When such the subject, who shall curb his flight? When such your genius, who shall dare to write? In pure respect, I give my rhyming o'er, And, to commend you most, commend no more. Adieu, whoe'er thou art! on death's pale coast Ere long I'll talk thee o'er with Dryden's ghost; The bard will smile. A last, a long farewell! Henceforth I hide me in my dusky cell; There wait the friendly stroke that sets me free, And think of immortality and thee— My strains are number'd by the tuneful Nine; Each maid presents her thanks, and all present thee mine. VERSES SENT BY LORD MELCOMBE TO DR. YOUNG, NOT LONG BEFORE HIS LORDSHIP'S DEATH.1 KIND companion of my youth, Lov'd for genius, worth, and truth! Take the muse's latest spark, 2 A Poetical Epistle from the late Lord Melcombe to the Earl of Bute, with corrections by the author of the Night Thoughts, was published in 4to, 1776. 2 See Mr. Cust's Life of Young. Ere we drop into the dark. Bad thee look beyond the grave: Genius soars, and virtue guides ; 335 IMPERIUM PELAGI. A NAVAL LYRIC. WRITTEN IN IMITATION OF PINDAR'S SPIRIT. OCCASIONED BY HIS MAJESTY'S RETURN, SEPTEMBER 10TH 1729, AND THE SUCCEEDING PEACE.* Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres Quem super notas alvere ripas, Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo.-PINDARUS. Concines lætosque dies, et urbis Publicum ludum, super impetrato Fortis Augusti reditu.-HORATII, Carm. Lib. iv. Od. ii. 41 MDCCXXIX. PREFACE. A PINDARIC carries a formidable sound; but there is nothing formidable in the true nature of it, of which (with utmost submission) I conceive the critics have hitherto entertained a false idea. Pindar is as natural as Anacreon, though not so familiar; as a fixed star is as much in the bounds of nature as a flower of the field, though less obvious and of greater dignity. This is not the received notion of Pindar; I shall therefore soon support at large that hint which is now given. Trade is a very noble subject in itself, more proper than any for an Englishman, and particularly seasonable at this juncture. We have more specimens of good writing in every province than in the sublime; our two famous epic poems excepted. I was willing to make an attempt where I had fewest rivals. * Commonly called "The Treaty of Seville," concluded December 9th, 1729, between the crowns of Great Britain, France, Spain, and the United Provinces. If, on reading this Ode, any man has a fuller idea of the real interest or possible glory of his country than before, or a stronger impression from it, or a warmer concern for it, I give up to the critic any farther reputation. We have many copies and translations that pass for originals. This Ode, I humbly conceive, is an original, though it professes imitation No man can be like Pindar by imitating any of his particular works, any more than like Raphael by copying the Cartoons. The genius and spirit of such great men must be collected from the whole; and when thus we are possessed of it, we must exert its energy in subjects and designs of our own. Nothing is so unPindarical as following Pindar on the foot. Pindar is an original; and he must be so, too, who would be like Pindar in that which is his greatest praise. Nothing so unlike as a close copy and a noble original. As for length, Pindar has an unbroken Ode of six hundred lines. Nothing is long or short in writing but relatively to the demand of the subject and the manner of treating it. A distich may be long, and a folio short. However, I have broken this Ode into Strains, each of which may be considered as a separate Ode, if you please. And, if the variety and fulness of matter be considered, I am rather apprehensive of danger from brevity in this Ode than from length. But lank writing is what I think ought most to be declined,—if for nothing else, for our plenty of it. The Ode is the most spirited kind of poetry, and the Pindaric is the most spirited kind of Ode: this I speak at my own very great peril; but truth has an eternal title to our confession, though we are sure to suffer by it. THE MERCHANT. 337 ODE THE FIRST. ON THE BRITISH TRADE AND NAVIGATION. TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF CHANDOS. Πλατεῖαι πάντοθεν λογίοι- dε коσμεTV.-PINDARI, Nemea, Od. vi. 75. PRELUDE. THE proposition.—An address to the vessel that brought over the king. Who should sing on this occasion.-A Pindaric boast. FAST by the surge my limbs are spread; The winds are loud; the waves tumultuous roll. Ye sounding billows! cease to roar : The god descends, and transports warm my soul. The waves are hush'd; the winds are spent:- I celebrate in song.—Famed isle! no less Than by the foaming sea, disjoin'd; Though Fate and Time have damp'd my strains, Though youth no longer fires my veins, Though slow their streams in this cold climate run, The royal eye dispels my cares, Recalls the warmth of blooming years; Returning George supplies the distant sun. |