The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-05 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Poetry of Creation. In seven Parts. By

Nicholas Michell. Chapman and Hall.
Happily for us Mr. Michell .is one of those ex-
ceptional writers of verse still living who, accord-
ing to Arago's notion of such matters, contrives to
be politely comprehensible. His thoughts, metri-
cally expressed, are not, as with so many of his
spasmodic contemporaries, rugged little nuts to be
mumbled and cracked—and very often when cracked
found to contain, in lieu of any ripened kernel, a
mere, little, soap-flavoured, leathery, nothing 1
Rather be it said of his poems as of the more bloom-
ing shrubs of the garden, that their leaves will be
found interspersed plentifully—nob with sour hazel-
pods, or disappointing filberts, fruits composed for
the most part of husk and shell, encasing some
wizened atom of mouldering pith, but, as with any
full-grown orange-bush—abundantly laden, among
its leaves, with the verdant germs of thought, and
the golden fruit of philosophy, and the silvering
flowers of rhetoric, the threefold products of a
really prolific and genuinely poetic imagination.
These characteristics were especially observable in
Mr. Michell's earliest metrical production of any
importance, whether as to the scope of its theme
or the amplitude of its treatment—we allude to his
elegant archaeological poem, " The Ruins of Many
Lands," a work already in its fourth edition, and
one which it will be remembered celebrated the
glories collectively of such renowned localities as
Babylon, Nineveh, Athens, Rome, Corinth, Pom-
peii, Baalbec, Palmyra, Persipolis, and Jerusa-
lem. They were, moreover, scarcely less observ-
able—these amiable and acceptable characteristics
of Mr. Michell's intellectual capacity—in his
historical poem entitled " Spirits of the Past," a
poem descriptive among other celebrated person.
ages, of military heroes, extending in point of time
from the remote days of Xerxes to the later age of
the Great Napoleon. Qualities no less admirable
are equally to be discerned in the new poem now
lying before us—the remarkable effusion in whose
seven books, or cantos, Nicholas Michell has ven-
tured with a daring and sonorous voice to ehaunt
forth a lay relating to some few among the innu-
merable wonders of what he has here aptly termed
" The Poetry of Creation." An adventurous
theme, surely ; one, indeed, in itself altogether as
sublime and stupendous as those celestial themes
which occupied long since the colossal genius of a
Milton and of an Algierhi—leading one into the
abysses of Heaven, and Hell, and Purgatory, the
other successively through the primeval regions of
a Paradise Lost, and the apocalyptic glories of a
Paradise Regained. The scheme of the work
before us, we repeat, is bold, almost beyond the
limits of exaggeration ; but Mr. Michell proves,
by the mode in which he has treated it throughout,
to have been in no way rash in its selection.
" The Poetry of Creation," as here interpreted by
our author in a lofty but reverential spirit, expressed
through fancies articulated in rhymed octo-syllabic
verse, flowing and melodious from the first line to
the last, opens with the awful and holy thought of
the Deity—spreading thence, from that unutterable
centre of the universe, as from a mathe-
matical point, ever and ever in enlarging circles,
through a space without either breadth or
length, or height or depth, or diameter
or circumference. Treating of Angelic Intelli-
gences, of the Mosaic Record, of the Mechanism
of the Heavens, of an Evil Spirit, of the Solar
System, of the Earth newly-created and afterwards
Baptised by the Deluge, of Man, of Womao, of
valleys, of mountains, of the river, the lake, the
ocean, of the vegetable world and the animal
world, of bird and beast, of fish and insect,
of forest-leaf and waterdrop, of soul and body,
of sin and redemption I How subjects such
as these are sung in harmonious numbers by
Mr. Michell may be indicated, of course, loss
clearly by analysis than by actual quotation.
Wherefore let us illustrate by extract rather than
by description our author's power of celebrating
thus, in verses of great beauty, the wonder, and
the glory, and the loveliness of the "Poetry of
Creation." He is speaking of a bulb—
" Behold a wonder !—stoop, survey
This rough, rude thing ; a clod of clay
As shapelul and as fair ; the husk
Not coloured-touched, but dull and dusk ;
The eye rejects its dingy dress,
The foot would crush its worthlessness.
Give it to vivifying earth,
Warm sun and shower, and what has birth I
The torpid bulb, you fancied dead,
Sends from its dark and loamy bed,
The veined soft leaf of lively green,
And daily mystic growth is seen ;
It still expands, most simple, plain,
But how ? all science asks in vain.
And now—sweet sight !—doth upward swell,
Through parted leaves, the tulip's bell ;
And as breaks Morning's genial hour,
Her sunny fingers ope the flower."
Whereupon, with the true feeling of a poet, he
dores down with 4-1,- U. gorgeous chsii‘o
of the tulip—thus :
" Look in this palace-hall, that glows
With loveliest hues that Nature knows
The walls rich amber, and each fold
Of drapery with crimson bound,
The petals, gorgeous lamps of gold,
Diffusing scents and richness round.
No painter's hand could colours lay,
Like those the tulip's leaves display ;
The iris e'en, in Spring's soft sky,
Might pale her arch for jealousy.
The passing zephyr stays his wing,
And enters the enchanted place,
And drinks perfume as from a spring, •
All wondering at the bower of grace.
The bee, bold epicure, which flies
From plant to plant, and sips their sweets,
But turns distasteful till he meets
The feast he loves, here finds a prize.
His deep delight hose hummings tell,
But when he plunges in the cell,
And walks along the silky floor,
And the full banquet revels o'er,
For ecstacy he hums no more.
There lies he in that flower of June,
There sleeps he in the warmth of noon,
Drinking rich wine from amber cup,
Till round the bacchant all things swim ;
And when he strives to clamber up,
He scarce can reach the tulip's brim ;
And wandering home with laden thighs,
And jocund heart, and sleepy eyes,
He ne'er forgets that gorgeous flower,
The honied Queen of Summer's bower."
Occasionally, it seems to us, we will admit, that
our author, in his exceeding lucidity of thought
and perspicuity of expression, degenerates into
colloquialisms altogether unworthy of a theme so
grand and awful as " The Poetry of Creation."
As where he speaks of the passage of light from
one of the remoter stars as a—

