Pocket of Profe and Verfe: being a Selion from the Literary
Productions of Alexander Kellet, Efq. Small 8vo.
Dilly.

HE firft article in this mifcellany is a letter concerning the American favages, in which the author discovers a confiderable degree of philofophical reflexion. The fecond is, a notion of poetry. Here the writer draws a comparison between the different qualifications of poetry and profe, and throws out fome general remarks on the nature of these compofitions.

The harmony of verfe, fays he, the confequence of legitimate metre, is of more importance than is always conceived: few poets fucceed who are negligent of it; and fome, with fcarcely any other merit than a firict attention thereto, have fucceeded. The quantity of fyllables is the time allowed for pronouncing them, a long one being equal to two fhort; and the English quantity is governed by the accent; the accented fyllables being always long, and most others common. In poetry, the fpecies of verfification afcertains the mixture of long and fhort fyllables; the fmoothnefs or harshness of profe refults alfo from the proper or improper arrangement of them, more particularly in the close of periods. A profaic period has two pauses; one of the fenfe, which alfo makes the rythmus or numerofity, and coincides with the grammatic member of the period; and another of refpiration, which operates only in long members, and anfwers to a cefure in verfe. Profe periods should in general be much of the fame, and that a middling length; a profe fpeaker can accurately mark his intended rythmus. A poetic period has three paufes; one of verfification; another of refpiration, that makes the cefure, and fometimes is coincident with the third, which is the pause of sense. The English heroic verfe is an iambic, that admits (advantageously to variety) in its firft part of trochees, which are feet of the fame time; but the last foot must conftantly be an iamb; and the more iambs there are in a verfe, the more melodious will it be found; in long poems, by way of relief to the ear, a fhort hypermetric (final) fyllable may be fparingly ufed. The removal of the diction of a poem from profaic language, has been conftantly pra&tifed by the best poets of every nation; and the English have a confiderable advantage, on account of the readinefs with which their tongue naturalifes thofe compound words that beftowed fo much grace on the Greek poetry. The corruption and poverty of English profe is greatly owing to our poets, who have found it easier to decry and debafe profe, than to raise their performances above

it. No thought, if they are to be judges in their own cause, can be too trivial or anile for profe, no expreffion too vulgar of infantine; metaphor is to be excluded, and diffonance admitted; and if any ornament cafually introduce itself, they immediately condemn it, by the fumptuary laws they themselves have

forced

forced on the poor profators. Yet the moft fagacious profewriters, in all languages, have occafionally employed fublimity, figure, and numbers too, in their fuccefsful compofitions; for the beft thoughts may be ruined by bafe language, and hurt by harsh numerofity; and the metaphor, (the foundation of the fimile, allegory, &c.) is of profe extraction, and originally the product of neceffity; nay, the hyperbole itself, a dangerous figure, even in poetry, may be allowed to profe in the cafe of paffion.

In an age of ignorance an expedient turned up, that fo obviously diftinguished profe and poetry, as to lay claim for a time to conftitute the effential of the laft; and this was the Gothic invention of rhyme. A thing (to ufe the words of the first Englishman who durft reject this barbarian adjunct to verse, in his preface to Paradife Loft,) "of itself to all judicious ears trivial, and of no true mufical delight; but much to the vexation and hinderance of modern poets, who are thereby conftrained to exprefs many things otherwife, and for the most part worse, than elfe they would have done." For though they be not wanting who would make the hitting-off rhymes an affair of genius, it is strictly a matter of memory; of which he who knows all the chiming words in a language must be a complete mafter; and Bythe's rhyming dictionary is, with us, a very convenient fupplement to lefs tenacious heads. Boileau, who in the vanity of youth afferted of rhyme,

"Au joug de la raifon fans peine elle flechit,
"Et, lour de la gênir, la fert et l'enrichit.'

