the denomination of Lyric poetry, the nature of which, as intimately connected with our subject, it will be proper to examine with some attention. The union of music and poety among the ancients was very strict. It would seem that they had no idea of the music of sounds without words, and they appear seldom or never to have used vocal music without accompaniment with instrumental. The lyre was the favourite instrument for this purpose, and hence that species of poetry designed to be sung to music acquired the denomination of Lyric. Yet we have variety of proof that this term is applied with equal propriety to poetry accompanied with any other instrument. Horace abounds with such instances-it will be sufficient to refer to his first ode hoje Euterpe cohibet, nec Polyhymnia -do Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton. Immediately after, to fix the class of poets to which he belongs, he says Quod si me Lyricis vatibus inseres. To answer this purpose of musical adaptation, Lyric poetry has always been in possession of a variety of measures, differing indeed greatly among themselves, but all very distinguishable from the stately regular march of heroics, and the languid inequality of elegy. Thus the Anacreontic is smart and lively, the Sapphic tender and melodious, the irregular Pindaric suited to the sudden changes and unbounded flights of the wild various music of the passions. Horace affords a fine profusion of regularly returning measures suited to all the varieties of musical expression, many of which one can scarcely read without falling into a natural music. So far Lyric poetry is characterised by its manner of composition; will it also admit of a Character from the nature of its subjects? It has been already observed that the pieces of Sappho and Anacreon are formed entirely upon gay and amorous topics. A beautiful variety of poems of this cast is to be met with in Horace, and he frequently mentions the peculiar suitableness of them to the Lyric Thus muse. Nos convivia, nos prælia virginum Nolis longa feræ bella Numantiæ, Nec dirum Hannibalem, nec Siculum mare Non hoc jocosæ conveniet lyræ. Magna modis tenuare parvis. But what must we think of these declarations when he nobly breaks out "Quem virum aut heroa," &c. when he undertakes with such success to sing the great actions of Augustus, the praises of Drusus, and the poetical character of Pindar, with Pindar's own fire and sub limity? In that beautiful ode, the 9th of the 4th book, where he sketches out the Grecian bards, his predecessors in Lyric poetry, we find the Ceæque, Alceique minaces Stesichorique graves Camenæ, as well as the wanton gaiety of Anacreon and the amorous softness of the Lesbian maid. One of the oldest pieces of Grecian Lyric poetry extant, is a heroic ode sung by the Athenians at their public feasts in commemoration of Harmodius and Aristogiton. The odes of Pindar celebrate the victors at Olympic games, and the hymns of Callimachus rise to the praises of the Gods. From these instances it appears that Lyric poetry does not admit of any distinguishing characteristic from its subject, but merely from the circumstance of its accompaniment with music: thus Horace briefly defines it "verba socianda chordis." But this circumstance will in some measure influence the choice of a subject, as it is evident that long conti-. nued narration, the didactic part of any art or science, and satire are not suitable topics for a species of poetry which above all others is calculated to please, elevate, and surprise. sort 1 If we now compare the idea here given of Lyric poetry, with what was before observed concerning song-writing, it will plainly appear that the latter is one branch of the former; that, to wit, which in its subject is confined to gaiety and tenderness, or, to express it classically, the Sapphic and Anacreontic. The graver and sublimer strains of the Lyric Muse are exemplified in the modern ode, a species of composition which admits of the boldest flights of poetical enthusiasm, and the wildest creations of the imagination,' and requires the assistance of every figure that can adorn language, and raise it above its ordinary pitch. q won Critics have very commonly lamented that the moderns fall short of the ancients more particularly in this species of poetry C |