Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/43

 Wilson frequently exhibits both energy and discrimination. The dark majesty of Tinto, the towering grandeur of Ailsa, the falls of the Clyde, which in an uncommon degree, unite sublimity and picturesque beauty, were subjects calculated to excite the enthusiasm of poetical fancy; but many of the names which occur in "Clyde," would have found a more appropriate place in topography than in poetry. The style of description which he employs, consists rather in the accurate enumeration of particular objects, than in the expression of the mental feelings which they are fitted to inspire. Instead of describing the effect of a scene on the mind of the observer, he delineates, piece by piece, the different parts of which it is composed. For this reason, his enumerations of objects sometimes present an obscure or a confused picture; his groupes are silent and dead; and from his delineations of natural objects, we feel not the emotions with which the view of nature affects us. Sometimes, however, his verses present not the mere delineation of a scene, but the description of a person observing a scene, whose mind reflects, like a mirror, the objects with which he is surrounded, and receives the character and colouring with which they are invested. Whether we regard his versification, or facility of delineating natural objects, Wilson ranks high as a loco-descriptive poet. He cannot, indeed, aspire to