Dr. Warton has mentioned, with juft approbation, the following beautiful

O ftretch thy wings, fair Peace! from shore
to shore,

Till conqueft cease, and flavery be no more;
Till the freed Indians in their native groves
Reap their own fruits, and woo their fable loves:
Peru once more a race of kings behold,
And other Mexicos be roof'd with gold.

The conclufion of the Poem does not feem to be the most happily managed. Father Thames is difmiffed, without any notice of his difmiffion; the Poet seems to take up the matter in his own perfon, as if he himself had been speaking, and brings in another fuperfluous unmeaning compliment to his friend Granville, and another unneceffary mention of the green forests and flowery plains:

Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays,
Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days:
The thoughts of gods let Granville's verfe

recite,

And bring the fcenes of opening fate to light;

My

My humble mufe in unambitious strains,
Paints the green forefts and the flowery plains,
Where Peace defcending bids her olives spring,
And scatters bleffings from her dove-like wing.
E'en I more sweetly pafs my careless days,
Pleas'd in the filent fhade with empty praise;
Enough for me that to the listening fwains,
First in these fields I fung the Sylvan strains.

That Pope, in his advanced age, had no very high opinion of Descriptive Poetry, is generally understood; and it has been thought that he had really no very powerful talents for it. Some of the foregoing quotations however fufficiently evince, that he could have excelled as much in Description, as in Fiction or Satire.

ESSAY

ESSAY IV.

On DYER'S GRONGAR HILL.

GR

RONGAR-HILL is a Defcriptive Poem, of very confiderable merit, fpirited and pleafing. Few poetical pieces have reprefented an extenfive and beautiful profpect in fo agreeable a manner. But it is not without its imperfections; there is a redundance of thought in some instances, and a careleffnefs of language in others. The verfification, like that of Milton's L' Allegro and Il Penforofo, is an irregular mixture of iambick and trochaick lines: a circum

ftance rather difpleafing to a nice ear. The Poem opens thus:

Silent Nymph, with curious eye!
Who, the purple ev❜ning, lie
On the mountain's lonely van,
Beyond the noife of busy man,
Painting fair the form of things,
While the yellow linnet fings,
Or the tuneful nightingale
Charms the foreft with her tale ;
Come with all thy various hues,
Come and aid thy fifter Mufe;
Now while Phoebus riding high
Gives luftre to the land and sky!
Grongar Hill invites my fong,

Draw the landscape bright and strong.

Dyer in general wrote with remarkable fimplicity and clearnefs, but here is an inftance in which his fenfe is almoft inexplicable. What fictitious Perfon is addreffed by the appellation of Silent Nymph, it seems scarcely poffible to difcover. Painting, from the expreffions Sifter Mufe, and various hues, might be meant; but why fhould Painting be defcribed

described as lying on the mountain's lonely van? Evening, as a profopopoiea, could not be intended, for Evening cannot with any propriety be faid to paint the form of things. Fancy may be thought to have a better claim to the title, but to her, fome of the above circumstances are not applicable. That Fancy, however, was really defigned, is a fact that can be fully ascertained. Few readers are perhaps apprized that Grongar Hill was originally written, and even printed, as an irregular ode. There is a Miscellany volume of poems, collected and published by the celebrated Richard Savage, in the year 1726, in which it appears in that form, very incorrect, and with the initial lines as follows:

FANCY, nymph that loves to lie

On the lonely eminence;

Darting notice through the eye,

Forming thought and feasting sense: