dew-sprinkled, fast-flowing, delicate, delicious, clean, straggling, dancing vaulting, deep-embosomed, leaping, murmuring, muttering, whispering prattling, twaddling, swelling, sweet-rolling, gently-flowing, rising, spark. ling, flowing, frothy, dew-distilling, dew-born, exhaustless, inexhaustible, never-decreasing, never-failing, heaven-born, earth-born, deep-divulging, drought-dispelling, thirst-allaying, refreshing, soul-refreshing, earth refreshing, laving, lavish, plant-nourishing.

Examples for Practice. Apply epithets to the following names :

Friend, friendship, love, joy, sorrow, revenge, mirth, justice, a forest, a wood, a mountain, billow, wave, ripple, bloom, blossom, bud, banquet, ad versity, affection, affliction, sorrow, despair, alluremert, ambition, anguish, appetite, avarice, autumn, beauty, bee, beggar, bird, bride, cave, cloud, clown, cold, countenance, critic, death, deceit, delight, -destroy, disease, discord, dog, dream, eagle, earth, eye, envy, eloquence, countenance, fear, fire, firmament, flame, flatter, flower, gift, glory, gold, grove, grief, hair, hand, honor, hour, hope, jealousy, ignorance, innocence, lay, law, liberty, light, maid, majesty, malice, mead, meadow, minute, monarch, mist, multitude, night, pain, peace, pleasure, poetry, poverty, pride, prosperity, providence, rage, rebellion, remorse, rock, sea, shore, skin, sleep, snake, snow, stream, sun, swain, tail, tear, tempest, temple, throne, thunder, time, tongue, tree, vale, vengeance, verse, vine, want, water, war, wine, woman, wit, wind, wing, winter, wood, woe, year, youth, zeal.

LXXVII.

LYRIC POETRY.

Lyric poetry literally implies that kind of poetry which is written to accompany the lyre, or other musical instrument. The versification may either be regular, or united in fanciful combinations, in correspondence with the strain for which it is composed.

Example 1st.

THE WINGED WORSHIPPERS. Addressed to two Swallows that flew into Church during Divine Service

Gay, guiltless pair,
What seek ye from the fields of heaven?

Ye have no need of prayer,
Ye hay, no sins to be forgiven.

Why perch ye here,
Where'mortals to their Maker bend ?

Can your pure spirits fear
The God you never could offend ?

Ye never knew
The crimes for which we come to weep;

Penance is not for you,
Blessed wanderers of the upper deep.

To you 't is given
To make sweet nature's untaught lays ;

Beneath the arch of heaven
To chirp away a life of praise.

Then spread each wing,
Far, far above, o'er lakes and lands,

And join the choirs that sing
In yon blue domé not reared with hands

Or, if ye stay,
To note the consecrated hour,

Teach me the airy way,
And let me try your envied power.

Above the crowd,
On upward wings could I but fly,

I'd bathe in yon bright cloud,
And seek the stars that gem the sky,

'T were heaven indeed Through fields of trackless light to soar,

On nature's charms to feed,
And nature's own great God adore.

Example 2d.

LINES ADDRESSED TO LADY BYROF.

There is a mystic thread of life

So dearly wreathed with mine alone, That destiny's relentless knife

At once must sever both or none.

There is a form on which these eyes

Have often gazed with fond delight; By day that form their joy supplies,

And dreans restore it through the night. There is a voice whose tones inspire

Such thrills of rapture through my breasts I would not hear a seraph choir,

Unless that voice could join the rest.

There is a face whose blushes tell

Affection's tale upon the cheek;
But, pallid at one fond farewell,

Proclaims more love than words can speak.

There is a lip which mine has pressed,

And none had ever pressed before;
It vowed to make me sweetly blessed,

And mine, - mine only, pressed it more.

There is a bosom, all my own, —

Hath pillowed oft this aching head;
A mouth which smiles on me alone,

An eye whose tears with mine are shed.

There are two hearts whose movements thrill

In unison so closely sweet !
That, pulse to pulse, responsive still,
That both must heave,-

-or cease to beat.

There are two souls whose equal flow

In gentle streams so calmly run,
That when they part — they part !--- ah, no!

