Daily American telegraph., 1852-01-03

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speaking reality. AT times, her expression in
clmes to the severe; but even then you chase
the lightning Of thought and the fire of feeling
through every fibre of her face. In her com
mon movements there is rather energy than
grace; yet while she utters, her gestures are
not without pleasing appropriateness. Her
voice is not peculiarly clear and round es-
pecially is it defective in the low, sweet tones
SO expressive of female tenderness. Yet, with
all the disadvantages incident to an inharmoni-
GUS and unwinning voice. what winning
creature found her!
Her mode of selecting the subjects of her
improvisations is this: as the people enter the
hall, an urn is presented into which any one
may throw what subject he pleases After all
the audience are seated the poetess enters, and
having responded by respectful curtesies to the
burst of welcome which greeted her appear
ance, she sits in an armchair by the side of q
small table The last time | heard her, there
were four hundred auditors crowded into the
Sala Armonica," and she spoke two hours
She was seated on a raised platform SO as to be
visible to every eye. | was within six feet of
her. and saw how honestly the choice of sub
jects was decided When all were ready, the
urn, which had been kept in sight, was brought
forward, and placed on the table Then a
child, from among the audience, was invited to
draw out the subjects. A little bright-eyed
American girl, from Massachusetts, stepped up
and drew a paper from the urn, and read it to
herself, and then gave it to Rosa to read aloud
Ten different subjects were drawn by as many
different persons. On these subjects she is
obliged to make from SO to 70 lines of extern
poraneous poetry; though the length of any
trial depends mainly on the inspiration of the
moment and the fertility of the theme have
forgotten some of the subjects but remember
the following; "Tarpea-the female in early
Rome who betrayed the city, and gave name to
the Tarpean Rock" ''The pilgrim on the
steps of St. Peters for the first time" ais
that man happy who has nothing to wish for 2"
On this question she said, in her verse, that
the subject was too deep for her decision. 9th
er subjects were" The benefcent man is |
blessed in heaven" 1.-The Pass of Thermop-
yla." Christopher Columbus" "Bacchus
and Ariadne." Sapho, or you may bury me
in the sea, but you cannot extinguish my love-"
The first paper drawn from the urn contained
the topic for the first effort Having indicated |
to the female friend, who was seated at the
piano below her, what measure she would
adopt, and what tune she preferred, she rose
and came forward with modest but trembling
STEP The music commenced in that half in
audible tone, which interfered not the least
| with the articulate utterances of the improvis-
| atrice. She has read her subject aloud once |
! more, and now breathless silence succeeds
She stands erect, with slight inclination of
the head. And now she seems to be planning
her story o! how intense the workings of
her mind | was near enough to see the
veins in her neck swell, and her heart beat
Her whole frame seemed, as it were, thinking,
as if surcharged with electric fire. while her
features were fixed in a glowing rhapsody.
The tune goes on but she takes no heed of it.
Her eyes were gazing but gazing on vacancy.
She seemed to annihilate all surrounding Cir
cumstances; and as her eyes rolled in frenzy
| they appeared as if turned inward to watch
the mighty workings of the brain. By exhib-
iting this perfect abstraction and by seeming
to be unconscious of the presence of any one,
she communicated her enthusiasm to her spec
| tators. Every eye was fastened upon her. every
heart was beating for her, and the room was
as silent as tomb. All at once as if mastered
| by an inspiration that she could no longer
stife she broke forth into the sweetest strains
of Italian verse. The metre was octo-syllabic,
and had freshness that blossomed in every
line. The story was narrative, and she mingled
the incidents in Tarpeas history with lights
and shades alternate. She recited sixty lines,
perhaps and elected great appreciation at their
close She rested only three or four minutes,
took small cup of strong coffee, and was ready
for the next subject, "The Pilgrim" &C.
This was religious, and she chose the hex
ameter, and acquitted herself to the entire sat-
isfaction of all So she went on rising higher
and higher at every succeeding effort. She
would sometimes take dialogue, and sometimes
| fable, relating funny stories to illustrate her
meaning. Never for a moment did she hesitate
or faltcr never for moment lose sight Of her
aim, or mistake her word In fact she seemed
l 4 4 4. IL
| tiful lines with which she wove the exquisite
web of her story. She kept tune with the pi-
ane, and her recitations were sung but 50 sung |
as to give the air of narrative music. The !
Pass of Thermopyla greatly pleased the mil
itary gentlemen. /" Bacchus and Ariadne," the
Noble Rowdies," and "Sapho," perfectly cap
tivated the lovers She tried the epic, the lyric
and the tragic, and with each seemed familiar
Before beginning the last piece but one, she
asked the audience to name the endings of
some words which they wished her to bring in
as rhymes for tho second of two lines. | men
toned IT, others mentioned rd, 10, nu &c, Du-
ring her song, she brought in the words that
ended with these letters; and so perfectly did
they rhyme, that the audience exclaimed their
surprise and Joy with sudden vehemcnce In
the concluding piece she showed surprising
power. Before she began, she requested the
| aunence 10 give ner W0TdS, ana she promised
to bring each word into her recitatons in the
order in which they should happen to be given.
To increase her embarrassment and test her
genius, the audience gave her words, all which
ended in the same way; such US "secondo,'
monde" &c, to the number of twelve or four
teen. This seemed to me cruel on the part of
the audience for it was lettering genius hand
and foot nevertheless, with all these perplexl-
ties thrown in her path she laid the plan OF
her tragedy, named her dramatis person@, and