" to 1

in his old age confeffed, that his fecret in rhyming was, make the fecond verfe before the firft:" a fad shift truly! which only spoils the first line instead of the fecond; and befides, inevitably throws a poem into distichs, which rhyme of itself is but too apt to do.'

The prefent age is generally confidered as defective in poetical genius, but this author appears to entertain a very different opinion; for he expreffes the most confident expectation, that whenever the tafte for poetry revives, as sooner or later it will, juftice fhall then be done to the neglected merit of our contemporary poets, who fhall become the delight and admiration of more attentive pofterity. Though we cannot give much credit to the accomplishment of the latter part of this prediction, we agree with the author in the opinion he elfewhere intimates, that the exertion of poetical genius, as of every other, depends greatly upon the taste of the times.

Thefe fubjects are fucceeded by a didactic poem, entitled, Reafon, from which we find the author not deftitute of a perfonal claim to the favour of the Mufes. As a fpecimen of this poem we fhall prefent our readers with the following extract.

Native Augufta, from thy joys eftrang'd,
Another world now my firm footfieps bears,}
On other ftars I gaze; and feas immenfe
Between us their tempeftuous volumes roll.
Yet not thy golden luxuries I repine,
Thy glitt'ring pomps, or elegant delights;
Nor (what might juftify regret) the lofs
Of thy fair-featur'd daughters' matchless loves;
But the fagacious, but the free, difcourfe
Attain'd in thee, and no where else attain'd,
I weep in blood. O who'll convey me swift
To where another bridge thy better claim
To the wide-diftant fhore oppos'd prefents,.
And lightly placid father Thames beftrides;
Placid and level here, altho' in view
A gloomy pontifice, by British blood,

Ah, deep-diftain'd, he fcourge with torrent roar
Enrag'd? O when again the candid round,
Whole ample structure decks thy fumptuous skirt,
When fhall I fpatiate; blind to beauty's lure,
To foothing mufic deaf, attentive fole

To the more foothing eloquence of friends?
Chiefly to him by more than blood endear'd,
Whom friend I call, because I prove him fuch,
And but for vanity a brother name:
O form'd alike the battles dreadful edge
To credit, or inftruct the letter'd fage,
Or lead the ftandard elegance of taste.

Nor thou, tho' yet ambition thee detain (Virtuous ambition in thy gen'rous breaft) Amid' the licens'd homicides of war

In tented noife, nor thou (my friend) decline
The proffer'd dalliance of the tuneful Muse;
The Mufe, who ftill her ballanc'd wings fufpends,
(Each fifter of the mount her deftin'd flight
Infeparably joins, and ev'ry grace,)

And fondly hovers o'er Britannia's cliffs,

Where tower'd her temples once, and altars blaz'd,
That Blaze no more. For now the speeds dismay'd
Before the monfter whofe unnat'ral birth

Its parent Liberty, fo lovely late,

Foully distorted; Int'reft nam'd by men,
But whom th' unerring gods Corruption call.
This fyren from a hundred tongues harangues,
A hundred venal tongues, and fmooths the path
With twice as many gold-polluted hands
To pow'r, (alas) and dignity, and wealth;
Ah, ill-acquir'd, ill-us'd, detefted pow'r,
Infamous dignities, and wealth obscene.
With timid growth the peft at firft advanc'd,

Ere

Ere long to fpurn the ground, and scale the sky;
Then through three fertile realms her progrefs urg'd,
On fairy foot, and eagle-rapid wing,

And blafted ev'ry bleffing the beheld.

Where may the British mufe her exile reft?
In frozen Greenland's fubterranean towns,
Or favage Lapland, her melodious fong
Might the wifh'd fun at other months recal,
And footh the feal-furr'd femi-brutes to men :
In Albion tho' profcrib'd, ev'n welcome there.
Will not her patience placidly await
The rifing empire in Atlantic furge
Of renovated Britons, who proceed
Lords of the world, and patrons of the lay?
Or fhall fhe rather claim thy prefent aid,
Accomplish'd Frederic, round whofe regal brows
The creeping ivy with the laurel vies ?

