The "BOTANIC GARDEN" once appeared to open a new route through the
trodden groves of Parnassus. The poet, to a prodigality of IMAGINATION,
united all the minute accuracy of SCIENCE. It is a highly-repolished
labour, and was in the mind and in the hand of its author for twenty
years before its first publication. The excessive polish of the verse
has appeared too high to be endured throughout a long composition; it is
certain that, in poems of length, a versification, which is not too
florid for lyrical composition, will weary by its brilliance. Darwin,
inasmuch as a rich philosophical fancy constitutes a poet, possesses the
entire art of poetry; no one has carried the curious mechanism of verse
and the artificial magic of poetical diction to a higher perfection. His
volcanic head flamed with imagination, but his torpid heart slept
unawakened by passion. His standard of poetry is by much too limited; he
supposes that the essence of poetry is something of which a painter can
make a picture. A picturesque verse was with him a verse completely
poetical. But the language of the passions has no connexion with this
principle; in truth, what he delineates as poetry itself, is but one of
its provinces. Deceived by his illusive standard, he has composed a poem
which is perpetually fancy, and never passion. Hence his processional
splendour fatigues, and his descriptive ingenuity comes at length to be
deficient in novelty, and all the miracles of art cannot supply us with
one touch of nature.
Descriptive poetry should be relieved by a skilful intermixture of
passages addressed to the heart as well as to the imagination: uniform
description satiates; and has been considered as one of the inferior
branches of poetry. Of this both Thomson and Goldsmith were sensible. In
their beautiful descriptive poems they knew the art of animating the
pictures of FANCY with the glow of SENTIMENT.
Whatever may be thought of the originality of Darwin's poem, it had been
preceded by others of a congenial disposition. Brookes's poem on
"Universal Beauty," published about 1735, presents us with the very
model of Darwin's versification: and the Latin poem of De la Croix, in
1727, entitled "_Connubia Florum_," with his subject. There also exists
a race of poems which have hitherto been confined to _one subject_,
which the poet selected from the works of nature, to embellish with all
the splendour of poetic imagination. I have collected some titles.
Perhaps it is Homer, in his battle of the _Frogs and Mice_, and Virgil
in the poem on a _Gnat_, attributed to him, who have given birth to
these lusory poems. The Jesuits, particularly when they composed in
Latin verse, were partial to such subjects. There is a little poem on
_Gold_, by P. Le Fevre, distinguished for its elegance; and Brumoy has
given the _Art of making Glass_; in which he has described its various
productions with equal felicity and knowledge. P. Vanière has written on
_Pigeons_, Du Cerceau on _Butterflies_. The success which attended these
productions produced numerous imitations, of which several were
favourably received. Vanière composed three on the _Grape_, the
_Vintage_, and the _Kitchen Garden_. Another poet selected _Oranges_ for
his theme; others have chosen for their subjects, _Paper, Birds_, and
fresh-water _Fish_. Tarillon has inflamed his imagination with
_gunpowder_; a milder genius, delighted with the oaten pipe, sang of
_Sheep_; one who was more pleased with another kind of pipe, has written
on _Tobacco_; and a droll genius wrote a poem on _Asses_. Two writers
have formed didactic poems on the _Art of Enigmas_, and on _Ships_.
Others have written on moral subjects. Brumoy has painted the
_Passions_, with a variety of imagery and vivacity of description; P.
Meyer has disserted on _Anger_; Tarillon, like our Stillingfleet, on the
_Art of Conversation_; and a lively writer has discussed the subjects of
_Humour and Wit_.
Giannetazzi, an Italian Jesuit, celebrated for his Latin poetry, has
composed two volumes of poems on _Fishing_ and _Navigation_. Fracastor
has written delicately on an indelicate subject, his _Syphilis_. Le Brun
wrote a delectable poem on _Sweetmeats_; another writer on _Mineral
Waters_, and a third on _Printing_. Vida pleases with his _Silk-worms_,
and his _Chess_; Buchanan is ingenious with the _Sphere_. Malapert has
aspired to catch the _Winds_; the philosophic Huet amused himself with
_Salt_ and again with _Tea_. The _Gardens_ of Rapin is a finer poem than
critics generally can write; Quillet's _Callipedia_, or Art of getting
handsome Children, has been translated by Rowe; and Du Fresnoy at length
gratifies the connoisseur with his poem on _Painting_, by the
embellishments which his verses have received from the poetic diction of
Mason, and the commentary of Reynolds.
This list might be augmented with a few of our own poets, and there
still remain some virgin themes which only require to be touched by the
hand of a true poet. In the "Memoirs of Trevoux," they observe, in their
review of the poem on _Gold_, "That poems of this kind have the
advantage of instructing us very agreeably. All that has been most
remarkably said on the subject is united, compressed in a luminous
order, and dressed in all the agreeable graces of poetry. Such writers
have no little difficulties to encounter: the style and expression cost
dear; and still more to give to an arid topic an agreeable form, and to
elevate the subject without falling into another extreme.--In the other
kinds of poetry the matter assists and prompts genius; here we must
possess an abundance to display it."