Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-11-19

ry thing which he knows to exist in fact
he will, with the confused minuteness Of
a Chinese painter, labor to introduce in
to his description, and, by confounding
that which is important to his purpose
with what is subordinate, he will produce
mass Of image, more or less splendid,
according to the yiyacity Of his imasina-
ton, but psrplGxisg. iucongruous and un-
Satisfactory in al respects to the reader,
who, in vain, endeayors to reduce them
| in his own mind into one distinct land
scape, whose parts shall bear a just pro-
portion to each other. Such a poet
has assembled, perhaps, excellent mate.
rails for composition, but he does notpre-
sent them IN ineligible arrangement to
the reader, and he fails to produce up.
on the minds of others the desired effect /;
probably because the picture has never
been presented to bis own with sufficient
accuracy.
This is moseparticularly the case with
such authors IS, lacking the eruditiOn Of
1SOnthey, or the personal experience Of
tord Byron, attempt lay their scene in
countries or ages with the costume and
manners of which they are but imperfect
" acquainted. Such adventures are
compelled TO draw heavily on their slen-
der stock Of knowledge on every coca.
sion, and to parade, as fully as they can,
before the eye Of the reader whatsoever
their reading has CLEANED concerning
their sui let. Without Chatterton's ge-
Mus, they fall into Chatterton's error,
who, not considering that ia the most an
cient authors scarcely one word in ten
has become obsolete, wrote set of po-
ems in which every second word was
taken from a glossary, and necessarily
RENTED to one, under the ide. that he
was initiating the language of the ar-
clients. Thus, when poet deals in ma
terials of which he is net July master, he
is obliged, at the risk of outraging both
taste and nature, to produce IS frequent
ly, and detain before the reader as long
as possible, those distinctive marks by
which he means to impress him with the
reality Of his story; and the outrage is
committed in vain, for it is not enough
for the representation Of an eastern land.
scape that the foreground should be en-.
cumbered with turbans and ssbres, and
the fantastic architecture Of the kiosk or
the mosque, it the distance be not mark
ed BY these slight but discriminating
touches which mark the reality IF the
scene. the lightly indicated palm tree
which overhangs the distant fountain, or
the shadowy and obscure delineation Of
the long column Of the caravan retreat.
ing through the distance, or the watch.
man who rests on his lance while his tribe
slumbers around him, as in the following
exquisite picture taken from one of the
poems before us:
=" The boy was sprung to manhood: in
the wilds
OF fiery chimes he made himself home,
And his soul drank their sun.beams he
vas grit not
With strange and dusky aspects he was
Himself like what he had been; on the sea |
And on the shore he was a wanderer;
Thsre was mass of many images
Crowded like waves upon me, but he was
A part Of all /; and in the last he lay
Reposing from the noon. tide suliriness,
Couched among fallen columns, in the
shade names |
OF ruin'd walls that had SURVIVED the
Of those who rear'd them by his sleep
Ing side [steeds |
Stood camels grazing, and some goodly |
Were fasten'd near fountain; and man |
Clad in a flowing garbdid watch the while.
While manyofhis tribe sIumber'd around:
And they were canopied by the blue sky,
So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful, |
That God alone was to be seen ;nIleav'n."
To be continually
Washington, .Nou Il.