In thefe lines the poet alludes to thofe ravages in the ftate of Genoa, occafioned by the unhappy divifions of the Guelphs and Gibelines. When the favour'd of the choice, For an account of the celebrated event referred to in these verses, fee Voltaire's Epiftle to the King of Pruffia. Thofe whom the rod of Alva bruis'd, THE Flemings were fo dreadfully oppreffed by this fanguinary general of Philip the fecond, that they offered their fovereignty to Elizabeth, but, happily for her fubjects, she had policy and magnanimity enough to refuse it. Deformeaux, in his Abregé Chronologique de l'Histoire d'Espagne, thus de fcribes the sufferings of the Flemings. "Le Duc d'Albe achevoit de réduire les Flamands au désespoir. Après avoir inondé les echafauts du fang le plus noble et le plus précieux, il faifoit conftruire des citadelles en divers endroits, et vouloit établir l'Al cavala, ce tribute onéreux qui avoit été longtems en ufage parmi les Efpagnols." Abreg. Chron. Tom. IV. Mona, Where thousand Elfin fhapes abide. Mona is properly the Roman name of the Isle of Anglesey, anciently fo famous for its Druids; but fometimes, as in this place, it is given to the Isle of Man. Both those ifles ftill retain much of the genius of superstition, and are now the only places where there is the least chance of finding a faery. O DE, TO A LADY, ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL CHARLES ROSS IN THE ACTION AT FONTENOY. WRITTEN MAY MDCCXLV. HE iambic kind of numbers in which TH this ode is conceived, feems as well calculated for tender and plaintive subjects as for those where ftrength or rapidity is required-This, perhaps, is owing to the repetition of the ftrain in the same stanza ; for forrow rejects variety, and affects an uniformity of complaint. It is needlefs to observe that this ode is replete with harmony, fpirit, and pathos; and there, furely, appears no reason why the seventh and eighth stanzas should be omitted in that copy printed in Dodfley's collection of poems. ODE TO EVENING. HE blank ode has for fome time TH folicited admiffion into the English poetry; but its efforts, hitherto, feem to have been vain, at least its reception has been no more than partial. It remains a question, then, whether there is not fomething in the nature of blank verfe less adapted to the lyric than to the heroic measure, fince, though it has been generally received in the latter, it is yet unadopted in the former. In order to discover this, we are to confider the different modes of these different fpecies of poetry. That of the heroic is uniform; that of the lyric is various; and in these circumstances of uniformity and variety, probably, lies the cause why blank verse has been fuccefsful in the one, and unacceptable in the other. While it prefented itself only only in one form, it was familiarized to the ear by cuftom; but where it was obliged to affume the different shapes of the lyric muse, it seemed ftill a ftranger of uncouth figure, was received rather with curiofity than pleafure, and entertained without that ease, or fatisfaction, which acquaintance and familiarity produce-Moreover, the heroic blank verse obtained a fanction of infinite import ance to its general reception, when it was adopted by one of the greatest poets the world ever produced, and was made the vehicle of the nobleft poem that ever was written. When this poem at length extorted that applause which ignorance and prejudice had united to withhold, the verfification foon found its imitators, and became more generally fuccessful than even in those countries from whence it was imported. But lyric blank |