The poetical works of Mark Akenside.

Mark Akenside

Date:: 1857

Credit: The poetical works of Mark Akenside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

38/418

$months before the date of this letter, and which require particular notice, though they have not obtained the slightest mention from Mr. Bueke. They are prefaced by an Advertisement worthy of preservation:—“ The following Odes were written at very distant intervals, and with a view to very different manners of expression and versification. The author pretends chiefly to the merit of endea- vouring to be correct, and of carefully attending to the best models. From what the ancients have left of this kind, perhaps the Ode may be allowed the most amiable species of poetry; but certainly there is none which in modern languages has been generally attempted with so little success. For the perfection of lyric poetry depends, beyond that of any other, on the beauty of words and the grace- fulness of numbers; in both which respects the ancients had infinite advantages above us. A con- sideration which will alleviate the author’s disap- pointment, if he too should be found to have mis- carried.” The contents of this tract are:—Allusion to Horace [now entitled Preface to Odes, Book I.] On the Winter-solstice. Against Suspicion. To a Gentleman, whose Mistress had Married an Old Man [now entitled To a Friend Unsuccessful in Love~\. Hymn to Cheerfulness. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination [now entitled To the Muse]. To a Frieiul on the Hazard of Falling in Love [now entitled On Love, to a Friend]. On Leaving Holland. To Sleep. On Lyric Poetry. A new edition of these Odes, materially altered and improved, was pub- lished in 1760 ; and after the author’s death, they were again reprinted with still farther alterations, in that collection of his various Odes which he had left behind him for the press. How the text, as finally arranged, differs from that of the first edi-$

The poetical works of Mark Akenside.

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