Descriptive Poetry, though we have so long delayed treating of it, is probably as difficult of execution, and re quires as high powers of genius as any of the kinds we have yet analized. Descriptive poetry, however, does not mean exclusively any one particular form of composition. There are few poems purely descriptive ; and still fewer in which description does not form a large and prominent part. Shakespeare for example, though his excellence lies in manners and characters, may justly be denominated a descriptive poet, as in his works are instances of scenery painted with exquisite taste and beauty. But there are poems, such as Thomson's Seasons, or Milton's Allegro, more professedly descriptive than others, as description is their predominating and distinguishing characteristic. A writer of ordinary talents is evidently unfit to attain even respectability in this species of poetry. To him na ture, which is the great field for the display of the de scriptive powers, has nothing striking or interesting, or she seems exhausted by those who have preceded him; and his language, being copied from others, instead of be ing the result of his own lively impressions, is vague, ge neral, and languid ; and though his descriptions may be decked with the drapery of poetry, we find, after perusing them, that nothing has been felt, and nothing has been ac complished. A true poet, on the contrary, sets the ob ject painted distinctly and visibly before us. He makes a proper selection of circumstances ; all the interesting tints and beauties, and associations, make a deep im pression on his own breast, and he transmits a warm im press to the breasts of others. We see.before us scenery, and life, and reality, something in short from which a painter might copy. This praise is peculiarly the praise of Thomson. Thomson had a warm imagination, and a feeling heart ; was deeply enamoured of the beauties of nature, and was possessed of genius to catch what was at tractive and pleasing, and to reject what was superfluous or uninteresting ; and he was thus enabled to produce the noblest poem of the kind we are considering, of which any language can boast. It need merely be mentioned farther, that in portraying inanimate natural objects, the description should be enlivened by the introduction of living beings to excite our interest and sympathy. It is this which gives description its highest charms, and brings the subjects of it home to the business and the bo som of every class of readers. The force of this opinion will be fully seen from the following quotation from Os sian : " I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. The fire had resounded within the halls ; and the vice of t/ze people is now heard no more. The stream of Clutha was removed from its place by the fall of the walls ; the thistle shook there its lonely head ; the moss whistled to the wind. The fox looked out at the window ;
the rank grass waves round her head. Desolate is the dwedinT of 'Mina : 'Silence is in the house of her fathers." Nothing can be conceived more exquisitely touching than the thought conveyed in the sentence with which this de scription terminates. It finds a way direct to every bo som. Description, as already mentioned, prevails more or less in every poetical production, ancient and modern. The British poets who stand highest in this department, are Ossian, Milton, (particularly in his Allegro and Pen soroso,) Blair; (the author of the Grave) Denham, Fal coner, Thomson, Grahame, Scott,—of whom, Milton and Thomson are unrivalled.
A poetical composition, in which allegory is the pre vailing feature, can scarcely be regarded as forming a dis tinct and separate division of the art, as allegory is nothing but a continued metaphor, and, therefore, does not change the inherent nature of the work in which it is used. An amatory, or a pastoral poem, for example, may be allego rical, and its character as a pastoral or amatory production remains unchanged. Allegory has a reference only to the machinery employed, and its effect, therefore, is con fined to the drapery in which poetry is veiled, not to the spirit by which it is animated. It is merely external, and is more remarkable than any other figure, merely because it is not so common, and because, when once introduced, it can be terminated only with the subject which it is em ployed to embellish or illustrate. Allegory, however, whatever be its influence on the nature of poetical writing, is recommended to us, as it forms the medium through which some of the most important truths in holy writ are conveyed to us. A very fine example of it may be found in the eightieth psalm, in which the Israelites are repre sented under the image of a vine. The parables in the prophetical writings, and in the New Testament, are all allegorical, and are supported and managed with incom parable felicity. Allegory seems to be of oriental origin, where it still prevails. It was early introduced into Eu rope. It was the great characteristic of the Provencal poets. Nor is it unknown in British literature. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, indeed, it was the pre vailing taste, as the works of Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, James I. of Scotland, and various others, amply testify. Thomson's Castle of Indolence, various prose essays in the Spectator, Rambler, and Adventurer, partake of the same character ; but the progress of learning and refine ment has banished this false taste ; and no poet is now so blind to his reputation or success, as to attempt to re vive and perpetuate it.