Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1819-02-19


In closer bands ;-etherial dew
Oflove and young desire was swimming
In her bright eyes, albeit not Cumming
Their starry radiance. rather bright ming
Their beams with passions liquid light
She c,aspsd him to her throbbing breast
And on bis lips, her lips she press'd,
And cried the while
With joyous smile:
"These lips are mine: the spells have
switch rsund and round thy seal Irvine;
And be the kiss ! print upon them
"Poison to all lips but mine ~
In the darkness and horror of the tenn
pest raised by the arts of the enchantress,
as described in the fifth canto, the dismay-
ed Anthemion
Looks upon her radiant form
Shining by the golden beams
Of her reiulgent hair, that streams
Like waving star light on tie storm:
And hears the vocal blast that rings
Among her Tyres enchanted strings.
The opening of the 9Th canto is inimita.
bly, beautiful.
Hast thou, in some safe retreat,
Wak'd and watched, to hear the roar
OF breakers on the Yind SWEPT shore
Go forth at morn.-f The waves that eat
Still rough ami white when blasts are o Ter,
May wash all CHASTITY to thy feet
Some victim of the midnigh; stnrn.
From that drench'd garb and paliid form
Shrink moi but fix thy gaze and see
Thy own congenial destiny.
For him, perhaps, an anxious wife
On some far coast o'er-looks the wave
a child unknowing of the strife
Oi elements, 10 whom he gave
His las: fond kiss, is at her bre asst;
The skies are clear, the seas at rest
Before her, and the hour is nigh
Of his return---but black the sky
To him, ami fierce the hostile main
Have been. He will not Come again.
Rhododaphne is thu, described after the
shipwrcck, standing on the shore,
Her hands
Still held the golden Tyre: her hair
In all its long luxuriance hung.
Unringleted, and glittering bright
With briny drops OF diamond light:
Her thin wet garments chung
Around h-r forms rare symmetry.
Like Venus risen from the sea
She seem'd: so beautiful -
That the authors fancy partakes much Of
the light and voIuptuous spirit Of Moore, is
proved in the follow ing lines:
The while in one sequestered cave,
Where roses round the entrance wave,
And jasmine sweet, and clustering vine,
With flowers and grapes the arch DER
twine,
Anthemion and the nymph recline,
While in the sunny space, before
The cave, fountains lucid store
Its chrystal column shoots on high, Ting,
And bursts like .howery diamonds fash
So falls, and with melodious dashins
Shakes the small pool.
Many other passages might be quoted Of
equal brilliancy. Enough, however, has
been exhibited to establish the claim of the
author TO one of the fairest wreatLs from
Parnassus. That there are faults and ble-
mishes in the performance, there can be
no doubtful they are few and small,
with the dazzling beauties which
every where meet the eye. 1t is perhaps
unfortunate for the morality Of the tale, that
Anthemion is made 10 yield to the Syren's
love, as described in the 9Th and sixth can
tos. Nor are the sentipents which some
times escape the author, to be altogether
admired. Thus he seems to mourn that
the age of fabulous mythology, when &C.
very vale and grove and stream" was ami
mated with intellectual life, sheuld have
passed away-not remembering the pollu-
ted orgies ofthe anciel.t worship-nor that
the beauty of the system is derived entire
ly from the poetic medium, through which
il has been transmitted to US Neither can
that maxim of Greek morality be com
mended which the author seems to have a
dopted, namely, that mans happiest lot is
not to be /; and il the illusion in the 9Th
line o. the 9Th canto is not misunderstood,
its chilling and sceptical impiety is sincere
y regretted. Upon the whole this poem
richly deserves public attention and pat
ronage, and is earnestly recommended to
The friends OF genius, and of polite and e.
|egant literature, H.
ANEcporE OF THE SULTAN.
Constdntinopls, Oct. 90.
!. As the Sultan was lately walking near