The works of Mark Akenside, M.D. in verse and prose : with his life, a fac simile of his hand-writing, and an essay on the first poem. / by Mrs. Barbauld.

  • Barbauld, Mrs. (Anna Letitia), 1743-1825.
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Mark Akenside, M.D. in verse and prose : with his life, a fac simile of his hand-writing, and an essay on the first poem. / by Mrs. Barbauld. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    more than one example of climax, graceful repetition, and richness of poetic language. Tiie subject is then branched out into the three grand divisions marked by Addison, the Sublime^ the Wonderful^ and the Beautiful. Each is exempli- fied with equal judgrhent and taste, but the sublime is per- haps expressed with most energy, as it certainly was most congenial to the mind of our author. The passage of which the thought is borrowed from Longinus, Say nxihy %vas man so eminently raised., is almost unequalled in grandeur of thougiit and loftiness of expression, yet it has not the appearance, as some other parts of the Poem have, of being laboured into excellence, but rather of being thrown off at once amidst the swell and fervency of a krndled imagination. The final cause of each of these propensities is'happily insinuated; of tlie sense of the sublime, to lead us to the contemplation of the Supreme Being ; of that of novelty to awaken us to constant activity; of beauty to mark out to us the objects most per- fect in their kind. Thus does he make Philosophy and Poetry to go hand and hand. The exemplification of the love of novelty in the audience of tire ’village matron^ who tells of Kxitching rhymes and evil spirits, is higldy wrougljt. The au- thor,'however, iiad doubtless in Ins mind not only the Essays of Addison, which were immediately under his eye, but that passage in anotlier paper where he represents the circle at his land-lady’s closing tiieir ranks, and crowding round the fire at the conclusion of every story of ghosts: Around the beldam all arrect they hang,- Qmgealed rSith shivering sighs, very happily expresses tlie effects of that kind of terror, which makes a roan shrink into himself, and feel afraid, as it were, to draw a full inpiration. It may be doubted, how- ever, wltether the attraction which is felt towards these kind of sensations when they rise to terror, can be fairly referred to the love of novelty. It seems rather to de])end on that charm, afterwards touclied upon, which is attatched to every thing that strongly stirs_ and agitates the mind. In his dc- .scriplion of Beauty, wliich is adorned with all the graces of the cliaster Venus, the author takes occasion to aim a pal- pable stroke at the “ Night Thoughts” of Dr,. Young, wliich a e here characterized hy “ the ghostly gloom of graves, and hoary vaults, ana cloistered cells, bv walking with, spectres tlirough tlie midnig'iit shade, and attuning'the'dread- ful workings of his heart to tlie accursed song of the scream- ing owl. The same allusion is repeated in one of his Odes, “ She flies from ruins and from tombs.” This antipathy is not surprising ; for never w^ere two Poets more contrasted. Our author had more of taste and judg- ment, Young more of originality. Akinside maintains throughout an uniform dignity. Young has-been character- istically described in a late Poem as one in whom Still gleams and still expires the cloudy day ,Of genuine Poetry.
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