In 1786 he produced his _Ode to Superstition_, after the manner of Gray,
and in 1792 his _Pleasures of Memory_, which was enthusiastically
received, and which is polished to the extreme. In 1812 appeared a
fragment, _The Voyage of Columbus_, and in 1814 _Jacqueline_, in the same
volume with Byron's _Lara_. _Human Life_ was published in 1819. It is a
poem in the old style, (most of his poems are in the rhymed pentameter
couplet;) but in 1822 appeared his poem of _Italy_, in blank verse, which
has the charm of originality in presentation, freshness of personal
experience, picturesqueness in description, novelty in incident and story,
scholarship, and taste in art criticism. In short, it is not only the best
of his poems, but it has great merit besides that of the poetry. The story
of Ginevra is a masterpiece of cabinet art, and is universally
appreciated. With these works Rogers contented himself. Rich and
distinguished, his house became a place of resort to men of distinction
and taste in art: it was filled with articles of _vertu_; and Rogers the
poet lived long as Rogers the _virtuoso_.
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