The Beauties of Modern Literature, in Verse and Prose; To Which Is Prefixed, a Preliminary View of the Literature of the Age (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE FLOWER OF GNIDE. The following Ode is translated from the original Spanish of Garcilaso de la Vega, by Mr. J. H. Wittcu. " It is not often," to use a cant phrase of the present day, we meet with such poetry as this. The sentiments do honor to the original writer; the language does equal honor to the translator, and shews what the English language is capable of in the hands of a master. If this Ode were read to a foreigner, totally ignorant of the English language, he would perceive a strength, harmony, and fire, .of which he could not trace a vestige in the sing-song lullabies, of which the bulk of modern poetry is composed. The words are happily selected, and still more happily disposed of, - the vowel and consonant sounds being so judiciously blended with each other, that the language is nervous without being harsh, and musical without being effeminate. In the first stanza, almost every word is an echo to the sense, an effect which will always take place unconsciously, whenever the poet is truly inspired by his subject, particularly when an analogy exists between his ideas and any modification of sounds whatever. This Ode reminds us of Gray: it possesses all his classic elegance and chastity of manner, and has not a feature, m common, with any of our modern schools.?Ed. Had I the sweet resounding lyre, Whose voice could in a moment chain The howliug winds' ungovern'd ire, And movement of the raging main, On savage hill the leopard rein, The lion's fiery soul entrance, And lead along with golden tones, The fascinated trees and stones, In voluntary dance. Think not, think not, fair flower of Gnide, It e'er should celebrate the scars, Dust rais'd, blood shed, or laurels' dyed, Beneath the gonfalon of Mars; Or, borne sublime on festal cars, The ...