And so of instances in which former poets had failed. Thus, we do not
think Lord Byron was made for translating, during his non-age, Adrian's
Address to his Soul, when Pope succeeded so indifferently in the
attempt. If our readers, however, are of another opinion, they may look
at it.
'Ah! gentle, fleeting, wav'ring sprite,
Friend and associate of this clay!
To what unknown region borne,
Wilt thou now wing thy distant flight?
No more, with wonted humour gay,
But pallid, cheerless, and forlorn.' p. 72.
However, be this as it may, we fear his translations and imitations are
great favourites with Lord Byron. We have them of all kinds, from
Anacreon to Ossian; and, viewing them as school exercises, they may
pass. Only, why print them after they have had their day and served
their turn? And why call the thing in p. 79 a translation, where _two_
words (θελο λεγειν) of the original are expanded into four lines, and
the other thing in p. 81, where μεσονυχτιοις ποθ' ὁ ραις, is rendered by
means of six hobbling verses?--As to his Ossianic poesy, we are not very
good judges, being, in truth, so moderately skilled in that species of
composition, that we should, in all probability be criticizing some bit
of the genuine Macpherson itself, were we to express our opinion of Lord
Byron's rhapsodies. _If_, then, the following beginning of a 'Song of
bards,' is by his Lordship, we venture to object to it, as far as we can
comprehend it. 'What form rises on the roar of clouds, whose dark ghost
gleams on the red stream of tempests? His voice rolls on the thunder;
'tis Orla, the brown chief of Otihoma. He was,' &c. After detaining this
'brown chief' some time, the bards conclude by giving him their advice
to 'raise his fair locks;' then to 'spread them on the arch of the
rainbow;' and 'to smile through the tears of the storm.' Of this kind of
thing there are no less than _nine_ pages; and we can so far venture an
opinion in their favour, that they look very like Macpherson; and we are
positive they are pretty nearly as stupid and tiresome.
It is a sort of privilege of poets to be egotists; but they should 'use
it as not abusing it;' and particularly one who piques himself (though
indeed at the ripe age of nineteen), of being 'an infant bard,'--('The
artless Helicon I boast is youth;')--should either not know, or should
seem not to know, so much about his own ancestry. Besides a poem above
cited on the family seat of the Byrons, we have another of eleven pages,
on the self-same subject, introduced with an apology, 'he certainly had
no intention of inserting it;' but really, 'the particular request of
some friends,' &c., &c. It concludes with five stanzas on himself, 'the
last and youngest of a noble line.' There is a good deal also about his
maternal ancestors, in a poem on Lachin-y-gair, a mountain where he
spent part of his youth, and might have learned that _pibroch_ is not a
bagpipe, any more than duet means a fiddle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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