" Task that commenced when Adam rose—
Might till this hour through space have run,
Nor brought his journey to a close,
But found it only just begun !"
Or, again, whore he says of the adorable Divinity :
" From out His throne there flashed a light,
Soft as his love, yet richly bright,"—
an adjective miserably weak and indefinite, being
in truth a specimen of the Rosa-Matilda kind of
prettily-modulated phraseology. Blemishes such
as these, however, are rather blurrs than deformi-
ties. They are, so to speak, in reference to the
form of tho poem, rather as a mole on the arm of a
Cynthia, than as a hunch on the back of an An ti-
nous. Flaws to be regarded as of no account, when
compared with so much attendant excellence.
" The Poetry of Creation," let us add, in fine, is to
the venerable text of the Holy Bible—be it reve-
rently spoken—as an exquisite vignette illustration.

AMALGAMATION OF TWO WEST-END
BANKING FIRMS.

Two of the West-end banking firms, Messrs. Ransom
and Co., of Pall-mall East, and Messrs. Bouverie and
Co., of the Haymarket, acting upon the recent sugges-
tion that a combination of the smaller establishments
would be advantageous both for themselves and th
public, have resolved upon an amalgamation, and the
business of the two houses will, on and after the Ist of
next month, be conducted under the address of Ransom,
Bouverie, and Co. Among the benefits to be derived
from such a junction the guarantee it affords of the
sound position of both banks is an important one, since
a common assumption of liabilities is scarcely likely to
be proposed and adopted except in cases where each
house is prepared to show to the other that the solidity
of its position is beyond the possibility of question, In
the present instance the arrangement, and all the inves•
tigations connected with it, are understood to have taken
place under the auspices of one of the most influential of
the city bankers. Annexed is the circular announce-
ment :

" Pall-mall East, Dec., 1855.
"We beg to inform you that Mr. Williams and Mr.
Squire having for some time contemplated retiring alto-
gether from business, an arrangement has been made by
Mr. Kinnaird to form a junction between Ransom and
Co. and the highly-respectable banking firm of Bouverie
and Co., of the Haymarket.
" The partners in the new firm will be the Hon. Arthur
Kinnaird, the Hon. Pleydell Bouverie, Mr. Murdoch,
Mr. Philip Pleydell Bouverie, and Mr. James.
" On and after the lat of January next the business
will be carried on at the above address in the name of
Ransom, Bouverie, and Co.
"We hope this arrangement will prove satisfactory to
you, and that the same confidence hitherto reposed in us
will be extended to the new firm.

"RANSOM AND CO."

THE EXPLOSION AT WOOLWICII.—One of the poor suf
f(-reN from the explosion in the Royal Arsenal on Mon-
day, named Henry Langbarn, died of the injuries be re-
ceived at half.past 9 o'clock on Monday evening. Another
named Thomas Holland is in such a dreadful stateitbat
he is not expected to survive.

MONEY MARKET

AND