert examples of the fame nature from the English poets.

The

The words we term emphatical, are fuch as by their found exprefs the fenfe they are intended to convey; and with these the Greek abounds, above all other languages, not only from its natural copioufnefs, flexibility, and fignificance, but alfo from the variety of its dialects, which enables a writer to vary his terminations occafionally as the nature of the fubject requires, without offending the most delicate ear, or incurring the imputation of adopting vulgar provincial expreffions. Every fmatterer in Greek can repeat

Βῆ δ ̓ ἀκέων παρα θινα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης,

in which the two laft words wonderfully echo to the fenfe, conveying the idea of the fea dafhing on the fhore. How much more fignificant in found than that beautiful image of Shakespeare

"The fea that on th' unnumber'd pebbles beats,"

And yet, if we confider the ftrictnefs of propriety, this last expreffion would feem to have been felected on purpose to concur with the other circumftances, which are brought together to ascertain the vaft height of Dover cliff: for the poet adds, "cannot be heard "fo high." The place where Glofter ftood was fo high above the furface of the fea, that the phoibos, or dashing, could not be heard; and therefore an enthufiaftic admirer of Shakespeare might with fome plaufibility affirm, the poet had chofen an expreffion in which that found is not at all conveyed.

In the very fame page of Homer's Iliad, we meet with two other ftriking inftances of the fame fort of beauty. Apollo, incenfed at the infults his priest had fuftained, defcends from the top of Olympus, with his bow and quiver rattling on his fhoulder as he moved along:

*Εκλαγξαν δ' ἂρ' οἴσω ἐπ ̓ ὤμων.

Here

Here the found of the word "Exλayav admirably expreffes the clanking of armour; as the third line after this furprisingly imitates the twanging of a bow.

Δεινὴ δὲ κλαγγὴ γένετ' ἀργυρίοιο βιοίο.

In fhrill-ton'd murmurs fung the twanging bow.

Many beauties of the fame kind are scattered through Homer, Pindar, and Theocritus, fuch as the βομβευσα μελίσσα, ufurrans apicula; the ἅδυ ψιθύρισμα, dulcem fufurrum ; and the μελισδέζαι for the fighing of the pine.

The Latin language teems with founds adapted to every fituation, and the English is not deftitute of this fignificant energy. We have the cooing turtle, the fighing reed, the warbling rivulet, the fliding ftream, the whispering breeze, the glance, the gleam, the flash, the bickering flame, the dashing wave, the gubing fpring, the bowling blaft, the rattling ftorm, the pattering fhower, the crimp earth, the mouldering tower, the twanging bow-ftring, the clanging arms, the clanking chains, the twinkling ftars, the tinkling chords, the trickling drops, the twittering fwallow, the cawing rook, the fcreecking owl; and a thousand other words and epithets wonderfully fuited to the fense they imply.

[ocr errors]

Among the felect paffages of poetry which we fhall infert by way of illuftration, the reader will. find inftances of all the different tropes and figures, which the beft authors have adopted in the variety. of their poetical works, as well as of the apoftrophe, abrupt tranfition, repetition, and profopopoeia.

In the mean time it will be neceffary ftill farther to analyfe those principles, which conftitute the effence of poetical merit; to difplay thofe delightful

parterres,

parterres, that teem with the faireft flowers of imagination, and diftinguish between the gaudy offfpring of a cold infipid fancy, and the glowing progeny, diffufing fweets, produced and invigorated by

the fun of Genius.

ESSAY XVI.

OF all the implements of Poetry the metaphor is the moft generally and fuccefsfully ufed, and indeed may be termed the Mufe's caduceus, by the power of which the enchants all nature. The metaphor is a fhorter fimile, or rather a kind of magical coat, by which the fame idea affumes a thoufand different appearances. Thus the word plough, which originally belongs to agriculture, being metaphorically ufed, reprefents the motion of a fhip at fea, and the effects of old age upon the human countenance-Plough'd the bofom of the deep

And Time had plough'd his venerable front.

Almoft every verb, noun fubftantive, or term of art in any language, may be in this manner applied to a variety of fubjects with admirable effect; but the danger is in fowing metaphors too thick, fo as to diftract the imagination of the reader, and incur the imputation of deferting Nature, in order to hunt after conceits. Every day produces poems of all kinds fo inflated with metaphor, that they may be compared to the gaudy bubbles blown up from a folution of foap. Longinus is of opinion, that a multitude of metaphors is never excufable, except in those cafes when the paffions are roufed, and, like a winter torrent, rush down impetuous, fweeping them with

collective

[ocr errors]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »