Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1828-06-12

grave
Would burs, its marble portals TO reveal;
Or his, who latest in the holy cause
OF Freedom, lifted to the heavens bis voice,
Commanding, and beseeching, and with all
The fervour Of his spirit poured abroad,
Urging the sluggish souls of self made slaves
To emulate their fathers, and be free;
Or those, which in the still and solitary shades
OF Aeademus. from the wooing tongue
OF Plato, chsrm'd the youth, the man, the
sage,
Disccursing Of the perfect and the pure,
The beautiin and holy, till the sound,
That play d round his eloquent lips, became
The hoaey OF persuasion. and was heard,
Ascracles amid Dodona's groves.
With eye upturn'd watching the many stars,
And ear in deep attention fix'd, he sits.
Communing with himself, aud with the world,
The universe around him, and with all
The beings of his memory, and his hopes;
itipas. becomes reality. and joys,
That beckon in the fIure, nearer drav,
And ask fruition. O! there is pure.
A haow'd feeling in,hese midnight dreams,
They have the light Of heaven around them,
breathe
The odnurs Of its sanctity. and are
Those moments taken from the sands of life,
Where guilt makes no intrusion, bus they
bloom,
Like islands how'ring on Arabis's wild.
And there's pleasure IN the uttersace
OF pleasant images and pleasant words.
Melting like melody ato the ear.
And stealing on in one continual flow.
Unr'fhed and nnbrokep. Il is Joy
Inefiable, to dwell upon the lines.
That register Our feelings and portray,
In colours always fresh and ever new,
Emotions that We're sanctified, and loy'd
AS something tar too tender and TOO pure,
For forms so frail and fading. have sat,
in days, when sensIbility was Young,
And the heart beat Responsive TO the sight.
The touch, and music OF the lovely one;
Yes, have sal, entranc'd. enrapturd, till
The spirit would have utterance and words
Flow d full OF hope, and love, and melody,
ihe gushlngs OF an o,erburden'd heart
drunk with enchsntment, bursting freely forth,
Like fountains in the early days Of spring.
Mr.. Percival is one Of the MOST gifted Of cur
American Poets: The skill Of his yersitication--
the force and briIlancy Of his genius--tbe tx.
tent andsariety of his requirements have been
allowed by both English and American critics,
Ihe following highly finished tribute TO his
genus and writings is extracted from the North
American Review of January, 1926:
mere certainly reigos in many parts of these
poems the true ethereal spirit. The vein is
often as hne as We have ever known The
pieces are not few, IN which the soul of the
author, rising as he proceeds, involves itself
and the reader in a cloud OF delicious encban,
n1ent' He possesses the rare and divine ar, of
impartns to language those mysterious and nm.
earthly influences which come from the strings
VI an Houan harp. Without employing our
senses as Instruments, he can yet ditfnse thro'
our feelings something like the result OF all the
sweetest sensations. Other authors often oh
tam admiration and fame from tho excellence
and beauty of separate ideas and Sentiments.
and the skill with which they arrange them -
These gifts are enough to make the fine wli,er:
thsy may produce the deepes, immediate i'm
pressions But to these Mr.. Percival adds the
power OF exciting IN the mind a pervadtng and
continuing charmi IN aggregate effect, separate
nom the original one, analogous to a secondary
ranoow. Asyou wander through the garden
OF bis poetry, you enjoy something more than
'he pleasure OF gszing On individual specimens.
OF hhailhg their successive sweets, or survey.
ing gay beds and fairly ordered partel res;-for
que ar itself IS occupied with a spirit of ming.
LAGRANGE AS mere music often speaks
u '4IBusge' SO our authors language
nfeathes sors Of music. We are convinced
have had exactly the same feeling as in survey
ins admired subjects in the sister arts OF pant
ing and s.stusry.
To descend However to praises little more
particular and discriminating, authov's
wide command OF the English language de.
serves honorable notice. His rhymes are un
eknled, yet always very natural. He has
scarcely atrek of the mere versGer. We meet
with afew diversions OF the co omen order Of
syntsx He has drunk deeply OF the best uu
detiled springs.
I'VE are next pleased with bis intimate IA
inilIarlty With classical literature. * IS evident
" OF kind not borrowed from Lemprere. II
keneraiiy appears 10 incidental sllls IONS. which
arc rather forced upon him from well stored
M "orv, than sought after for the purpose OF
:. u'sPisY. Il IS dopbiy refreshing 70 meet with |
W. property IN our suthO5; both as II furnishes
PROOF mat the race of ripe classical scholars IS
h9nfIshtng among us, and also that the stock
" CLASSICAL images and ornament is tar from |
peiHg exhausted. We are persuaded. more.
o'eF' that Mr Pefeiyal bss caught from the