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of their predecessors—its laogfriagre is more solid and refined ; and it sometimes preserves the spirit of the original : but it wants those glowing colours of language which come warm from the heart , and that fervour of devotional feeling which constitutes the soul of such poetry . Dr . Watts ' s ^ Psalms are decidedly the best imitation of those of David : though they are of very
unequal merit , and are sometimes injured by the introduction of the language of human creeds , inconsistent with the liberal and exalted spirit which should characterize compositions of this nature . This remark may also be applied to some of Dr . Doddridge ' s Hymns , which , however , often rise into a high strain both of devotional and poetical feeling , not unworthy of their sacred themes . The style of Merrick's version is to be admired for general correctness of
seutiment and elegance of diction , but it is often too diffuse , and wants the affecting simplicity of the original . Most of our great poets have occasionally touched the harp of devotion , and played awhile with its hallowed strings ; but the strains have been short , and generally less exalted than the subject . Milton ' s imitations of the Psalms are unworthy of his great and sublime genius : it is the hymns in " Paradise Lost "
in which alone we recognise the inspiration of the sacred bard . These , however , approach nearer than any compositions in the English language to the sublimity of the sacred writings , from which , indeed , the images are partly . borrowed . Next to these in kind , if not in excellence , is Thomson ' s Hymn on the Seasons : the * Seasons" themselves , also , abound in passages that breathe the pure soul of devotion . Pope ' s li Universal Prayer /* like all his other
writings , is a finished production , not less distinguished for exalted devotion than liberal piety : but it is , perhaps , exceeded by his sublime description of the Deity , as a soul pervading all his works , introduced at the conclusion of his first epistle in the Essay on Man . " The paraphrase of the Vent Creator Spiritus , by Dryden , when ' stripped of the mysterious veil of doctrine , and arranged as in Kippis ' s admirable " Collection of Hymns and Psalms , " is a noble specimen of devotional poetry . Addison ' s hymns exceed in number
those of the distinguished poets we have just mentioned : they are the natural effusions of a liberal and enlightened piety , and are all expressed in that easy , elegant diction , which is the characteristic of this author ' s style , whether in prose or verse . They seldom , however , rise to the more exalted strains of sacred song , though highly to be admired for the graceful charms of polished language , and the less ostentatious beauties of poetic ornament . The most elevated of these delightful compositions is the imitation of the xixth Psalm , commencing with the well-known line ,
" The spacious firmament on high ;" but the one in which the heart speaks most fervently is the following : O how shall words , with equal warmth , The gratitude declare , That glows in my enrapturM heart !—But thou canst read it there .
dure found m a barren and uncultivated waste . We cannot conclude this note without observiug how sublimely beautiful the original of this Psalm is , as its simple grandeur is preserved without additional ornament in our prose translation of the Scriptures : " He bowed the heavens also , and came down : and darkness was under his feet . And he rode upon a cherub , and did fly :. yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind . He made darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies . " Ps . xviii . 9—11 . We are inclined to think that such fine poetical images as those contained in this
passage , are only injured by rhyme—even when that rhyme is excellent . The jingle of rhyme seems inconsistent with the majesty of the subject and the . sublimity of the figures . Bl ; mk verse would suit them better : though even this could add to them only the charm of a more measured cadence at the risk of defacing their unadorned simplicity by the ornaments of a more ostentatious diction . The prose translation itself , when read with taste and judgment , is , perhaps , sufficiently harmonious . Its rhythm cannot be too highly praised , and all attempts to improve it , in point of language , have hitherto fail-ed .
Untitled Article
254 On Devotional Poetry .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/2/
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