The Press. — 1854-08-05 (London, England)

AUGUST 5 1854. _  And hamlets brown, and dim-discovered spires ; And hears their simple bell, and marks o'er all Thy dewy fingers draw The gradual dusky veil. The vivid and the vast are rarely realised in so few words. If a poet who could produce such strains had leisurely strolled through the Alps and along the base of the Apennines, and breathed forth his emotions as he wan dered amidst these sublime scenes, what delicious poetry he would have produced ! In his own words, he could make us feel the glowing mind, Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined. In stud) ing the more brilliant passages of Collins we can plainly see that, as in the case of wit, brevity is a great source of the sublime. No dirge has yet been sung over the grave of the hero of Silistria, the gallant Butler, that worthy scion of the house of Ormonde ; but Collins has written in twelve brief lines an immortal requiem over fallen heroes of all climes : How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest! When Spring. with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallow'd mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands their knell is rung ; By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay, And Freedom shall a-while repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there ! The remarks of Mr. Willmott upon the life of Collins are very interesting, and will repay perusal. Passing on to the other poets, we admit that they have claims to remembrance, but we think that the volume would have been more complete if the poetical piecen of Johnson and Goldsmith had been substituted in place of the works of T. Warton and Green. We do not think much of Warton. His most. affecting poem is " The Suicide," which has some touching stanzas, but from a strain of high poetry it gradually falls off into a sermon in verse. he poem is not so much known as Mr. Willmott appears to think. The dreariness of its subject is repulsive, but there is awful gloom and a weird solemnity in the appalling picture of the selfslayer, and the poetical accessories are tastefully introduced. This picture is vivid with genius : Beneath the beech, whose branches bare, Smit with the lightning's livid glare, • O'erhang the craggy road, And whistle hollow as they wave ; Within a solitary grave, A slayer of himself holds his accurs'd abode. Lower'd the grim morn, in murky dyes Damp mists involv'd the scowling skies, And dimm'd the struggling day ; As by the brook, that ling ring laves Yon rush-grown moor with sable waves, Full of the dark resolve he took his sullen way. mark'd his desultory pace, His gestures strange, and varying face, With many a mutter'd sound ; And alt ! too late aghast I view'd The reeking blade, the hand embru'd ; He fell, and groaning grasp'd in agony the ground. • • • • • Full oft, unknowing and unknown, He wore his endless noons alone, Amid the autumnal wood : Oft was he wont, in hasty fit, Abrupt the social board to quit, And gaze with eager glance upon the tumbling flood. These are certainly the most powerful lines that Warton ever wrote. With respect to Green's poems we do not concur with Mr. Willmott. "The Spleen" has much cleverness, but modern readers, especially the fair, will find it coarse, and several of its illustrations and words are very broad. It contains some quaint and witty couplets, but its oetosyllabic metre is monotonous, and, on the whole, we do not think it superior to those verses of society which wits like the late Henry Luttrell could easily produce. The foliating passage is very like the manner of Luttrell in his happiest vein : Since mirth is good in this behalf, At some particulars let us laugh. Witlings, brisk fools, curs'd with half sense, That stimulates their impotehce ; Who buzz in rhyme, and, like blind flies, Err with their wings, for want of eyes, Poor authors worshipping a calf, Deep tragedies that make us laugh, A strict dissenter saying grace, A lecturer preaching for a plade,