The primitive Republican. (Columbus, Miss.) 18??-1852, 1852-05-06
From the Liverpool Times.
The Late Thomas Moore.

We noticed very briefly, in our last week
paper the death Of Thomas Moore, who, up
to the time of his sdecease, was the greatest
survivor of that galaxy of illustrious names
which has given to our own time a proud
place in the history Of poetry. We have
since been favored by literary friend with
the following cursory but graphic sketch Of
the intellectual idiOsyncracy Of this popular
poet, who more than any other whom we re-
member, was the idol of his day.
The illustrious brotherhood of poets which
forms such conspicuous glory of the past
age is now nearly all disbanded. Keats, the
youngest, was the first to die, and Rogers,
the Oldest, who published ten years before
Keats was born, is still living, thirty years
after the death of his youthful contemporary.
Keats, in the full flush of youth, with all his
glorious faculties immature and nascent, was
first cut off; then Shelley, just verging from
the rocks and shoals of youthful passion and
experience into the calm, sunny, fathomless
expanse of intellectual manhood, was sud-
denly drowned then Byron, in the prime
of his manhood, ''Nel mezzO del cananaia d.
nOstra vitd," with the passions of his youth
} rushing through his maturity like the wa
tiers of the st. Lawrence, far into the At
lantic ocean, just as the current was abating
in its fury and heaven and ocean seemed
propitious, suddenly vanished from the ho-
rizon.
A few years subsequently, Sir Walter
} Scott, after making and losing a princely
! fortune, just when the autumnal touches
showed the ripeness of age, from prodigious
over working of his powers, died with his
! mind melancholy blank. Shortly after
] wards Coleridge, ''the rapt one with the
l godlike forehead" with the intellect of a
superior being and scarce the moral pur-
pose of a child, after years of languishing,
a produced by the tyranny of opinion, found
4 rest. Then Southey, with his powers ex-
hausted like Sir Walter SCOTS, died with
his mind insane then Campbell, scarcely
past the time when man is in the vigor of
d his faculties, became fatuous and expired an
e imbecile; and now last week, Tom Moore,
n the bard of his native Erin, the poet who
possessed and exercised more active fancy
l. than any of his contemporaries, whose wit,
raillery, powers of imagery aud musical ex-
e pressions are unrivalled, although he had
= only just passed the boundaries of the three
score years and ten, departed to the un-
e known world, with all his brilliant faculties
e dimmed, by premature decay, dying as ii
Re were, like an old man sleep, in the misty
mediation of childish dream. Sad con-
s. illusions. Keats died before his manhood
n Shelley on the Threshold, Byron at Its
Re prime, and Scott, Southey, Campbell anC
Moore, like a tropical afternoon during ;
m sudden storm, passing as it were, at on
b, stride, from day to darkncss-from tn
r. pride of power to the humiliation of SECOND
childhood. The great exception is Words
I'd worth he died full of years, full of glorl
I'd and full of intellect; he sank like the SUI
re through cloudless sky in the ocean, show
II, ing his subdued splendors along the deep
further and still further till he sets, and al
as is night. The causes of this " falling off
of great men in their declining years woul,
he be an interesting, though sad inquiry bu
would occupy too much of our space, and W
IT. now revert to the great poet who has jus
lie departed, and now in the gorgeous cloudlan'
of poetry has left "gap Eth the clouds"
Id Tom Moore, besides his great poetical &c
e, MUS, possessed social talent which mad
es him, as Byron has described him In tn
ne dedication of the Corsair, the idle of ever
circle in which he moved. 1t was never GU
ICE happiness to meet him, but we have hear
lie. a highly cultivated gentleman, residing {
III mong us give many graphic account
Of evenings spent with him when he shon
We pre-cminent among a circle of wits, from til
ID. readiness and perfect good humor of his RI
'm partee, the shrewdness of his observation
m the JUNCTION of his humor, and the exquisit
taste and talent of his singing.
nd He was prominently fascinating maj
ICE not like Lord Byron, by theatrical myst'
eet robustness and empirical responsiveness, br
Did from native benevolence of manner, an
OF plastic sympathy which adapts itself to ii
18th peculiarities of every listener.
Moore, more than any other poet of tt
age, has left the impress of his social gen
' ' alities upon the memories of successors; {
la' to his genius, it requires merely to
es- sketched, as it has been delineated in such
~ mastery manner by more than one of Oh
= metropolitan contemporaries.
o. There never was a poet who possesse
1Ve such facility of imagery, or such buoyanC
oe' of temper. He is more genial than eve
"'S his faVorite Anacreon; and if he have n
SUI the suavity, and shrewd observation of H
e eE. race, he has far more playful and ebulliel
ou' wit, and fancy beyond comparison mo
De brilliant, copious and rapid.
TX His fancy was too active and projectile f
q on calm and deep emotion; hence, even in Il
Inc Gloves of the Angels" there is no intensi
= of passion, but in its place plenty of am
Pse tory sentiment. Lalla Rookh is unique
Its fidelity to eastern manners and scenery
:. marvellous, but still more marvellous is Il
W rapid and untiring succession of compariso
~ ~ flashing out one after another in glorio
~. III disorder, like fresh images of the sun on Il
' ~, ripples Of river, from every breath
.au wind.
s.s' As song writer he is immortal, al
" Burns is the only British lyrist to conte
ne the palm with him. He has not the pa
~ ~ sion, energy and concentrated expression
! " e the Scottish bard, but his intellectual !
sources are more extended, his subjects mo
~ diversified, his yersifcation more music'
aud his embellishments more lavish. He
'1L'' the poet of sentiment-Burns of passion
"A He is never swept on by his theme
~ fercer feelings are unknown to him-a
Iasu his mind, in its intenser efforts, is new
~. moved from its place, but merely swayed
The and fro like the broad-leaved branches o.
srs. sycamore in summer tempest, while
and roots are sleeping in the soil.