The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-02-05
Gbs Ssbish.

SONGS OF SUMNER. BY Richard Henry Soddard. Bos-
Ticknor s. Fields. 1857. For sale by Taylor &
Maury, Washington, D. C.
What, in mid-winter! with the bleak leaden
sky above us, and the chill wind signing around
our doors and windows, and the snow thrown
like white vail over the earth? Ay, reader,
even so. Take the volume, sit down costly by
your freside, open and read, and see if the book
will not beguile you of an hour or two, though
it greets you now in this drear month of Janu.
uary. See if perhaps blander feeling will
not steal over you, thaw away, by its almost
imperceptible influence, some of the remains of
human sel6shness, and make you, too, more
alive to think of the wants of others less fortu.
nately situated than yourself "Who," so
Shakespeare says, if we remember right,
Scan hold fire in his hand
BY thinking of frosty Caucasus?s
But may not, perhaps, the reverse be true
and if "Songs in Summer" do not kiudJe Ms
into the burning heats of passion, do they not
seem to call ont genial warmth, which will
quicken, soothe, ripen, or refine, and send forth
a kndlier heart, to gather in whatever may
help to cause better fruitage, in purposes and
deeds? And thus will wintry sternness Weld
to the breath of these summer remembrances,
and the mission of the poet be accomplished, to
Go good to his fellow man. To drop this meta
phorical querying, we say, in right good ear
nest, this Is pleasant corner now--this collec-
ton of poets lays, already known as gifted
son, the muse among us.
This little volume has many short pieces, and
some longer ones, of varied subjects and treat
ment. We cannot class these ehiusions with
those Of our best poets. There are, however,
sweet strains, imaginative sketches, the rich
imagery of poetical mind, and now and then
a passage, far superior to the rest, that bears
the stamp of the true coinage of thought. The
author ranges into Eastern clinics. and plucks
there his flowers. China, India, Persia, Tar
tary, with the Desert, are visited on the wings
of his Imagination; he hovers over sunny Italy,
and catches chances of France; travels far
back into olden time, and digs out from buried
antiquity some Of the treasures of Greece and
Rome; fingers to bear away from Shakespeare
planning notes of wretched," "weepng,"
thoughtful" "pinng Lady Imogen;" STAYS
his flight, to list to the strains Of music or the
words Of kneeling childhood prayer; and be-
side 1.-The seas" buried with the songs that
never yet were sung" pressed with "the bur.
den of unrest" or filed with the memories of
the past he casts out to his readers the gar.
lands he has culled, and bids us to come and
Join him, and to enjoy the sights and sounds,
the ringing echoes that wake their innumer.
able associations from far.off realms, and
through the long track of historic ages, as well
as the nearer and sweeter breathings that whis.
per in those familiar voices of home, breaking
from the hreside, gently streaming from the
lips parted by the hearts gush, mid happy hours
and mrthfdl fancies, or the first ispings of the
untimid and confding spirit, the (nfantile era.
wings for knowledge and COMMUNICATIVE Par
adise
But still to US, amid these varied shapes and
mingled utterances, we miss the power of {.
deeper and hoer inspiration and we can but
marvel why there is no word betokening to us
that not orly has he drunk its delicious water
from "Castalia's fount," but also slaked a di.
viner thirst from the well-spring that rises up
8 to everlasting life" and from F" Silca's brook.
that flowed fast by the oracle of God" We
are sure that in this he would find an influence |
OF invigorating energy, and a soul.subduipg
force, that no other ALBANIA or Pharpar or tabled
cup that genius ever quaffed, can bestow. The
graceful members and wild enthusiasm with
which ne celebrates Natures triumphant song,
despise, though be may, 1