Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/78

 Ixxiv INTRODUCTION ���evidence. She feels a lack of "polished accuracy;" she discovers one " inadmissible inversion ;" she is conscious of some failures in the matter of " verbal perspicuity." But she rejoices in the truth and pathetic sweetness of the poem, and she considers the stanzas after the fourth as " poetically faultless." Miss Seward's letter is the first instance of detailed criticism applied to Lady Winchilsea's verse. �This letter was published without comment in Walter Scott's edition of Miss Seward's Poetical Works. Scott's failure to find parentage for the orphan ode is noted by "J. H. R." in The Gentleman's Magazine (1812), and he felicitates himself on having found the author. In looking over a volume of old poems he chanced upon this one ascribed to "Anne, Countess of Winchilsea, who lived in the reign of Queen Anne." He then points out the most inter- esting of the variations resulting from oral transmission: �The second stanza is thus printed in Miss Seward's Works : �How pleasing the world's prospect lies; �How tempting to look through! Parnassus to the Poet's eyes, Nor Beauty, with her sweet surprise, �Can more inviting shew. �But in the volume I have mentioned, it is inserted in the fol- lowing manner: �How pleasing the world's prospect lies; �How tempting to look through! Not Canaan to the Prophet's eyes, Nor Pisgah, with her sweet surprise, Can more inviting shew. �Miss Seward's version certainly preserves more poetical oeauty, though perhaps the latter one is most correct. The Ode in general is very excellent, and is written in that style of chaste simplicity which was so peculiar to the Poets in the reign of Anne. �Was it the lady with the needlework, or the friend of her youth, or perhaps the swan of Lichfield herself, that thus ��� �