Although it is impossible to deny Grainger the credit of poetical genius, it must ever be regretted that where he wished most to excel, he was most unfortunate in the choice of a subject. The effect of his Sugar-Cane, either as to pleasure or utility, must be local. Connected as an English merchant may be with the produce of the West Indies, it will not be easy to persuade the reader of English poetry to study the cultivation of the sugar-plant, merely that he may add some new imagery to the more ample stores which he can contemplate without study or trouble. In the West Indies this poem might have charms, if readers could be found; but what poetical fancy can dwell on the economy of canes and copper-boilers, or find interest in the transactions of planters and sugar-brokers? His invocations to his Muse are so frequent and abrupt, that "the assembled wits at sir Joshua Reynolds's" might have found many passages as ludicrous as that which excited their mirth. The solemnity of these invocations excites expectation which generally ends in disappointment, and at best the reader's attention is bespoke without being rewarded. He is induced to look for something grand, and is told of a contrivance for destroying monkies, or a recipe to poison rats. He smiles to find the slaves called by the happy poetical name of swains, and the planters urged to devotion! The images in this poem are in general low, and the allusions, where the poet would be minutely descriptive, descend to things little and familiar. Yet this is in some measure forced upon him. His Muse sings of matters so new and uncouth to her, that it is impossible "her heavenly plumes" should escape being "soiled." What Muse, indeed, could give a receipt for a compost of "weeds, mould, dung, and stale," or a lively description of the symptoms and cure of the yaws, and preserve her elegance or purity? But what lessens the respect of the reader for the poem in general, is the object so often repeated, so unpoetical and unphilosophical, wealth. Yet this, too, is a necessary evil arising from the choice of subject, for although our author frequently says, the planter, if he wealth desire it would be difficult to find many instances of planters who desired any thing else. In all his appeals to that class on the treatment of slaves, he has no persuasion more strong than self-interest, and he has no consolation to give the slaves, but that, in his opinion, they are happier than those who dig the mines. Where, however, he quits the plain track of mechanical instructions, we have many of those effusions of fancy which will yet preserve this poem in our collections. The description of the hurricane and of the earthquake are truly grand, and heightened by circumstances of horrour that are new to Europeans. The episode of Montano, in the first book, arrests the attention very forcibly, and many of the occasional reflections are elegant and pathetic; nor ought the tale of Junio and Theana to be omitted in a list of the beauties of this poem. The Ode to Solitude, already noticed, and the ballad of Bryan and Pereene, are sufficient to attest our author's claim to poetical honours. The translation of Tibullus, which is added to the present collection, will give equal proofs of classical taste and learning. POEMS OF JAMES GRAINGER, M. D. SOLITUDE. AN ODE. SOLITUDE, romantic maid, Whether by nodding towers you tread, Plum'd Conceit himself surveying, Sage Reflection bent with years, Alluding to the account of Palmyra, published by Messrs. Wood and Dawkins, and the manner in which they were struck at the sight of these magnificent ruins by break of day. Rapt earth-gazing Revery, You with the tragic Muse retir'd' While you touch'd the mournful string, When all Nature 's hush'd asleep, Nor Love nor Guilt their vigils keep, 2 In the island of Salamis. 3 See Plutarch in the life of Lysander. 4 Simonides. s Laura, twenty years, and ten after her death. 6 Monody on the death of Mrs. Lyttelton. 7 Night Thoughts. Soft you leave your cavern'd den, Devotion lends her heav'n-plum'd wings, Till the tuneful bird of night, From the neighb'ring poplar's height, With you roses brighter bloom, Let those toil for gold who please, Save me! what 's yon shrouded shade, O spirit, whither art thou flown? O Solitude, on me bestow The heart-felt harmony of woe, Sweet Dorian Moschus 8 trill'd of yore: • See Idyll. No time should cancel thy desert, More, more, than Bion was 9, thou wert. O goddess of the tearful eye 1o, To charnels, and the house of woe, Where Death and nun-clad Sorrow dwell, A lion's spoils, without a zone, In which she oft herself beholds. Since in each scheme of life I 've fail'd, I spoke, she twin'd her magic ray, God never made an independent man, 9 Alluding to the death of a friend. 10 Dr. Grainger has here evidently borrowed from Dr. Warton's Ode to Fancy, which was published several years before the present poem. Where liberal Nature all her charms bestows, shone, He'd sigh, he'd murmur that he was alone. "Though Nature's works the ruling mind declare, Hence Homer's crown; and, Shakspeare, hence thy bays. Hence he, the pride of Athens, and the shame, Whom Heaven approves of most, most feel her rod. "But when old age has silver'd o'er thy head, "Lord Lyttelton. 12 Ralph Allen, esq. of Prior Park. 13 Algernon Sidney, beheaded at Tower Hill, 7th December, 1683. 