New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-20
Netp91prk DAILY Gribrrae
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
RITTER-SWEET.

BITTER-SWEET.
BIrTER-swEET. Poem By }. q. HOLLAND. lAno,
pp. ~. Charles scrbner.
In it's singular union Of exquisite description and
homely details, of abstract discussion and glowing
passion, of apparent eccentricity and admirable
.ense, and above all, in its racy flavor of New
England scenery manners, and ways of thought,
this production is not without 8 certain resem-
blance to the remarkable prose-posm, which was
the fruit of the same latitude, entitled Margaret"
II is, however, work of more artistic pretenson,
and brings forward more significant aspects Of hu-
man nature, than that incomplete, though powerful
expression of an original and exuberant, but some
what wayward intellect. Btter-Sweet," limited,
as il il, to small compass, evidently comprises the
deductions of largo experience. Unpretending
in its oIm it is profound in its meaning, and eab-
orate in its construction. You are at first struck
with its naive simplicity Of detail, without antci-
pating the intense revelations of the sequel. You
are led on through tempting lsby rinth OF
narrative till the denouement of the plot comes
upon you like thunder-cap. Not a little SKILL Is
exercised by the author, both in his cOnceaments
curiosity to painful degree Of excitement, until
sudden word proves how cunningly he has prepared
the ultimate surprise. The dictiOl of the poem is
as versatile as the topics, sometimes with smack
of Cowper, then of the "SOng Of the Bell, though
evidently without conscious imitation, and the nat
ural growth of peculiar idiosyncrasy. The poem
opens with the following picture, the truthfuness
L II, ba 1at fh. frat
Winters wild birth night Ia the fretful East
TIE uneasy wind moans with its sense Of cold,
And sends its signs through gloomy mountain gorge
Along the valley, up the whitening hil
To tease the signing spirits of the pines,
And waste il dismal woods their chilly life.
The sky is dark, ani on the huddled leaves
The restless rustling leaves-sifts down its sleet,
Til the sharp crystals pin them to the earth,
And they grow still beneath the rising Storm
The roVHess bullock hugs the sheitering stack,
With tging head and closely gathered feet,
And waits with dumb endurance for the morn.
Deep in gusty cavern OF the barn
The witless cali stands blatant at his ehan
While the brute mother pent within her stall,
With the wild stress of Instinct goes distraught,
And rets her horns and bellows through the night.
The stream runs black; and the far waterfall
That sang so sweetly through the Summer ewes,
And swelled and swayed to Zepbyrs softest breath,
Leaps with a sulle roar the dark abyss,
And howls its hoarse responses TO the wind.
The mill is still. The distant factory,
That swarmed yestreen with many nagered he,
And bridged the river with hundred bars
OF molten light, is dark, and lifts Its bulk
With dim, uncertain angles, to the sky.
Yet lower bows the Storm The leahess trees
LASH theI 1.-THE limbs and, with majestic voice,
Call TO each other through the deepening gloom;
And slender trunks that lean on burly boughs
Shrek with the sharp abrasion; and the oak,
Melowed in fibre by unnumbered frosts,
Yields to the shoulder of the Titan Blast,
For-akes its poise, and, with a booming crash,
Sweeps fierce passage to the smothered rocks,
And hes shattered ruin.
Other scene
Across the swale. half mp the pine-capped hill,
Stands the old farm house with its clump of barns
The old red farm-house-dim and dun tonight,
Save where the ruddy firelights from the hearth
Flap their bright wings against the window panes-
billowy swarm tAa: beat their slender bars,
Or seek the night TO leave their track of flame
Upon the sleet, or Sit with shifting feet
And restless plumes, among the polar oou2hs-
The spectral poplars, standing at the gate.
The scene and the persons Of the drama are thus
introduced:
1t is the Pnrtan's Thanksgiving Eve;
And gathered tome from fresher homes around
The old man children keep the hohday--
In dear New.Er gland since the fathers slept
The sweetest holiday Of all the year.
John comes with Prudence and her little girls.
And Peter, matched with Patience, brings his boys
Fair boys and girls with good old Scripture names
Joseph, Reb-ksh, Paul, and Samuel;
And Grace, young Roths companion IN the house,
Til wrested from her last Thanksgiving Day
by the strong hand Of Love, brings home her babe
And the tall poet David at whose eide
She went away. And seated in the midst,
Mary foster. daughter Of the house,
OF alien blood-sel -aliened many year
Whose chastened face and melancholy eyes
Bring all the wondering children to her knee,
Weeps with the strange excess of happiness,
What recks the driving storm
Of such scene this And what reck these
OF such q storm For every heavy gust
That sntss the windows with it's cloud Of sleet,
And shakes the sasbes with It's ghostly hands,
And rocks the mansion till the chimneys throat
Through all its sooty cnverns shrieks and howE,
They give full bursts Of careless merriment,
Or soLgs that send il bafied on its way.
Ruth is maiden too much given to thought on
the my steries of life and stoutly srappes with the
problem that has puzzled older heads than hers.
Here i. her solution, that solves nothing.
| have never patience with the ills
That make intrusiOn on my appy hours.
know the sOrdis fol- ofevil things,
Aud shudder with the consciousness. know
That care has iron crowns for many browsi
That Cavsries are everywhere, whereon
Virtue is cruci6ed, and nails and spears
Draw guiltless blood; tina. sorrow sts and drinks
AT sweetest hearts, till all their life IS dry
That gentle spir ts on the rack OF pain
Grow faint or fierce and pray or curse by turns'
That IIells temptations clad in Heavenly guise
And armed with might, lie evermore in walt
Along life's path, giving assault TO all
Fatal TO most; that Death stalks through the earth,
Choosipghi his victims, sparipg none at last;
That in each shadow of pleasant tree
A grief sits sadly .obbirg 10 its leaves;
And that beside each fearful soul there walks
The dim, gamt phantom o. uncertainty,
Biddir il look before, where none may see,
And all must go; bu' forget it all
/ thrust Il from me always when may; =.