They cannot part, — those souls are one. The highest of the modern lyric compositions is the Ode The word ode is from the Greek, and is generally translated a song, but it is not a song, as we use the term in our language. The ode was the result of strong excitement, a poetical attempt to fill the hearts of the auditors with feelings of the sublime. Odes that were sung in honor of the gods were termed Hymns, from a Greek word hymneo, which signifies to celebrate. The name is now applied to those sacred songs that are sung in churches. The Hebrew hymns which bear the name of King David are termed Psalms, from the Greek word. psallo, which significs to sing.

The Greek Ode, when complete, was composed of three parts, the Strophe, the Antistrope, and the Epode. The two former terms indicated the turnings of the priests round and about the altar. The Epode was the end of the song, and was repeated standing still, before the altar.

Pæans were songs of triumph sung in procession in honoof Apollo, on occasions of a victory, &c., or to the other gods as thanksgivings for the cessation or cure of an evil. The word is derived from a word signifying to heal or cure.

For examples of the English ode, the student is referred to the well-known pieces, “ Alexander's Feast,” by Dryden, and the “ Ode on the Passions,” by Collins.

A Ballad is a rhyming record of some adventure or tranBaction which is amusing or interesting to the populace, and written in easy and uniform verse, so that it may easily be sung by those who have little acquaintance with music.

A Sonnet is a species of poetical composition, consisting of fourteen lines or verses of equal length. It properly consists of fourteen iambic verses, of eleven syllables, and is divided into two chief parts ; — the first consists of two divisions, each of four lines, called quatrains; the second of two divisions of three lines each, called terzines. The rhymes in these parts respectively were managed according to regular rules. But these rules have been seldom regarded in modern compositions. The sonnet generally contains one principal idea, pursued through the various antitheses of the different strophes, and adorned with the charm of rhyme.

Deep in my heart thy cherished secret lies

Deep as a pearl on ocean's soundless floor,

Where the bold diver never can explore
The realms o'er which the mighty billows rise.
It rests far hidden from all mortal eyes,

Not e'en discovered when the piercing light
Of morn illumines the uncurtained skies,

And fills with sunshine the dark vaults of night.
Repose in me thy heart's most sacred trust,

And nothing shall betray it; I will bend
This human fabric to its native dust,

But nothing from me shall that secret rend,
Which to my soul is brighter, dearer far,

Than any lustre of sun, moon, or star. A Cantata is a composition or song intermixed with recita tives and airs, chiefly intended for a single voice.

A Canzonet is a short song in one, two, or three parts. *

Example.

BLACK EYES AND BLUE,

Black eyes most dazzle in a hall;
Blue eyes most please at evening fall;
The black a conquest soonest gain;
The blue a conquest most retain;

* In musical compositions, a song consisting of two parts is called a Duet if in three parts, a Trio, if in' four, à Quartette, &c.

The black bespeaks a lively heart,
Whose soft emotions soon depart;
The blue a steadier flame betray,
That burns and lives beyond a day;
The black may features best disclose;
In blue may feelings all repose.
Then let each reign without control,
The black all MIND,

the blue all soul!

A Logogriph is a kind of riddlc.

Charades (which are frequently in verse) are compositions, in which the subject must be a word of two syllables, each forming a distinct word, and these syllables are to be concealed in an enigmatical description, first separately and then together.

Madrigals are short lyric poems adapted to express ingenious and pleasing thoughts, commonly on amatory subjects, and containing not less than four, nor more than sixteen verses, of eleven syllables, with shorter verses interspersed, or of verses of eight syllables irregularly rhymed. The madrigal is not confined to the regularity of the sonnet, but contains some tender and delicate, though simple thought, suitably Axpressed.

Example of the Madrigal. CO A LADY OF THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER, WITH A WHITE ROSE

If this fair rose offend thy sight,

It in thy bosom wear;
'T will blush to find itself less white,

And turn Lancastrian there.

The Rondeau or rondo, roundo, roundel or roundelay, all bean precisely the same thing. It commonly consists of thirteen lines or verses, of which eight have one rhyme, and five another. It is divided into three couplets, and at the end of the second and third, the beginning of the rondeau is repeated, if possible, in an equivocal or punning sense.

The Epigram is a short poem, treating only of one thing, and ending with some lively, ingenious, and natural thought, rendered interesting by being unexpected. Conciseness is one of the principal characteristics of the epigram. Its point often rests on a witticism or verbal pun; but the higher species of the epigram should be marked by fineness and delicacy, rather than by smartness or repartee.