Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1857-03-18

An esteemed correspondent has addressed to
ms this note. touching the said lines
Enron OF THE YIReiNtAS.-Sh: | observe you
have used in your editorial of this morning. shall
say. a paraphrase, parody, or an imitation " OF
Lord Byrons beautiful allusion to the early death
of Henry kirke White.
If the lines (which in truth are neat, compact
and in some respects not at all inferior to the noble
Lors) arc in fact your own. viii YOU be so Eood
ms to favor the public With their source that we may
mark the plagiarism
Now. we d;sclaim the soft impeachment ct
being ourself the author. They claim an mus
trieus paren,age They are from The pen "i
TpoNAs MooRE. and may be found in vigorous
noitical satire. called corruption This poem
i not so familiar 10 American readers as his
other productions. having but recently been pub
lsbed in collective edition Of his works, in this
country We Jaw them some years since in an
English edition. and were then struck by their
resemblance 10 Byron's well known apostrophe;
So the struck eagle stretched upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
Viewed his feather on the fatal dart
And winged the shaft thai qutser d in his heart
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel
While the same plumage thai had warmed his nest
Drank the last life drop of his bleeding breast
This, though little too much ampGicd, il
very beautiful it mus, be admtted-but we give
the preference 10 our quotation. Moore's Us" ct
the smile is the better. lie is terser and more
correct. Byron makes the pinion impel the
steel This is the office of the bow. The
feathers were "pluok'd to wing the dart" in or
der TO steady its flight.
There is something more than coincidence
d.,
from Moorel This sa question of chronology
and in its solution Byron suffers. upton
was published in isos. English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers" in 1879. Wethink il rrobn
BILE. however. that the noble poet had never seen
the lines Of Moore. else be would have shrunk from
the hazard of detection. in alproprinting the
thoughts Of one whom. in the same poem' he had
treated so meroilessly.
Moore made no reclamation. He did not cry
stop thief--for he knew he had stolen himself
Both appropriated the idea from VIM. Waller,
who, one hundred and fifty years b"iore.address.
ed a lady upon her singing song If his own
composition
Chloris, yourself you excel,
when you vouehsafe To breathe my thought
That like spirit, with this spell,
Ofmy own teaching am caught
That eagles fate and mine are one
Which, on the shalt that made him de
Espyed u feather Of his own,
Wherewith he wont 10 soar ON high
Having traced the idea back for two centuries
we might let il rest But we have seen trans
laiion from Spanish poet, who tlouri,hed before
Waller, in which the very same use is made OF
the smile.
Great poets indulge in wholesale uppropra
tons. Byron not fastdous in this respect
The commencement Of his magnificent npostro
phe to the Ocean, at the close # Childc Harold
is paraphrase Of u passage IN Corinne (6ook !
chap. A)-uhd we doubt whether in this mstnnc,
be has improved the original by embclli-hmeu
and expansion. Our ideas ale liberal on TN
question Of plagiarism. We recognize the RICH
of the poet to take up an idea which he may fin
neglected in eome obscure quartet and, by
new use, or verbal felicity, give it currency
The ngot Of gold. rich aud precious ms it is, he
comes only current when passed through th
mint. Genius, ~ like manner, takes the crud
ideas Of others and by its magic dies utters ther
in thoughts that breathe and words that burn