The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-09 00:00:00

LONGFELLOW'S NEW POEMS.

Flower de Luce. By Henry Wadsworth Long-
fellow. Routledge and Sons.

A little paper-covered volumette of nearly sixty-
,three pages has just come into our hands from the
establishment of Messrs. Routledge and Sons, of the
Broadway, Ludgate, as the latest collection of
Poems written by Professor Longfellow. Flower
de Luce means nothing more than the title of the
first copy of verses in this collection—a little poem
eight stanzas in length and two-and-thirty lines
altogether—a dozen other poems of similar dimen-
sions following Flower de Luce, and making up the
contents of this charming little poetic brochure. For
it is charming beyond a doubt of it, and—brief
though it is, and fragmentary though its constituent
portions are nearly all of them—the book will be
dearly welcome, for many reasons, upon either side of
the Atlantic to the myriad admirers of the genius of
Professor Longfellow. If for nothing else, it would
certainly be thus welcome for the sake of the Five
noble Sonnets he has here put forth upon the Divina
Commedia—like so many poursuivants (to adopt a
famous simile of Wordsworth's, where, writing about
the Sonnet, he says of Milton, "in his hands the
thing became a trumpet") each as it were, sounding
a flourish, as upon a golden trumpet, by way of
announcing the advent of Longfellow's Translation
of the Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise of Dante! In one
of these noble precursory Sonnets, the American
translator of the "Divina Commedia" compares him-
self to one of those labourers whom he has so often
seen, pausing in the dust and heat, laying down his
burden in the cathedral porch, and with reverential
footsteps entering, to cross himself and, kneeling,
repeat his paternoster—
" Far off the noises of the world retreat,
The loud vociferations of the street
Become an undistinguishable roar !
So, as I enter hero from day to day"—
he exclaims—

"And leave my burden at this minster gate,
Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray,
The tumult of the time, disconsolate,
To inarticulate murmurs dies away,
While the eternal ages watch and wait."
In another—still carrying out his comparison of
the Poem to a cathedral, depicting it in all
its stupendous majesty and yet no less in all its
minute finish, with all its loveliness and with all its
grotesquery, its sculptured saints and its fiendish
gargoyles— .

c 4 while, canopied with leaves,
Parvis and portal bloom, like trellised bowers,
And the vast minster seems a cross of flowers !
he cries out with a sudden wonder of awe and ad-
miration—

Ah, from what agonies of heart and brain,
What exultations trampling on despair,
What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong,
What passionate outcry of a soul in pain,
Uprose this poem of the earth and air,
This niediveral miracle of Song!"
In another—entering (still the cathedral) he encoun-
ters the master-builder of it, whom he apostrophises
by the happiest epithet surely he could by possibi-
bility have selected—one that somehow brings be-
fore us, upon the instant, the very countenance of
Dante—calling him " 0 poet saturnine !" And
then—the air around him filled with some unknown
perfume, the tapers shining, the hovering echoes
flying from tomb to tomb—he adds—

" From the confessionals I hoar arise
Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies,
And lamentations from the crypts below;
And then a voice celestial, that begins
With the pathetic words, Although your sins
As scarlet be,' and ends with 'as the snow !' "
In yet another—the functions of the august and
adoring ceremonial within are at their height, the
coloured windows are all a-blaze—the great Rose
revealing Christ's Triumph—Beatrice again ap-
pearing at Dante's side, no longer rebuking, but
smiling her forgiveness—
" And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs
Sing the old Latin Hymns of praise and love,
And benedictions of the Holy Ghost,
And the melodious bells among the spires

O'er all the housetops, and through heaven above,

Proclaim the elevation of the Host !"
Altogether these Five Sonnets kindle our eager
solicitude to welcome the apparition, let us hope
now very soon, indeed, of Professor Longfellow's
translation of Dante's masterpiece—a translation
that, to judge from these Sonnets, has been com-
posed in the loftiest and most Catholic spirit. As
a singular contrast to his eloquent and majestic tri-
butes to the sublimity of the Divina Commedia
there follow immediately afterwards, closing the
volumette under notice, his riant, gay, delight-
ful, effervescent verses, addressed, the Christmas be-
fore last, to his friend M. Agassiz, accompanying
a seasonable basket containing half a dozen dif-
ferent wines—each:wine being made here to sing, in
character as un ivrogne, a varying yet harmonious
refrain—as, with one of them—

Bons amis
J'ai dans6 chez Agassiz !
And with another

Bons arais
J'ai chanty chez Agassiz !

