Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-03-13

In the INTRODUCTORY CdHtUs W ha""
the authors genius surrounded the dit'i-
culties Of the most embarrassing species
Of English versiEcation. 1t was farther
illustrated in two very material respects
in giving poetick interest to moral, and
sometimes to even metaphysical .Pecula-
tons, and in port'aying the physical and
classical charms Of Greece in panne
hich no previous traveller into that
country had attained. The exact and
sraphick contraposition Of its antient t"
its present state, natural and civil. was
pleasing not only to the scholar, but TO
the merely sensitive reader-it provoked
vulgar as well as Athenian sympathies.
Curiosity, therefore, rejolced to learn that
| the writer after being driven from home
by domestick calamity, was sGourniDg
in Italy-a land made dear to memory
and to feeling by its pristine power, glo-
~ and genius, aud It. present unaided.
unpited impotence. When however the
Childe again appeared, it was seen that
he had wandered through less sacred re-
giOns.
The impotence with which the publick
has expected the Iaiian portion OF the
pilgrimage is at length terminated BY the
performance that we now undertake to
consider.
The present canto has not quite so
much the appearance Of tour as IFS pre-
decessors. The transitions from one
place to another, are not so regularly re-
corded nor so distinctly marked. and the
reader more frequently than in the three
Other parts has his attention Withdrawn
frum the country to the Pilgrim" The
poet unnecessarily regarding the leading
maxim of the ep"pee, forbid, Us to attend
him step by step in hi, journey, but car
rie> US at once Sin medals res" to Rome
itself. After wandering through it in
.ilence and sadness, the proud, self.h
and melancholy Harold reclines on the
.nausoleum OF Hadrlan, and expresses
the sensations impaired BY his ramble, in
language less go geous, but perhaps more
affecting. than that which had shed lus-
I e on the runs of Athens.
A few ,ianzas from this part Of the
book we shall transcribe. pos ponine any
obsery alton IN them TIL we rnmo TO ami
madvert o. the rhythm OF il generally.
After apostrOphising the city, he thus
proceeds:
10 tel he beauty Of thy buildings fair,
Ad"rn'd with purest gold and precious
stone;
10 tell thy riches and endowments rare,
10 tell thy forces matchable by none,
Were wasted toll, that few would now
believe,
And with rehearsing would me more
aggrleve.
Wasted it is, as if it never were;
Aud all the rest that thee SO honour'd
made,
And Of the world admired every where,
Is tuin'd to smoke that doth to nothing
fade,
And Of that brightness now appears no
shade,
But sriesIv shades-such as do haunt
IN hell,
With fearful fends that ia deep dark
ness dwell.
Where thy high steeples whilom used to
stand.
On which the lordly falcon wont to tower,
There now ia but heap of lime ard sand,
Where the 'civetta builds her baiclui
tower,
And thy fair temples now are turn'd
to dust,
And oversrown with black obivion'>
rust.
The author, or the mysterious person
age with whom publick opinion ha' iden-
fled him, is next found at MaglianO.-
Recollecting the singular incident record
ed by Gu;cciardrni of the two brothers
who, during he campaigns OF the famous
Lautrech, deserted the imperial service
and inhabited, ter three years, unknown
aud unsupported, the Governs near Mag