ESTIMATE OF THE POETICAL CHARACTER AND WRITINGS OF POPE. THAT amongst the chief favourites of the muse Pope is entitled to a distinguished rank, no one will be found to deny. The estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries has been acknowledged by their descendants; and has continued amidst the change of manners, the ordeal of criticism, and the efforts of rival genius, to the present day. Whatever may be the homage we pay to others, there is no author whose works have been more universally read, or are more fully remembered. From the great variety of subjects which they embrace, and the perspicuity, truth, and nature, with which every sentiment is expressed, they seem to have a relation to all our business and concerns, to be in unison with our thoughts and feelings, and to strike a corresponding chord in every bosom; insomuch that there is perhaps no poet, excepting Shakespear alone, whose works are applicable to so many purposes, or are quoted on so many different occasions. Considerations of this nature have not however prevented some writers, and particularly the two last Editors of the works of Pope, from attempting to detract from the high reputation which he has so long enjoyed, and to assign to him only an inferior rank in the scale of poetical excellence. Accordingly, theories have been formed, and rules proposed, by which this decision is to be made. Dr. Warton informs us, that "the largest portion of the works of Pope is of the didactic, moral, and satiric kind, and consequently not of the most poetic species of poetry; whence it is manifest,” says he, "that good-sense and judgment were his characteristic excellences, rather than fancy and invention." Mr. Bowles has asserted that "all images drawn from what is beautiful or sublime in the works of nature, are more beautiful and sublime than images drawn from the works of art;" whence he contends, that as Pope was conversant with the latter, rather than the former, "he is not to be classed amongst the highest order of poets;" and that "the career which he opened to himself was in the second order of poetry." It cannot be disputed that poetical composition may with propriety be divided into different classes or departments, as epic, dramatic, didactic, or lyric; but that some of these classes are more poetical than others, is a proposition which will not perhaps meet with so ready an assent. The subjects of poetry are as various as nature herself. Poetry is the art of presenting these to the imagination in their most vivid and striking forms, throwing, like the midday sun, a brighter lustre on whatever object it touches; but there is in fact no poetry in any subject, except what is called forth by the genius of the poet. The objects presented to us may be magnificent, or terrific, or pleasing, or mournful, or ludicrous; but whether they are poetical or not must wholly depend on the powers of the artist by whom they are represented. The Odyssey is not so sublime as the Iliad, but it cannot be said that it is on that account less poetical. The subject of the Odyssey is of a different nature; but we find in each, as is justly observed by Pope, "the same vivacity and fecundity of invention, the same life and strength of imagery and colouring, the particular descriptions as highly painted, the figures as bold, the metaphors as animated, and the numbers as harmonious and various."-"The Battle |