14 One of the accusers of Socrates. BRYAN AND PEREENE, A WEST INDIAN BALLAD, FOUNDED ON A REAL FACT, THAT HAPPENED IN THE ISLAND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER'S ABOUT TWO YEARS ago. THE north-east wind did briskly blow, The ship was safely moor'd, Young Bryan thought the boat's crew slow, And so leapt overboard. Pereene, the pride of Indian dames, A long long year, one month and day, For Bryan he was tall and strong, Right blithsome roll'd his een, Sweet was his voice whene'er he sung, He scant had twenty seen. But who the countless charms can draw, That grac'd his mistress true; Such charms the old world seldom saw, Nor oft I ween the new. Her raven hair plays round her neck, Soon as his well-known ship she spied, She cast her weeds away, And to the palmy shore she hied, All in her best array. In sea-green silk so neatly clad, Her hands a handkerchief display'd, Her fair companions, one and all, Rejoicing crowd the strand; For now her lover swam in call, And almost touch'd the land. Then through the white surf did she haste, He shriek'd his half sprang from the wave, And soon it found a living grave, Now haste, now haste, ye maids, I pray, Fetch water from the spring: She falls, she swoons, she dies away, Now each May morning round her tomb, So may your lovers 'scape his doom, THE SUGAR-CANE : A POEM. IN FOUR BOOKS. Agredior primusque novis Helicona movere Cantibus, et viridi nutantes vertice sylvas; Hospita sacra ferens, nulli memorata priorum. Manil. PREFACE. cannot wholly dispense with them. Accordingly we find that Hesiod and Virgil, among the ancients, with Philips and Dyer, (not to mention some other poets now living in our own country) have been obliged to insert them in their poems. Their example is a sufficient apology for me, for in their steps I shall always be proud to tread. Vos sequor, ô Graiæ gentis decus, inque vestris nunc Fixa pedum pono pressis vestigia signis ; Yet, like them too, I have generally preferred the way of description, wherever that could be done without hurting the subject. Such words as are not common in Europe, I have briefly explained: because an obscure poem affords both less pleasure and profit to the reader. -For the same reason, some notes have been added, which, it is presumed, will not be disagreeable to those who have never been in the West Indies. In a West India Georgic, the mention of many Soon after my arrival in the West Indies, I conceived the design of writing a poem on the culti-indigenous remedies, as well as diseases, was unvation of the sugar-cane. My inducements to this arduous undertaking were, not only the importance and novelty of the subject, but more especially this consideration; that, as the face of this country was wholly different from that of Europe, so whatever hand copied its appearances, however rude, could not fail to enrich poetry with many new and picturesque images. I cannot, indeed, say I have satisfied my own ideas in this particular: yet I must be permitted to recommend the precepts contained in this poem. They are the children of truth, not of genius; the result of experience, not the productions of fancy. Thus, though I may not be able to please, I shall stand some chance of instructing the reader; which, as it is the nobler end of all poetry, so it should be the principal aim of every writer who wishes to be thought a good man. It must, however, be observed, that, though the general precepts are suited to every climate, where the cane will grow; yet, the more minute rules are chiefly drawn from the practice of St. Christopher. Some selection was necessary; and I could adopt no modes of planting with such propriety, as those I had seen practised in that island, where it has been my good fortune chiefly to reside since I came to the West Indies. I have often been astonished, that so little has been published on the cultivation of the sugarcane, while the press has groaned under folios on every other branch of rural economy. It were unjust to suppose planters were not solicitous for the improvement of their art, and injurious to assert they were incapable of obliging mankind with their improvements. And yet, except some scattered hints in Pere Labat, and other French travellers in America; an essay, by colonel Martyn of Antigua, is the only piece on plantership I have seen deserving a perusal. That gentleman's pamphlet is, indeed, an excellent performance; and to it I own myself indebted. It must be confessed, that terms of art look awkward in poetry; yet didactic compositions avoidable. The truth is, I have rather courted opportunities of this nature, than avoided them. Medicines of such amazing efficacy, as I have had occasion to make trials of in these islands, deserve to be universally known. And wherever, in the following poem, I recommend any such, I beg leave to be understood as a physician, and not as a poet. Basseterre, Jan. 1763. one. BOOK I. ARGUMENT. Subject proposed. Invocation and address. What soils the cane grows best in. The grey light earth. Praise of St. Christopher. The red brick mould. Praise of Jamaica, and of Christopher Columbus. The black soil mixed with clay and gravel. Praise of Barbadoes, Nevis, and Mountserrat. Composts may improve other soils. Advantages and disadvantages of a level plantation. Of a mountain-estate. Of a midland Advantages of proper cultivation. Of fallowing. Of compost. Of leaving the Woura, and penning cattle on the distant cane-pieces. Whether yams improve the soil. Whether dung should be be buried in each hole, or scattered over the piece. Cane-lands may be holed at any time. The ridges should be open to the trade-wind. The beauty of holing regularly by a line. Alternate holing, and the wheel-plough recommended to trial. When to plant. Wet weather the best. Rain often falls in the West Indies, almost without any previous signs. The signs of rainy weather. Of fogs round the high mountains. Planting described. Begin to plant mountain-land in July: the low ground in November, and the subsequent months, till May. The advantage of changing tops in planting. Whether the Moon has any influence over the |