-
Articles/Ads
Article REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. ← Page 7 of 10 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of New Publications.
Is it to chant one name in ceaseless lays , ' To hear no words that other tongues can say , To watch the pale moon ' s melancholy ray , " ~ To chide in fondness , and in folly praise ? Is it to pour th' involuntary sigh , To dream of bliss , and wake new pangs to prove ? To talk , in fancy , with the speaking eye , Then start with jealousy , and wildly rove ?
Is it to loath the light , and wish to die ? For these I feel , —and feel that they are love . ' Poems , by Robert Southey . Crown Svo . Pages 220 . Price $ s . Robinsons . MR . SOU THEY , the elegant author of this volume of Poems , is already well known to the public for his Epic Poem of Joan of Arc . From that lofty and dignified species of composition he has stooped to more humble and
artless strains ; and we think it but justice to acknowledge , that the same lively fancy , delicacy of sentiment , strength of judgment , and melodious flow of language , which distinguished that production , are to be found almost throughout the Publication now before us . It opens with the following sonnet ; ' With wayworn feet , a pilgrim woe-begone , Life ' s upward road I journeyed many a day ; And hymning many a sad yet soothing lay ,
Beguil'd my wandering with the charms of song . Lonely my heart , and rugged was my way , Yet often pluck'd I , ' as I past along , The wild and simple Bowers of poesy ;' And , as beseem'd the wayward Fancy's child , Entwin'd each random weed that pleas'd mine eye . Accept the wreath , BELOVED ! it is wild And rudely garlanded ; yet scorn not thou The humble offering , where the sad rue weaves 'Mid gayer flowers its intermingled leaves , And I have twiti'd , the myrtle for thy brow . '
Next follows an historical poem , in varied measure , entitled , The Triumph of Woman , founded on the third and fourth chapters of the first book of Esdras . Mr . S . has done justice to the subject , and . followed the original with as much accuracy and as little superfluous embellishment as possible . While numerous are the bards who degrade their talents with chanting the song of flattery , and disdain to celebrate the charms of Freedom , it gives us p leasure that Mr . S . has recalled our attention to the sorrows of our sable
brethren , and tuned his harp to the mournful accents of the African . Six sonnets on the slave-trade are introduced by a short preface , in which he laments , that the enthusiasm of those who once disused the West-Indian productions was of so . transitory a nature ; and in which he conceives the only remaining alternative for the abolition of the traffic , to be the introduction of maple sugar , ' or the just and general rebellion of the negroes . ' The fifth is a spirited soiinet on a prospect of the . latter ; a dreadful prospect ! Some
of our readers will prefer the following picture of a patient African : p . 3 5 . ' Oh he is worn with toil ! the big drops run - Down his dark cheek ; hold—he-id thy merciless hand . Pale tyrant ! for beneath thy'hard command O ' erwearied nature sinks . The scorching sun , As pity less as proud Prosperity , Darts on him his full beams ; gasping he lies Arraigning with his looks the patient skies , While that inhuman trader lifts on high
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Review Of New Publications.
Is it to chant one name in ceaseless lays , ' To hear no words that other tongues can say , To watch the pale moon ' s melancholy ray , " ~ To chide in fondness , and in folly praise ? Is it to pour th' involuntary sigh , To dream of bliss , and wake new pangs to prove ? To talk , in fancy , with the speaking eye , Then start with jealousy , and wildly rove ?
Is it to loath the light , and wish to die ? For these I feel , —and feel that they are love . ' Poems , by Robert Southey . Crown Svo . Pages 220 . Price $ s . Robinsons . MR . SOU THEY , the elegant author of this volume of Poems , is already well known to the public for his Epic Poem of Joan of Arc . From that lofty and dignified species of composition he has stooped to more humble and
artless strains ; and we think it but justice to acknowledge , that the same lively fancy , delicacy of sentiment , strength of judgment , and melodious flow of language , which distinguished that production , are to be found almost throughout the Publication now before us . It opens with the following sonnet ; ' With wayworn feet , a pilgrim woe-begone , Life ' s upward road I journeyed many a day ; And hymning many a sad yet soothing lay ,
Beguil'd my wandering with the charms of song . Lonely my heart , and rugged was my way , Yet often pluck'd I , ' as I past along , The wild and simple Bowers of poesy ;' And , as beseem'd the wayward Fancy's child , Entwin'd each random weed that pleas'd mine eye . Accept the wreath , BELOVED ! it is wild And rudely garlanded ; yet scorn not thou The humble offering , where the sad rue weaves 'Mid gayer flowers its intermingled leaves , And I have twiti'd , the myrtle for thy brow . '
Next follows an historical poem , in varied measure , entitled , The Triumph of Woman , founded on the third and fourth chapters of the first book of Esdras . Mr . S . has done justice to the subject , and . followed the original with as much accuracy and as little superfluous embellishment as possible . While numerous are the bards who degrade their talents with chanting the song of flattery , and disdain to celebrate the charms of Freedom , it gives us p leasure that Mr . S . has recalled our attention to the sorrows of our sable
brethren , and tuned his harp to the mournful accents of the African . Six sonnets on the slave-trade are introduced by a short preface , in which he laments , that the enthusiasm of those who once disused the West-Indian productions was of so . transitory a nature ; and in which he conceives the only remaining alternative for the abolition of the traffic , to be the introduction of maple sugar , ' or the just and general rebellion of the negroes . ' The fifth is a spirited soiinet on a prospect of the . latter ; a dreadful prospect ! Some
of our readers will prefer the following picture of a patient African : p . 3 5 . ' Oh he is worn with toil ! the big drops run - Down his dark cheek ; hold—he-id thy merciless hand . Pale tyrant ! for beneath thy'hard command O ' erwearied nature sinks . The scorching sun , As pity less as proud Prosperity , Darts on him his full beams ; gasping he lies Arraigning with his looks the patient skies , While that inhuman trader lifts on high