Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-04-28
noLMrs,a Lrorunss on PoErnY Asp rnr .Porrs.l

HoLMEs's LECTURES on PoErRY AND THE PoErs,
delivered at the Lowell Institute, in Boston, ex-
cite attention. From the Boston TRANSCRIPT. we
copy the following notice of them;
Holmes is famous for the characteristic openings
OF his lectures. He begins by Indicating The CONF
| ing theme dimly. al
Like those blind motions of the spring,
That show the year is turned, ss III
He piqnes and SO enlists the attention and fancy
his auditors, and then, by streaks of bright alu-
SION, or the employmentof progressively lumi-
nous analogy, the subject comes at last like day.
break, simultaneously ON the mind and ear Of the
henrer. So in the lecture on Keats-poet of youth
and loYehe spoke of the fist of the two Spring.
tidssp the life Of man, that which rolls in with
the golden flood ofmorning. Andthe lecture last
evening on Shelley, beganby saying, sthough5we
may have hitherto travel ed in, harmony on our
course together, now the caravan halts, and a
choice is offered the company whether to scale the
tockyand fowery peak which lies before us, or to
round the point, meet beyond and then continue
our Journey For we come to the great reformer
poet, who exercised his transcendant gifts as the
vehicle OF peculiar and subsety.ye system Of phi
slosophy. y y y. itsli'3 W ~ ~, il8tis
Here followed a brief sketch of Shelley's life,
his pamphlet advocacy of Atheism, and his unfor-
tunate marriage Many may wish to stop here,
| ana thank God they were not like him. Letthem
pause rather, and emulate his pure life his ardent
worship OF truth, his sef-sacrifcing humanity, so
strictly and noblywithn the sphere, of that reli-
| gion he tancied he was opposing. It Weakened a
glow in the heart to hear the doctors manly and
| beautiful defence of the character of one whose
mind was ever soaring into the Empyrean, out of
| the confinement of technical Atheism, as
| t-on expanded wings of skiey grain.'
The personal aspect of Shelley was described, in
PRODUCING Leigh Hunts fancy that he looked like
an elegant and slender flower, with dropping head
surcharged with rain; and Merwin's direct descrp-
ton.of the blue eyedyouth with luxuriant brown,
curling hair, and face radiant with intellect and
passion rs K ,54f ,tr5.-,s
| ..Sheley's principal poems were hit off by allu-
| sion or brief analysis. Alastor was poets own
poem; two passages were cited as containing tho
suggestion of two American poems. One, begin
ming -
5GpE sAswan was there:
| 1t rose as he approached, and with strong wings
Sealing the upward sky. bent its bright course
| High over the unreasonable MAN,,
was evidently the glorious source of Bryants
Lines to a Waterfowl,' and is sufficiently grand
er than that; butthe other passage slipped through
the sensitive catch fly of our memory. The Re-
volt OF Islam was Indicated as the best example of
| Shelley's imaginative power. The PrometIleus
lunbound was the completion of the tragedy OF
Eschylus, but far below HIM, whom Shelley STYLED!
the Greek Shakespeare, in the simple grandeur Of
its lntion. The vivid aud contlasted colors of
its profuSe glowtd in several cited passages
TO our thinking, tie Prometheus inspheres oil
| Sheliey's peculiar eScellencies, especially his
wild and wonderful Imagination, and stamps COM
pete, sublime, eudurlng record OF the poet
/ ~ 80
Indicating the differences of two poets by their
modes of singing, Keats was figured as round.
rich contralto, witness his Ode TO the Nightingale;
| Shelley as high, pure, penetrating soprano like
his own Sky Lark. Ii the comparison had been
pursued more radically it might have appeared
that the song of Keats has always dying fall, ,
as the post was centrally weak, although pe1petu.
ally taking on tranStory moods of power; while
Shelley, in thet finest piece o.: subjective de:inea-
ton perhaps ever attempted, and with pahos too
| deep;for fears, i'll the poem 10 Adonias, ftIy de-
| scribes himself Us ,o .i.5 #.1.i,' Z a.t t4.5'
"a parl-like spirit beautiful and swift
"a potoer girt round tcifh tuedkness.' - s'k<f
The poem that closed the lecture was a Singh
lar elicitous picturlng of the fate of Shelley, aud
its attendant circumstance. 1t began thus:
One large white sail in Spezzia's treacherous bay.
he storm, the wreck, the anxious watching,
the abandoned search, Is as,s- IT,,
When ocean clashing in his jointed wall,
Lifts the pale form upon his shining Shield,
the burning OF his body, 5s5If5sE...
As'of ETHEREAL FIRE his soul was framed,
| So nature crowned him with wreath. OF flame,
his burial near his beloved y donas-were oil
touched with tender and congenial poetical skill;
and the closing sentiment will fni heurtfelt're.
Spouse from all Christian sous,
That in the many mansions there above,
The God Of mercy may have one for him.
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