Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-07-02

Smith first contributed some OF the poems contained in
the collection before We hope he has no hand IN the
criticisms for his own credits sake.
1t is but fair to admit that might have better appre
cated this volume if we had before reading IT, heard less
about it. Had expectations been 50 hlghy rals
ed we might have admired it more Coleridge' IN one
of his early letters his wife, written trom the residence
and beneath the roof of Wordsworth gives an
his first interview with the poets sister, and descrp-
ton Of her personal appearance II says he, you
are told in advance that she is beautiful you VAL think
her homely but if you told that she IS homey you
will think her pretty on first seeing her." Now, from
this we infer that the estmable lady aaest pretty
but lust missed being So 1t needed but the aid of
ltte peasurable surprise produce oblivion of the
deficiency SO that in this miss not good
ne a mile" or rather il was better Aad so of Mr..
smith If we had heard less magniloquence about his
abundant beauties Shakspearian fecities, " gold
en- araor" &C.. we might have been in better humor
10 scan his comeer features As it is, either from the
recol of feeling consequent disappointment, from
the fact that Mr. Smith is the geaius he repre-
sented be- do not feel constrained yet to place
his among those to whom the gods have given 1T to
be poets That he promises to be greater poet than
any emergent genius the last few years. may be true
but for the present he has missed of being poet and
here miss is point of fact fatal to his claims ITO
poet can no more be saved here than the almost chris
tan hereafer and if Mr.. Smith does any thing
more and better than his Life Drama and the accom-
panying Sonnets should no more think OF putting
him among the laureled bards than of enrolling Agrppa
among Paul and the apostles.
1t is in this light that we chiefly regret the ndiscrimnate
praise which has been layished this slim volume Mr..
| Smith will be prone think of the g reading public
only the attitude of Oliver Twist before Mr.. Bumble
asking for more. His literary production is thus in
danger Of being unduy stimulated and under such hot
house culture the his poetic promise will only
blow to run rapidly to seed Unjust and vituperatve
was the criticism Of the Edinburgh ReUeW Byron Cole
ridge Wordsworth and Others who will not acknowledge
that much of the labor me which gave such polish and
perfection to their poetry due to the lash perpeuay
held them? The only poet whom jeffrey constantly
and lavishly praised Crabbe and what has become
Of Crabbe Keats it is said, killed by article in
the London Quarterly" but suspect his physician
knows better In abiding that very article, he writes
in letter friend follows, and quote it because
of its applicability Mr. Smith:
Praise or blame has but O momentary effect on the
whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him
severe critic on his works. will write indepen-
IDENTIFY. have written independently, wilom judgment.
may write independently, and wih judgment, here
after The Genius OF Poetry must work out its sal
walton in a man
As Keats determined that blame should have no
other influence him than enforce the resolution Of
writing independently and with judgment hereafter"
so also we hope Mr.. Smith will make the wise
Of the praise which has been literally awarded him.
least by class Of newspaper reviewers Let him deter
mine TO deserve it.
At present his poetcal character is still uniformed but
there stamina IN its grstle If we withhold from him
the Of poet is rather because our exalted idea
Of the faculty divine" than from any disposition to dis
- -.
fancy is exuberan but of Imagination far from
being = all compact, he almost wholly deficient
little Of Wordsworths prose- which he distinguishes
between these two attributes, might be Of service him.
His poeca yocabuarys remarkable for its richness and
beauty II resembles the oxidation from virgin clus-
ters-the rudy but unclarifed must of the wine vat
and in thus ascrbing him the faculty of poeti
cal expression have gone far towards the recognition
Of his high pretenons rather the preensions of his
admirers for expression is the poet almost what delivery
according Denostheues, is to the But may
in these carly poems deficiency which remark
ed in those Of Mr. Tennyson that stepped though they
in certain fruit-ke richness, they lacking like
all young poetry in subject and substance This is Mr.
Smiths weak point. The thoughts not equal the
dicon If his language is strong and splendid like
golden armor," be reminds of Erminia lin the epic
Of Tasso when equippedin the of Clornda
" The rugged weight Expresses and ofends
Her delicate smooth neck and golden hair;
Her arm, unequal TO the burden, bends
Beneath the huge large she aspres TO bear"
And then the thread Of the story in Mr. Smiths Life
Drama is quite too weak and slender hold all the
pearls which his abundant fancy has strung upon it. His
chief joy" be like that Of his hero Walter and
his friend, which
/ Was TO draw images from every thing;
And images lay thick upon talk
As shells on ocean sands"
Andhe oyerworks the morn and sea- and stars"
We quote The following not in illustration but for vio
let's criticism
Violet BE quick. be quick for see the parting sun
But peers above yon range of crimson hills
Taking his last look Of this lovely scene.
Dusk will be here anon.
Walter. And all the stars
Violet Great friends Of yours you love them overmuch"
But this redundancy Of fancy imagery though mar
ring the cxccency Of the present performance only gives
the presage that Mr. Smith has ia him the stuff
that poets made Of As the early illusions Of Web
ster ford with tropical luxuriance Of leaf and
blossom which, however, in the progress Of time was
succeeded by the fruitage Of his ripper age 50
also let hope that Mr. Smiths pomp and prodigality
Of verbiage win be chasened by the lapse Of time into
somewhat Of that sobriety which marks the Miltonic
His faults in this respect are rather faults Of the
than the poverty Of fancy and il is easier to op
off superuous shoots than to force more uxurant We
getation
The admirers Of Mr.. Smith have felt themselves con !,