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-gale,

n lap was Nature's Darling (s) laid, where lucid Avon stray'd,

the mighty Mother did unveil

face: The dauntless Child

orth his little arms, and smil'd.

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the seraph-wings of

ious person, (as Mr. Mason tells us) who sent Mr. Gray onymously on this and the following Ode soon after they , gives this stanza and the following a very just and eulogy: "A Poet is perhaps never more conciliating e praises favourite predecessors in his art. Milton is pride than Shakespeare the love of their country: It is ally judicious to diffuse a tenderness and a grace through Shakespeare, as to extol in a strain more elevated and boundless soarings of Milton's epic imagination." The vell noted the beauty of contrast which results from the s; yet it is further to be observed, to the honour of our t, that the tenderness and grace in the former does not strongly characterizing the three capital perfections of genius; and when he describes his power of exciting es of the sublime) he ceases to be diffuse, and becomes, e, concise and energetical.

(s) Nature's darling.

Shakespeare.

cets of th' Abyss t

pass'd the flaming Time (u):

ving Throne, the s Angels tremble w

(t) Nor second he, that r

(a) He passed the flamin

fammanta n

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pe the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.

III. 2.

or second He, that rode sublime (t) en the seraph-wings of Ecstasy,

secrets of th' Abyss to spy.

le pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and

Time (u):

living Throne, the saphire-blaze (x), ere Angels tremble while they gaze,

(t) Nor second he, that rode sublime.

Milton.

(u) He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time.

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(x) The living throne, the sapphire blaze.

r the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above irmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, e appearance of a sapphire stone. This was the appearance of the of the Lord. Ezekiel i. 20, 26, 28.

I pace (a).

III. 3.

is hands the lyre explore!

d Fancy, hovering o'er,

om her pictur'd urn

that breathe, and words that burn (b).

allows this account of Milton's blindness to be "happily

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With supreme domi To the azure deep of

press the stately march and sounding energy of Dryden's

necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding pace. thou clothed his neck with thunder?

Job.

'ghts that breathe, and words that burn. ds that weep, and tears that speak.

Cowley.

before his infant eye

forms as glitter in

onent hues, unborro

shahe mount, and

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ng with supreme dominion
ro' the azure deep of air:

oft before his infant eyes would run
ch forms as glitter in the Muse's ray
orient hues, unborrow'd of the Sun [1]:
et shall he mount, and keep his distant way

(c) But ah! 'tis heard no more

have had in our language no other odes of the sublime kind, than f Dryden on St. Cecilia's day: for Cowley, who had his merit, yet d judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task. That of Pope worthy of so great a man. Mr. Mason indeed, of late days, has ed the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in some of his ses,-above all in the last of Caractacus:

Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread? &c.

(d) That the Theban Eagle bear.

Ο πρὸς ὄρνιχα θείον. Olymp. 2. Pindar compares himself to ird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain , while it pursues its flight, regardless of their noise.

This passage seems borrowed from the following in Sir William le's Essay on Poetry, in his Miscellanies. Speaking of the qualities

to every corner, and, by the light of that true poetical fire, g a thousand little bodies or images in the world, and - among them, unseen to common eyes, and which could overed without the rays of that sun.”

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The Bard" says Johnson) app and others have remarke i Algarotti thinks it superior on the imagery and a right. There is in The

vanery"

is noble exordium, an a admiration: This abru dden fearful perplexity whole. The irresistible away, who, as he is unpr , is unfortified against overpowered by the

(e) They mock the air Mocking the air w

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