Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-11-19
MISCELLANY.
eoHxuxlcAFED ron the GAZETTE.
LORD BYRON.

Continued from London Rsriear.
70 return to the subject, from which
We have gone somewhat astray, it is Ger.
t.in that the rapidity with which lord BY
ron's poems succeeded each other, during
four years. served to arrest as well as to
dazzle and delight the public; nor did
there appear room to apply to him, in the
height Of his fame and the flower Of his
age, the caution which we might whisper
to other bards of popular celebrity. The
Giaosr, the Bride Of Abydos, the Corsair,
Lara, the Siege Of Corinth, followed each
other with a celebrity which was only n.
vailed by their success; and il, It times,
the author seemed to pause in his poetic
career, with the threat of forbearing fur.
Their adventure for time, the public ca
gsrly pardoned the breach Of a promise,
by kr-ping which they must have been
sufferers. Exquisitely beautiful in them
selves, these tales received new charm
from the romantic climes into which they
introduced US, and from the oriental cos
tune so strictly preserved, aud SO pic
turesquely exhibited. Greece, the cradle
Of the poetry with which our earliest stu
dies are familiar, was presented to rs a.
mong hsr ruins and her sorrows. Her
delightful scenery, once dedicated to
those deities Who though dethrened from
their own Olympus. still preserve poet-
cal empire, was spread before US in lord
Byron's poetry, varied BY all the moral
effect derived from what Greece is and
what she has been, while it was doubled
b. companions, perpetually excited, be-
tween the philosophers and heroes who
fonnerly inhabited that romantic country,
and their descendants, who either steep
TO their Scytbian couquerors or maintain
among the recesses Of their classical
mountains an independence as wild and
savage as it is precarious. The oriental
manners, also, and diction, 80 peculiar in
their picturesque effect that they can cast
q charm over the absurdities Of an eastern
tale, had here the more honorable occu-
patton Of decorating that which in itself
was beautiful, and enhancing, by novelty,
what would have been captivating with
out it, aid. The powerful impression
produced BY this species Of poetry con.
Srmsd 10 10 principle which, though it
will hardly be challenged when stated
as an axiom, is very rarely complied With
in practice. II is, tina. every author
should, ike lord Byron, form to himself
and communicate to the reader precise,
defined, and distinct view Of the land
scape. sentiment or action, which he in.
tends to describe to The reader. This |
simple proposition has been so often ne
elected, that We feel warranted in giving |
1t q little more consideration than plain
men may, at 6rst sight, think necessary.
An suthor occasionally forgets that it
is his business rather to excite than to |
satlate the Imagination Of his reader-ras
Their to place before him such a distinct |
and ineligible sketch as bis own ina
gination can GID up, than, by attempting !
to exhaust all that can be said on the
subject, to confuse the understanding,
and wesry the attention. There should
be, even in poetical description, that
kssaing and perspective which is de.
handed in the sister art Of painting, and
which alone can render the scenes pre-
scented BY either distinct, clear, and in
telligibIe. Here the painter has, in some
degree, the advantage Of the poet, for
perspective 10 the very fouudatinn Of his
art. The nest stupid bungler that ever
took brush IN hand j. aware that his Oh.
jests must diminish - they withdraw
from the eye, and that he is not entitled
b render the rocks Of biz distance too
distinet. snS tAss the knowledge that
ssoh things % actually exist viii not