The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-09 00:00:00

.
LITERATURE.
POEMS. By E. B. Barrett. 2 Vole.
Mosun, London, 1844.
•
In the course of a modest and gracefully-written
preface to these volumes of poems, Miss Barrett re-
marks :—" If it must be said of me that I have con-
tributed immemorable verses to the many rejected by
the age, it cannot at least be said that I have done so
in a light and irresponsible spirit. Poetry has been
as serious a thing to me as life itself, and life has been
a very serious thing ; there has been no .playing at
skittles for me in either. I never mistook pleasure
for the final course of poetry, nor leisure for the hour
of the poet." There are abundant proofs throughout
these volumes that the authoress has regarded the
efforts of the fancy and the feeling in no light or su-
perficial spirit ; but has brought to the task of poetical
composition, thought, earnestness, anxious solicitude,
and a high and ennobling sense of the importance of
the work she is engaged on. In her principal poem,
however, headed a Drama of Exile"—fine as some
passages in it undoubtedly are—we think that she
has formed rather too ambitious an estimate of her
imaginative powers, and essayed a flight beyond her
capacity. The region in which her genius expatiates
to the greatest advantage is certainly not the sub-
lime ; she sustains herself in that lofty sphere with
evident difficulty; and toils and strains to make her
position good, in a manner that must convince even
the most partial reader that she is far less at 'ionic on
the summit, than on the lower slopes, of 'Parnassus.
Her proper
.place is with the Landons, and the He-
manses, and not with the Byrons or the Words-
worths. The objection we have just urged applies
solely to Miss Barrett's ambitious " Drama of Exile r
in her other poems, where she adopts an huMbler
tone, nothing can be more decided than her success.
Her pathos, in particular, is exquisite; and' cold
must be the heart, and limited the understanding,
that can peruse, untouched, the " Lost Bowei"—a
poem conceived in the most genuine imaginative
spirit, full of the purest and profoundest sentiment,
and pervaded by a vein of thought that has surprised,
not less than it has delighted us. We prefer, how-
ever, quoting, as being more suitable to our limits,
a shorter poem, entitled " CatarLia to Camoens,
Dying in his Absence abroad, and referring to the
Poem in which he had recorded the sweetness of her
Eyes :"

On the door you will not enter,
I have gazed too long—adieu!
Hope withdraws her peradventure—
Death is near me,—and not you
Come, 0 lover,
Close and cover
These poor eyes, you called, I ween,
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
When I heard you sing that burden
In my vernal days and bowers,
Other praises disregarding,
I but hearkened that of yours,—
Only saying,
In heart-playing,
" Blessed eyes mine eyes have been,
If the sweetest, His have seen!"

But all changeth! At this vesper,
Cold the sun shines down the door!
If you stood there, would you whisper
" Love, I love you," as before,—
Death pervading
Now, and shading -
Eyes you sang ot; that yestreen,
As the sweetest, ever seen?
Yes! I think, were you beside them,
Near the bed I die upon,—
Though their beauty you denied them,
As you stood there, looking down,
You would truly
Call them duly,
For the love's sake found therein,—
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
And if you looked down upon them,
And if they looked up to you,
All the light which has forgone them
Would be gathered back anew!
They would truly
Be as duly
Love-transformed to Beauty's sheen,—
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
•
But, ah me! you only see me
In your thoughts of loving man,
Smiling soft perhaps and dreamy
Through the wavings of my fan,—
And unweeting
Go repeating,
In your reverie serene,
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

While my spirit leans and reaches
From my body, still and pale,
Fain to hear what tender speech is
In your love, to help my bale-
-0 my poet,
Come and show it!
Come, of latest love, to glean
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
0 my poet, 0 my prophet,
When you praised their sweetness so,
Did you think, in singing of it,
That it might be near to go?
Had you fancies
From their glances,
That the grave would quickly screen,
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"
No reply! The fountain's warble
In the court-yard sounds alone!
As the water to the marble
So my heart falls with a moan,
From love-sighing
To this dying !
Death forerunneth Love, to wit
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
Will you come? when I'm departed
Where all sweetnesses are hid—
When thy ♦oice, my tender-hearted,
Will not lift up either lid.
Cry, 0 lover,
Love is over!
Cry beneath the cypress green—
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen.
When the angelus is ringing,
Near the convent will you walk,
And recal the choral singing
Which brought angels down our talk?
Spirit-shriven
I viewed Heaven,
Till you smiled—" Is earth unclean,
Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"
When beneath the palace-lattice,
You ride slow as you have done,
,And you see a face there—that is
Not the old familiar one,—
Will you oftly
Murmur softly,
" Here, ye watched me morn and e'en,
Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."
When the palace ladies sitting
Round your Bittern, shall have said,
" Poet, sing those verses, written
For the lady who is dead,"—
Will you tremble,
Yet dissemble,—
Or sing hoarse, with tears between,
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"

Sweetest eyes! How sweet in flowings,
The repeated cadence is!
Though you sang a hundred poems,
Still the best one would be this.
I can hear it
'Twixt my spirit
And the earth-noise, intervene—
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"
But the priest waits for the preying,
And the choir are on their knees,—
And the soul must pass away in
Strains more solemn high than these!
Miserere
For the weary—
Oh, no longer for Catrine,
" Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

---
THE FIRST DAY or SHOOTING.—September in
here, and after being kept upon the half-cock for a day
by the Sunday occupying the customary opening of thu
campaign, the band of sportsmen yesterday morning
marched forth to commence their skirmishing with the
coveys.
The harvest this year is pretty well in, allow-
ing a fair range for their barrels, and a free course for
their rambles ; and the partridges which are now
legitimate 6, food for powder," are in fair plenty.
so that game bags are not likely to return half
empty, or old friendships be divested of their cus-
tomary annual brace. Fears were at one period ex-
pressed that the long drought would make a scarcity
of birds : the youones, it was said, instead
in
of dying boldly the open autumn fields, were
basely perishing in furrows and ditches, for lack of the
teetotal fluid ; but this has
ortin out
a partlyigawzi
rn iet
written
falseanys aand
prophecy, and a writer in the
p
" I rejoice to say that the Sporting
both
verbal which I have received give promise of an unusu-
ally good season. The weather during the hatching
month has been all that we could desire ; a year more fa-
vourable to the partridge shooter was scarcely ever
known; and I greaty err if the year 1844 will not deserve
a notch in the sportsman's calendar. In the low meadow
lands some few nests have fallen before the scythe of the
mower, but the bulletins from all parts of the country
assure me that the coveys are numerous as well as large.
Of a verity, then, our friends of the trigger, with this de-
lightful weather, have a good prospect before them; and
we hope to be able in our review of the works to give s
avoury report of their proceedings.—Esser Hormel.
JURISDICTION OP MAGISTRATRS.—HORBB-R1R1...•••
In reply to a statement by a Magistrate of this county.
forwarded for the opinion of the law officers of the
Crown, Mr. Brewster has given the following opinion :
—" If the owner works with the horse, the hire of both
may be recovered before Magistrates ; but if the owner
does not work with his horse, if he lets out his horse
and a hired person to attend him, or if he lets out his
horse alone, the magistrates have no jurisdiction."
Tralee Chronicle.
BRISTOL SUGAR MARKET, SEPT. 6. —We have had
more inquiry for sugars this week, and nearly 600 hhds.
West India have been sold at about former prices :-
1,000 bags of Bengals and a few small parcels of Multi.
tins have also been disposed of, but at-rather oozier rates.
Refined goods aro steady, but not active..-Bristai
Mercury.