Worthies, designed by Kent. One of the niches has a bust of Pope, with the following inscription: ALEXANDER POPE, Who uniting the correctness of Judgment to the fire of Genius, by the melody and power of his numbers, gave sweetness to Sense, and grace to Philosophy. He employed the pointed brilliancy of Wit to chastise the vices, and the eloquence of Poetry to exalt the virtues of human nature; and being without a rival in his own age, imitated and translated, with a spirit equal to the originals, the best Poets of Antiquity, EARLY POEMS. ODE ON SOLITUDE. THESE Stanzas on Solitude are a strong instance of that contemplative and moral turn, which was the distinguishing characteristic of our Poet's mind. An ode of Cowley, which he produced at the age of thirteen years, is of the same cast, and perhaps not in the least inferior to this of Pope. The voluminous Lopez de Vega is commonly, but perhaps incredibly, reported by the Spaniards to have composed verses when he was five years old; and Torquato Tasso, the second or third of the Italian poets, for that wonderful original Dante is the first, is said to have recited poems and orations of his own writing, when he was seven. It is however certain, which is more extraordinary, that he produced his Rinaldo in his eighteenth year; no bad precursor to the Gerusalemma Liberata, and no small effort of that genius, which was in due time to shew, how fine an epic poem the Italian language, notwithstanding the vulgar imputation of effeminacy, was capable of supporting. Warton. THESE lines were written soon after Pope left school to reside with his father at Binfield, and appear to be the joint result of his classical reading, and of the tranquillity and leisure afforded him by a country life. His prototype is the "Beatus ille" of Horace ; but his feelings soon lead him to quit his guide, and to select his images from those which he sees around him. In a letter to Mr. Cromwell, some years afterwards, he says, "Having a vacant space here, I will fill it with a short ode on Solitude, which I found yesterday by great accident, and which I find by the date was written when I was not twelve years old; that you may perceive how long I have continued in my passion for a rural life, and in the same employment of it." Dr. Johnson observes that "there is nothing more in this piece than other forward boys have attained," and Dr. Warton has enumerated instances of several perons who are said to have written at as early or an earlier age; |