AN ELEGY, WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH YARD.
This is a very fine poem, but overloaded with epithet.* The
heroic measure with alternate rhyme is very properly adapted to
the solemnity of the subject, as it is the slowest movement that
our language admits of. The latter part of the poem is pathetic
and interesting.
[footnote] *This is a strange complaint to come from Goldsmith,
whose own 'Hermit', as was pointed out to the present Editor by
the late Mr. Kegan Paul, is certainly open to this impeachment.
LONDON. IN IMITATION OF THE THIRD SATIRE OF JUVENAL.
This poem of Mr. Johnson's is the best imitation of the original
that has appeared in our language, being possessed of all the
force and satirical resentment of Juvenal. Imitation gives us a
much truer idea of the ancients than even translation could do.
THE SCHOOL-MISTRESS. IN IMITATION OF SPENSER.
This poem is one of those happinesses in which a poet excels
himself, as there is nothing in all Shenstone which in any way
approaches it in merit; and, though I dislike the imitations of
our old English poets in general, yet, on this minute subject,
the antiquity of the style produces a very ludicrous solemnity.
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