O England, rich in foil, in wavy plains
Of golden grain, and ever-verdant fields;
Rich in thy natives too, who beft reflect
Great nature's truths, with happy-temper'd minds;
Whose valour beft the deadly-diffring climes
Subdues, and kinds of widely vary'd men:
For whom the western Indian fteers his chacę
Thro' tracklefs lab'rinths of perpetual wood,
A living bronze, and fends the valu'd fur,
To dress authority for vulgar view;
To whofe fuperior genius Afric pays
Her abject homage, and to fultry tasks
Her falamander youth refigns, to tasks
For which her fable fons alone fuffice
Roufe, O my country, roufe your giant force;
And (as Anteus) ftronger from your fall,
Corruption's golden fetters burft; nor spare
The wily forc'refs; but, with virtue feel'd,
Dash on obdurate rocks her crackling limbs.
Or with her blood your crimfon'd oaks bedew.

And now, ev'n now, breaks-forth a glimpse of hope's While rev'rend pow'r, long us'd to feoul difpleas'd On Liberty's fair face, and ftill to loofe

The paricidal imp in civil ftrife

Against her parent, takes the jufter fide,
By virtuous eloquence at length convinc'd.
Hither, O hither, bend your eager fight,
Exulting Britons, what your boldest wish
Durft not prefage, the loan of heav'n behold,
The people's minifter! whofe cultur'd mind
The fuper-human fpark of genius warms;
His monarch's and his country's fervant too,

Divided

Divided titles once, now found the fame.
O, fons of Liberty, Britannia's fons;

O, patriots, friends to Brunfwick's patriot houfe
Aft his gen'rous toils, yourselves affift;
Second his great defigns, plan'd else in vain!
Then Public-Spirit fhall again uprear
In proud Augufta's palace-crouded towns
Its firm palladium; then, reftor'd to wrath,
The British lion, with tremendous roar,
Shall hush difcordant ftates to equal peace:
(While Gaul's pale colours play in baftion'd ports,
Nor longer fweep the blood-contefted main :)
Rejected then no more, no more deprefs'd,
Genius fhall fecond pow'r; and merit's felf
Amid its painful blufhes ftand reveal'd;
Each languid fcience, ev'ry drooping art,
Shall rife into respect, and just reward;
Nor heav'n-defcended Poetry the laft.
Then each authentic bard again will feize
Promethean fire; again enraptur'd fee
Nyféian Bacchus; then the ftyle refume,
Fall'n from his hand (indignity to tell!)
Thro' torpid inattention of the times;
And recent chiefs, and patriots not of old,
And their fair deeds, elfe loft to thofe to come,

Snatch from th' oblivious tomb, with hoarfe acclaim;
Nor shall, perchance, this verfe escape its fame.'

The next divifion of the volume contains a number of aphoriftical paragraphs, under the title of Odd Thoughts, where we meet with a variety of ingenious reflexions, fometimes fantaftic, but generally evincing no finall acuteness of obferva

tion.

We are afterwards prefented with a fucceffion of Odes, that afford farther proof of the author's poetical talents. Thefe are on the Rebellion in 1745; On the Embarkation of the Lord lieutenant of Ireland, in 1761; On placing Lord Romney's Portrait in the Great-Room of the Society for Encouragement of Arts and Commerce; To the Lyric Mu'e; On the Suicide of a Friend.

The reader's attention is next attracted by many ingenious papers on literary and moral fubjects, under the following heads-The Bruifer; Narrative of Good Spirits; Hypercriticifms; Lancashire Witches; Criticifms on a fmaller Scale; Dialogue; Final Philofopher; Centuriomaftic, or Martinetifm; Unparalleled Suffering and Deliverance; Man, a Monster; Innocent Suicide; Letter from Switzerland; Subjects for Tragedies; Origin of Animalcular Diftempers; English Duellift; Queries; Choice of a Profeffion; Dream.

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