The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

NIMROD ; a Poem. By R. W. Jameson. Pickering.
This is a poem on a truly heroic subject, the pro-
gress of ambition in the mind of the mighty hunter
before the Lord, the founder of the first empire, the
process by which the devil (for he also is here in
propria persona) transmutes the philanthropist into
the ty rant, through means of the bad element of un-
interrupted success. The conception is therefore
grand. The execution, to be commensurate, might
tax the genius of Milton himself ; and yet we must
do the author justice in saying that, if he must not be
classed in so high a category, he has vindicated a
claim to the high name of poet. The poem com-
mences with a spirited description of the deluge, as
I described by an angel who enjoyed the privilege of a
bird's-eye view :

" 'Twas I who rode
The Comet on its wild terrific way,
Hissing along earth's orbit after it.
I felt the shudder of the stricken world,
I saw the waters heaving from their bed,
Vexing the heated air with stifling steam,
Which hid the dire uproar at work below;
Till the winds, swift assembling, issued forth,
And rushing o'er the ocean's rising rage,
Grasped his erected mane, and, whirling up,
Dashed it on earth in whelming cataracts,
That ploughed the continents in ghastly seams,
And burst the stony bonds of the under deep;
Then for a moment, the far darting scream
Ot universal dying smote mine ear.
But as I heard—the gathering, shattering roar
Of two vast oceans meeting in mid earth,
The Antarctic to the Artie, rushing o'er the hills,
The world's wild knell, the flood's victorious shout
To the far Moon resounded hoarse and strong;
Till even her seas began to heave and swell
With ominous ambition."
There is then the episode of an antediluvian maiden
dying in presence of her angel lover, and the subse-
quent voluntary exile of both from heaven rather than
separate. For this, though perhaps the finest passage
in the poem, we regret we have no room. Nimrod
is then brought on the scene with his parents and his
betrothed Nahmah. He is now a true hero, engaged
merely in the useful warfare with the brute pests of
the infant world. Meanwhile Raphael the archangel,
with his chorus of contented, and therefore happy,
spirits; Satan, represented as the personation of all-
daring, all-defying self-reliance ; and Abaddona, a half-
angel, half-fiend, who presumes to think for himself,
and therefore is on the sure road to perdition, make a
compact and try their antagonistic powers on the
conduct and fates of Nimrod and Nahmah. We have
no room for their discussions, but the following
" Ode to Light" will give a favourable impression of
the poetry which the reader will find there:—
CHORUS.

When, hovering o'er the formless void concealed
Asleep in darkness, God rebuked the night,
Creation sudden to itself revealed
Smiled on its Maker, and the smile was Light.

ABDIEL.
Light first the awful Voice obeyed,
The Word by which all things were made,
And Night and Silence fled dismayed,
When Light sprang into Space.
Then Life thrill'd through dull matter's frame,
As Light swept by in quickening flame;
The torpid mass a World became
And wheeled into its place.

CHORUS.
Light's beams are darting every where,
Each orb with radiance clothing fair,
Till all the same effulgence share,
To all a common tie:
From its rich fount for ever flowing,
From sphere to sphere for ever glowing,
in each new visit joy bestowing;
While gloom and shadows fly.
ABDIEL.
And, as Light reaches matter dead,
Lite, motion, order 'gin to spread;
A new world owns its living Head,
Whose messenger is Light.
For Life with Light He ever blends,
To outer Space both ever sends,
And thus his mighty sway extends
With realms reft from the night.

CHORUS.
Untiring Light through Space afar,
Flashes from infant star to star;
Its happy toils all endless are,
For Space no limit knows.
Far darting through the boundless deep,
Night rousing from her dreamless sleep,
Creation widening in its sweep,
Light ever onward goes.

With Nimrod the Devil of course succeeds, he goes
on from crime to crime until by the subjugation of
the horse, which is described with great force and
animation, he founds his bloody throne in Baal, and
through the devices of crafty priests he believes
himself the son of Bad, and sacrifices his be-
loved Nahmah to what they tell him is the
demand of hii divine sire. Nahmah through meekness
and love triumphs over all temptation, is favoured
with a vision of the crucified and risen Redeemer.
The latter thus described :
A " The joyous cowing Sun