"
The lyrical Milton and the romantic Spenser found disciples among poets
in the early half of the eighteenth century. Two of these disciples may
be mentioned, both born about the year 1700, only twelve years later than
Pope. John Dyer, the son of a solicitor in Wales, was bred to the law,
but gave it up to study painting under Jonathan Richardson. His earlier
and better poems were written while he wandered about South Wales in
pursuit of his art. _Grongar Hill_, the most notable of them, was
published in 1726. Love of the country is what inspires his verses,
which have a very winning simplicity, only touched here and there by the
conventions deemed proper for poetry:
Grass and flowers Quiet treads,
On the meads and mountain-heads,
Along with Pleasure, close ally'd,
Ever by each other's side;
And often, by the murmuring rill,
Hears the thrush, while all is still,
Within the groves of Grongar Hill.
The truth of his observation endeared him to Wordsworth; and his moral,
when he finds a moral, is without violence:
How close and small the hedges lie!
What streaks of meadows cross the eye!
A step methinks may pass the stream,
So little distant dangers seem;
So we mistake the Future's face,
Ey'd thro' Hope's deluding glass;
As yon summits soft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which, to those who journey near,
Barren, and brown, and rough appear,
Still we tread tir'd the same coarse way,
The present's still a cloudy day.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49