forced him into the confession, that Gray's poem has the advantage in dignity, variety, and originality of sentiments.[1] In another of his books, Goldsmith mentions this poem of Parnell with similar praise, but considers the versification unsuitable to the subject.[2] There is, in truth, nothing which could entitle it to be raised into comparison with Gray's Elegy; but if Goldsmith had pointed out the inferiority of the third stanza in Gray's poem to the rest, and if he had even recommended its omission, I should have considered his criticism as formed
- ↑ There seems to be an oversight in not correcting the repetition of the word 'glad' in the concluding lines:
"See the glad scene unfolding wide,
Clap the glad wing and tower away,
And mingle with the blaze of day." - ↑ The great fault of the Night Piece on Death is, that it is in eight syllable lines, very improper for the solemnity of the subject. Otherwise the poem is natural, and the reflections just. In his Fairy Tale never was the old manner of speaking more happily applied, or a tale better told than this. Goldsmith on English Poetry, p. 418.
latter empire of Rome, is nothing at present but a combination of luxuriant images, without plot or connexion; a string of epithets that improve the sound, without carrying on the sense. As a model of simplicity, he then proposes his Hermit. Would Gray or Gay have written the following stanza?
'Far in a wilderness obscure,
The lonely mansion lay,
A refuge to the neighbouring poor,
And strangers led astray."
Are there no epithets worse than useless here?
