The southern press. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-04-01
From the Liverpool Times.
The Late Thomas Moore.

From The Liverpool Times.
The Late Thomas Moore.
We noticed very briefly, in our last weeks
paper, the death of Thomas Moore, who up to
the time OF his decease, was the greatest sur
vivor of that galaxy of ilustrious names which
has given 10 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 idiosyn.
cracy of this popular poet, who more than any
other whom we remember, 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. Keate the young.
eat, was the first to die, and Rogers, the oldest
who publishes ten years before Keats was born,
is still vings thirty years after the death of his
youthful contemporary Keats. in the full flush
of youth, with all his glorious faculties imma-
ture and nascent was first cut off; then Shell
ley, just verging from the rocks and shoals of
youthful passion and experience into the calm,
sunny, fathomless expanse of intellectual man
hood, was suddenly drowned; then Byron, in
the priue of his manhood, "Nel mezzo del
cammin d nostra VITA" with the passions of his
youth rushing through his maturity like the
waters of the St Lawrence, far into the Atlantic
ocean, just as the current was abatng in its
fury, and heaven and ocean seemed propitious,
suddenly vanished from the horizon.
few years subsequent, Sir Walter Scott,
after making and losing princely fortune, Just
when the autumna touches showed the ripeness
of age, from prodgious overwOrking of his pow
ers, died with his mind melancholy blank
Shortly afterwards Coleridge, " the rapt one
with the godlike forehead" with the intellect of
superior being and scarcely the moral purpose
of child, after years of languishing, produced
by the tyranny Of opium, found rest Then
Southey, with his powers exhausted like Sir
Walter SCOTS, died with his mind in-ane then
Campbell scarcely past the time when man is
in the vigor of his faculties, became fatuous and
expired an imbecile; and now last week, Tom
Moore, the bard of his native Erin, the poet who
possessed and exercised more active fancy than
any of his contemporaries, whose wit, raillery,
powers of imagery and musical expressions are
unrivalled, although he had only just passed the
boundaries of the three score years and ten, de-
parted TO the unknown world with all his bril-.
liant faculties dimmed bv premature decay, dy-
ing as it were like an old man asleep in the mis-
ty MEDICATION of childish dream. Sad conclu.
sions. Keats dead before his manhood, Shelly
on the threshold, Byron at its prime and Scott
Southey, Campbell, and Moore, like tropical
afternoon during a sudden storm passed as il
were, at one stride, from day to darkness-from
the pride of power to the humil alton of second
childhood. The great exception is Wadsworth /;
he died full of years, full of glory, and full Of
intellect he sank like the sun through cloud.
less sky in the ocean, showing his subdued
splendors along the deep further and further till
he sets, and, all is night The causes of this
falling of" of great men in their declining
years would be an interesting, though sad in.
quiry, but would occupy too much of our space
and we now revert to the great poet who has
just departed, and now in the gorgeous cloud.
land of poetry has left " gap i'rh' clouds"
Tom Moore, besides his great political genius,
possessed social talents which made him, as
Byron has described him in the dedication of the
Corsair, the idol Of every cilcle in which he
moved. II was never our happiness TO meet
him, but we have heard highly-cultivated gen.
tleman, residing among us, give many graphic
accounts Of evenings spent with him, when he
shone pre- eminent among a circle of wits, from
the readiness and perfect good humor of his
repartee, the shrewdness Of his observation, the
JUNCTION Of humor, and the exquisite taste and
talent Of his singing.
lie was pre.eminently fascinating man, not
like Lord Byron, by theatrical mysteriousness
and empirical responsiveness but from a native
benevolence Of manner, and that plastic sym
patty which adapts itself to the peculirities of
every listener.
Moore, more than any other poet OF the age,
has left the impress Of his social genislilies upon
the memories OF his successors as 10 his ge-
MUS Il requires merely 10 be sketched, as il has
been delineated in such mastery manner by
more than one Of our metropolitan contempt
raries.
There never was poet who possessed such
facility Of imagery, Of such buoyancy Of temper.
He is more genial than even his fayorte Ana.
creon and il he have not the suavity, and
shrewd observation Of Horace, he has far more
playful and ebullent wit, and fancy beyond
comparison more brilliant copious, and rapid.
His fancy was too active and projecte for
calm and deep emotion, hence. even in the
Loves Of the Angels" there Is no intensity Of
passion, but in its place plenty Of amatory SEN
timeni. Lala RoOkh is unique. Its fidelity 20
eastern manners and scenery Is marvellous, but
still more marvellous is the rapid and untirinp
succession Of comparisons, flashing out one az
ter another in glorious disorder, like fresh i'm
ages Of the sun on the ripples Of a river, from
every breath Of wind
As song writer he is immortal and Burns j.
the only British lyrist 10 contest the palm with
him. He has J Jt the passion, energy, and con-
centrated expression Of the Scottish bard, but
his intellectual resources are more extended, his
subjects more diversified, his versifcation more
musical, and bis embellishments more lavish.
He is the poet Of sentiment--Burns Of passion.
lie is never swept on by bis theme the fercer
feelings are unknown 10 him, and his mind, in
its intensest efforts, is never moved from It's
place, but merely swayed to and fro like the
broad-leaved branches of sycamore in sum
mer tempest while its roots are sleeping in the
soil.
Meeting In Philadelphia against New York