State of Poetical Literature at the commencement of the present century.
-The long mastery of the school of Dryden and Pope ultimately
modified by Thomson, Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns.-The tem-
porary triumphs of Hayley, Darwin, and the Della Cruscans.
Literary tastes influenced by social changes.--Mathew Gregory Lewis,
and the supernatural school; its characteristics and peculiarities.—-
Kirke White and James Grahame; specimens of the manner of the
latter in Love of Country and The Covenanters.-The satirical and
humorous poetry of Canning, Frere, Gifford, Mathias, and George
Colman the younger.-Sketches of Bloomfield and Leyden.-Specimen
from the first, The Blind Boy; from the second, Apostrophe to
Aurelia. - Female writers of the period: Charlotte Smith, Amelia
Opie, (specimen, Forget-me-Not,) Mrs Hunter, Mrs Grant, and Mrs
Tighe.-Translators and Poets of the period less commonly known;
general estimate of their merits. - The Rev. George Crabbe; his
rise and progress; his originality. Specimens in Gipsy's Tent and
Lyrical Tales. - Samuel Rogers and Lisle Bowles; the high artistic
excellencies of the former.-Examples of his manner.-Controversy
regarding the invariable principles of poetry between Campbell, Bowles,
and Byron,
The origin, progress, and tenets of the Lake School.
S. T. Coleridge,
Robert Southey, Lloyd and Lovell.-The Lyrical Ballads.-WID
Wordsworth as a reformer of our poetry; his peculiar vi
and excellencies; extract from Goody Blake and Her