The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-01-01
OIL GINAL.
REVIEW.

PSiso"~i "No Hseio'y "ios'ePh3 ~o efths ttfAOus
and wonderful He Is a true poet and true
man; and the poor peasantry Of EneIand owe,
perhaps, greater debt to him than to any man
now living He was the FIRST who daredss, up-
raise his voice against that dreadful b-sao-t tax,
that ground so hardly upon the INDECENT people
of his country. He is to the manufacturing
poor Of England Just what Burns was to her ag-
ricultural poor; their father, friend, and broth
or. But Elliot's mind is cast In a far more
iron frame than was that Of Burns. Burns
grew up and imbibed his pOethood amid the hills
and wales of Scotia; in the open fields, under the
blue heaven and clear sky, and In direct COM
munion with Nature and her God; while Elliot
was begrimmed with the smoke Of the furnace,
and had for companions only the rough and un-
tutored intellects that were huddled together in
the factories of Sheffield; viewed the beauties
Of creation in his early life only as they shons
through the msts Of the city, and could only
make music whose pauses were filed with the
ring Of the anvil and the whrr of the wheels.
So that while Burns "woodnotes wild" were
sweet and soft the love song Of the turtle,
Elliot's music was fierce, and hard, and burning
as the iron on which he rang its accompany
ment.
ElliOt's mission here, is truly the divine mis-
sion Of The Poet. He comes not to amuss the
mind or TO excite the fancy, but he comes as
Mentor to men, to tell them their wrong doings
and to point them TO the way Of truth and JUS
tice. He comes with the widows sob and the
Orphans tear, and shows them to the aggressor
and bids him look. think, repent, and make res
titutiOn. He bears the petition Of the injured
one up to the throne Of justice, and, not sues,
but boldly demands answer and redress. He
quails not to the mightiest of the mighty; he
kneels but TO God himself-and yet, clothed in all
the majesty of his might and honor, he does not
hesitate to bend down his ear to the cries Of the
humblest among US, and soothe with his kindness
and bless with hisPrayers even the beggar by the
way-side. He cares not for the conventional
forms Of society; he Aatters not greatness, erin
ges not to rank, and acknowledges only the ar
istocraey Of merit. lie seeks for worth in the
dunghill, and when he has found it, he cries
aloud for Kings come and worship IL. lie
feels the mightiness OF his mission, and the feel
ing makes him independent Of fancied or unre-
al greatness; but he is ever meek and modest in
himself, for he knoweth that there is yei great
er than he--even lie who sent him!
Hear what he teIeth his brother baris and you
will know how he feeleth the magnitude Of his
office:
"Life is short, aud time is swirl
Roses fade, and shadows shift;
But the ocean and the river
Rise and fall and flow forever:
Bard! not vsinly heaves the ocesn;
Bard! not vAinly flows the river;
Be thy song then, like their mstion,
Blessing now, and blessing sver.'
Elliot, though perhaps one of tie earliest,
is not among the most finished or polish
ed Of the disciples Of the new school OF
poetry. His words are harsh and mmy-times
strangely fierce and demsgogue-like particular
" in his corn-law rhymes but then they are
the words wrung from naturally gentle spirit
by tyranny and oppression, they are the bat
things Of one, In behalf Of all his fellows against
a thousand times his own force I; they are the
writings, the convulsive agonies of the viper
that has been trodden upon and they bite toe
with his envenomed fang. This sing e man has
planted banner whore none else dan lead but
where thousands will follow. He has given
abroad TO all his camp a watch-word the echo
of whose shout has reached the King N his cabi-
net aud bid the trembler, with the stern voice Of
Right, TO loose the bonds that held his wrong
ed and outraged people. And that cry has beer
now echoed andre-echoed by such numbers thai
| il has begun to be obeyed. But when we have
! learned Elliot's history, we will not wonder a
| his occasional sins against perfect taste, bu
| only wonder that he has been chosen g the sub
| ject Of such real inspiration.
Ebenezer Elliot was one Of eight children, anC
| the son Of a clerk in the Iron Works of Mas
borough, whose salary was E70 year w,
have no complete biography Of the poet bu
VIM. Hewitt from whose research we CLEAR
what we give of his history says that he hai
written his own biography up toa certain pc
riod, but there has stopped and probably will
forever stop. In all his early life, he is said {,
have been remarkable for good-nature, sensi
tiyenesa and also for "an extreme dulness an
inability TO learn anything tina, required tn
least application Of intellect" A story Of hi
early life is told in "Howitt's, Homes, AM
| Haunts" which is remarkable enough TO deserv
a place even in this cunsory review Of him
Whom Elliot was about ten years old, he fel
4 in love with young girl, now Mrs. Woodcoel
i of Munsber, TO whom he never TO this day spok
one word. Yet such was his senstiveness, tina
II ne happened TO see her as she passed, and es
pecislly If she happened TO look at him--whicl
no now believes she never oid--he was suddenl
deprived almost Of the power ofmCving." Her
was an instance of precocious juvenile affectio
that would have captivated the fairest boarding
school miss in all England. Such was his ex
trsme duIIness that he could 'makea frying pan
before he could divide fifty by three. He wa
finally given up in despair by his teachers an
put into the factory to hard labor. And eve
after he became 4 poet, he sought study wit
no better success. Even at this time, he Is sal
not thoroughly TO know single rule Of gram
mar vet ne is able, by thinking, to detect
grammatical error. The recitation Of a passag
T from Thomson first led him to think on poetry
and his first attempt at the divine art is play
fully described as an Imitation Of Thomson
Thunder Storm, in which he describes acertai
flock of sheep as running away after they ha
been killed by lightning" He presents the yer
remarkable coincidence Of man who has SUI
cessfully pursued the two incompanblevocatio
/ of making money and making verses at the san
time. 1t is rarely indeed that man can SUI
cessfully unite the manufacture Of hardwal
and hymns on the corn-laws; make fryinI
pans and fame and WOO olymplsa and oil stone
But Elliot, more than any other man, owes q
} his power to adversely He can well exclai
with his brother bard
"Sweet are the uses Of adversely
Which like toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head
: And indeed he bore with adversely, as well
d his literary as in his personal history. !
4 wrote and published for twenty years, before
gained the first step the temple OF Fame. Al
Al last. a, Hewitt tells us. Il was chance III
: lad him from his obscurity int his niche In 4
. | Temple. /" Chaace. says he, leo DR.. Bewnil