VARIOUS the claims, which modern times admit,
To poet's fame, besides the claim of wit.
What though wild Fancy droop her sportive wings,
Nor bless th' invoking Minstrel while he sings;
What though the words, adorn'd with lavish art,
Still want the secret spell, which rules the heart,
The breathing spirit want, th' informing soul,
Which lives, and moves, and kindles through the whole:
Yet 'tis some praise, in cadence meet to join,
The measur'd clauses of the well pois'd line[1].
To poet's fame, besides the claim of wit.
What though wild Fancy droop her sportive wings,
Nor bless th' invoking Minstrel while he sings;
What though the words, adorn'd with lavish art,
Still want the secret spell, which rules the heart,
The breathing spirit want, th' informing soul,
Which lives, and moves, and kindles through the whole:
Yet 'tis some praise, in cadence meet to join,
The measur'd clauses of the well pois'd line[1].
- ↑ I have adduced a specimen of this kind of poetry, from Mr. Montgomery's Wanderer of Switzerland. The fifth
