The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir Part 22

DIRGE IN CYMBELINE.

ODE ON THE DEATH OF THOMSON.

Mr. Collins had skill to complain. Of that mournful melody, and those tender images, which are the distinguis.h.i.+ng excellencies of such pieces as bewail departed friends.h.i.+p, or beauty, he was an almost unequaled master. He knew perfectly to exhibit such circ.u.mstances, peculiar to the objects, as awaken the influences of pity; and while, from his own great sensibility, he felt what he wrote, he naturally addressed himself to the feelings of others.

To read such lines as the following, all-beautiful and tender as they are, without corresponding emotions of pity, is surely impossible:

"The tender thought on thee shall dwell; Each lonely scene shall thee restore, For thee the tear be duly shed; Beloved till life can charm no more, And mourn'd till Pity's self be dead."

The Ode on the Death of Thomson seems to have been written in an excursion to Richmond by water. The rural scenery has a proper effect in an ode to the memory of a poet, much of whose merit lay in descriptions of the same kind; and the appellations of "Druid," and "meek Nature's child," are happily characteristic. For the better understanding of this ode, it is necessary to remember, that Mr. Thomson lies buried in the church of Richmond.

THE END.