The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-14 00:00:00

RECENT POETRY.

" Lou " (11 is a poem of sufficiently marked
character to have induced us to read it
through twice. We are convinced that Mr.
Harris has considerable force of intellect and
true poetic imagination ; but both are utterly
undisciplined. The design of the poem is
exceedingly difficult of apprehension, and
every page of it overflows with tumid
phraseology and farfetched conceits. It is
divided into four parts, entitled " Sorrento,"
" Vesuvius," " Sea," " Land ! " which seem in-
tended to correspond with four periods of the
poet's life. The first—all calm and sunshine,
and groves and fountains, and beds of flowers
and banks of moss—is that in which he first
meets the lady of his love, Lota, though under
what order of beings in this universe we are to
range her is at first not easy to divine. If we
were asked what she is like in this first canto,
we should be obliged to reply in old Cave's
language when describing the ghost he had
seen-- Why, sir, something of a shadowy be-
ing." However, as it turns out subsequently
that she is a noble English maiden, of sound
flesh and blood, and neither mum emanation from
Nature, nor " the great subject-object," nor any
other "fabulous animal" of a like character,
we are not called upon for any subtle analysis
of her attributes. She is forbidden, however,
by her " God-thundering " sire to marry the
poet, and straightway " Sorrento " disappears
and we have " Vesuvius." The mountain in
question seems intended to typify an eruption
of volcanic and withering debauchery. A
young gentleman is represented as standing
with three young, ladies somewhere near
the mouth of the crater ; but what then
follows we do not easily understand. Two of
the young ladies, however, are swallowed up ;
and the remaining couple, after going to sleep
in a most extraordinary and uncomfortable
position, somewhere in the bowels of the hill,
end dreaming that they are the sun and moon,
ultimately " see the road to morning," and go
forth together sadder and wiser young people.
The third part, "At Sea," would appear to
signify the period of isolation, reflection, and
repentance. The hero longs to inhabit a star
where he

Might have a whole creation week—
Each day an age—to work upon myself;
To analyse my chaos point by point.
Being compelled to content himself with the
earth, he proceeds in the fourth part, entitled
" Land," from Cornhill to Cairo ; and, after
visiting Greece, winds up at the Crimea,
where who, of all people in the world, should
turn up but Lota—in the shape of a hospital
nurse. The noisy parent, having spent his
last thunderbolt, and being now iu the grave,
all obstacles to their union are removed, and
we are led to suppose they enter into holy
wedlock just like ordinary mortals.
Such is an outline of this singular poem,
which, though we may seem to have rid:euled
its extreme nebulousness, does nevertheless
contain passages of real beauty, or our readers
may he sure we should not have given so
much space to it. The following extracts will,
we hope, be considerel sufficient proof :

How like a god to be a conscious sun !
To see the morn attiring as his bride
Binding a vermeil fillet on her brow,
Selvaged with gold, and blushing in her haste.
Tu drink of dew in chalices of flowers,
And flood a valley o'er with golden life.