And so with the others, " dine," soupe," " couch 6,"
with the convivial friend addressed. It is a charm-
ing little pleasantry. " Killed at the Ford," again,
is good— and " Kambula," —and the " Christmas
Bells." As a whole these little poems, ranged thus
side by side, and bound together here, as with a
reed-like stalk of the Flower-de-Luce--though each
considered separately a mere artistic trifle—when
brought thus into combination and harmony, are
as a sylvan pan's-pipe through which the Ame-
rican poet breathes with a careless breath most
eloquent music.

THE EMPEROR'S APPEARANCE AT THE REVIEW
on Monday is thus described by the Times' Paris
correspondent :—" The review held on Monday by the
Emperor was as much for the purpose of showing how
unfounded wore the reports current in Paris since his re-
turn from Biarritz (that he could not sit on horseback, and
has not done so since his illness at Vichy) as for anything
else. Pressure of business, much mental anxiety caused
by the turn affairs had taken in Germany, and deep vexa-
tion at the manner in which M. Bismark trifled with him,
as well as indisposition, prevented his Majesty from ap-
pearing at the camp at Chalons, and distributing on the
15th of August the decorations usually given in honour of
that Imperial fete on the breaking up of the camp. On
that occasion the Emperor was represented by Marshal
Baraguay d'Hilliers, and the men and officers did not lose
their rewards in consequence of his absence. No decora-
tions, I believe, were given at the review on Monday.
There is one fact, however, relating to this review which
would have furnished an additional illustration of Dr.
Whatoly's historic Doubts. The Moniteur, aware of the
anxiety of the public as to the Emperor being able to sit
on his horse, says that his Majesty rode with the Empress
and Prince Imperial from St. Cloud to Bois de Boulogne,
where the review was held ; the other papers mentioned
that he arrived close to the ground in an open carriage, and
only then got on horseback. Several persons professing to
be eye-witnesses corroborate the official journal; several
persons, also professing to be eye-witnesses, corroborate the
other papers. I was not at St. Cloud when the Emperor
set out, so that on this particular point I cannot speak as an
eye-witness. But what I can affirm is that his Majesty
was on horseback during the review, and that he more
than once galloppod round the field with the Empress and
Prince Imperial. It is admitted on all hands that he re-
turned to St. Cloud, not on horseback, but in an open car-
riage. Then, again, opinions differ as to the Emperor's
appearance; some (eye-witnesses, of course) say that he
looked fatigued, haggard, and, indeed, anything but well ;
others that he was quite blooming. The truth here lies, as
it often does, between extremes. I thought the Emperor
looking, not ill, nor haggard, nor " blooming," but pretty
much as ho usually looks. For the rest the movements
were executed in masterly style by the troops, and the
charge of the Brigade of the Cavalry of the Guard and of
the Ist corps d'armee, which concluded the review, excited
general admiration and applause. The Emperor expressed
his great satisfaction to Marshal Regnaud do St. Jean
cl'Augely at the fine appearance of the men and the preci-
sion and regularity of their movements. The day was fine,
and a vast number of people were on the ground.
THE DEPARTURE OF TILE FRENCH TROOPS FROM
ROME.—A letter from Rome in the Italie of Florence says:
" The French has disposed of the furniture of the military
hospital. The Jews bought 4,000 coverlids, and the Ponti-
fical Government 40,000 f. worth of stores. After the depar-
ture of the army of occupation, the castle of San Angelo will
be occupied by the Roman Legion now at Viterbo. The
Zouaves will be concentrated in Rome."

FATAL ACCIDENT AT ALDEIINEV.—A party of
ladies and gentlemen started one day last week to explore
a part of the island of Alderney, known as Mutton Valley.
The descent from the upper ground being abrupt, and the
nature of the rock loose and friable, the undertaking was
one of difficulty and danger, as was unhappily proved by
one of the ladies falling from a considerable height, whereby
sho sustained such severe injuries that her death eu6ued
three days later,