The Sun.
London, England, 1815-08-16 00:00:00

. . . till at last

Beshle t 4 ridge of a grassy grave, _
quietness she lays her down;
' Gently as!a weary save
Sinks, when the dimmer Meese bath died,
Against pyt,ancAue d vessel's side;—
The ticture of this grave, the resting place of
Pitasslis PS'oitToN„is,llo liss feelingly wrungliti-4
It was a solitary mound ; .
Which two spears-length 'of level groutid..
Did frotp,all other graves divide :
As if in some respect of pride;
'Or Melancholy's sickly mood, •
Still shy of htinian neighbourhood ;• •
Ot guilt, that hutubly would express
.A penitential lonelin'esS.

We think we hear. some one exclaim : ifsuch bti
fair examples of the White Doe,of Rylstone, then,
surely, must the eensures.applied, to it be invidi-
ous and unjust.. Turn over only two pages, gen..-
tle Reader, and you will find -reason to .change
your opinion. What can be said of such falst
gallop of verses as-

A pious structure fair to see,
:Itoie:tip--this stately priory ! . .
The Lady's work.,--;-hut now laid, low; ,
To the grief of her soul that cloth come and
In the beautiful,, form of this innocent Doe:
thougleseemi.ng doom"d in its breast to sustain,
A sofNu'd remembrance of sorrow and pain,
Is spot less and holy, and gentle, and bright,7—
And glides o'er the.eartlf like an angel of light.

But pas we bye such unworthy jingling, and
such lines as the following, which nobody
,coulii
guess are applied to the lady` and the Doe :
With L,lr and With her Sylvan friend,
The friend who stood &fere her sea,
Hat only unextinguished lig.it ;
and pass we over several fine and many mean,say:
inga in the three first Cantos" to cite a page of the
fourth, after reading which we think the general
yoke will accord with our own in an expression of
wonder that the same pen could write so well and
ill at the same time :
Ah ! who could think that sadness here
Had any sway or pain,,or feat.?
A soft and lulling sound is heard
Of streams inaadible by day ;
The garden pool's dark surface—stirred
By insects in their play—
Breaks into dimples small and bright;
A thousand, thousand rings of light
That shape themselves and disappear
Almost as soon as seen ;—and lo
Not distant far, the milk-white Doe :
The same fair creature which was nigh

Feeding in tranquillity,
When Francis uttered to the Maid
his last v rds in the Yew•tree shade.
&c. &c.

• -

! falling oil in the lait lines=iiti~v lard
and impotent' is this conclusion when compared witit
the vivid colouring of the natural- picture which
precedes it. It ii'not only that HomEtt sleeps, but
his sleep is infested with the night-thare. - But
the whole work is. full of such inconsistencies:
In the very next page is the following
comparison

the Maid

Emerging from the cedar shade-
To open moon-shine where the Doe
Beneath the Cypress,spire is laid ;
Like a patch of April snowi
Upon a bed of herbage green;
Lingering'iq a woody gladei
Or behind aTOclty scicen ;
Lonely Relic !

and thcri_c.otues.—but we tt•ill quote no more of
the stuff, which is trebly offensive from being iti-
Acrspersed by these bright patches. Why should
we mention such lines at these,—
For though .he bore a valiant name,
His hcitrt was of a timid frame.
to add we were astonished that from the same
hand comes this grand pertbnification—
' - despoil and desolation
tie'r Rylst2ne's fair domain have blown,
The Walks and Pools NEGLECT has sown
. Witliweeds—the Bowers are overthrown—
atid.that it could immediately lapse again into
such miserable rhyme, and dangerous use of terms
as—

Thy soul exalted Erni -
Maid of the blastiql Family—&c.

tut we.may observe, that one of the chief errors
of this Schtiol is, in aiming at nature and shnpli-
city, to employ low, ,ambiguous, and vulgar lan-
guage, which is more apt. to debase the sentiment
than to be exalted by the sentiment. We.
see, indeed; that by the magic•of SH AKESPEMIE'S
genius a common phrase is often ennobled
and'even adds force to the idea it is introduced tm
illustrate, but it is not every one who can bend
the .bow of ACHILLES, and it aught never to be
forgotten that what is rare in SnAttzsPEAßE.oc.,
curs in almost every,,thlrd line of the Modern
Simplificators, till their poetry appears in a garb of
vulgarity, which is. destructive of the loveliest
forms and noblest feelings.

Our objections are equally strong to the jargon.
about " presences," influences,'" Mortal," and
other words of the same class, which are so largely
employed without definite meaning, and seem
rather the type of some mystical confusion in the
nand of the writer, than the sign pf any rational
and embodied ilea. Yet with all these defects, there
is a charm in this species of,poetry, Rs,we think one
extracts. will prove; Which leads us to admire
while we lament; and to love while we reprove,
We wish sincerely there Were more of the genu-
ine gold; and of .the dross; more Of true
in dud less waste of morbid affections ; and ti :at
we might prcYlona these remarks by further spe-
cimens of the beauties of the White Doe, tveni
though we seem rather to have tr4usgresse4 oqr
usual limits,