Critical Notices [pp. 112-128]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MAESSENGER.
exemplifications of the bathos. At page 21, these verses occur:
No word was spoke,
As when the friends of desolated Job,
Finding the line of language aell too short
Tofathomn woe like his, sublimely paid
That highest homage at the throne of grief,
Deep silence.
The image here italicized is striking, but faulty. It
is deduced not from any analogy between actual existences-between woe on the one hand, and the sea on
the other-but from the identity of epithet (deep) frequently applied to both. We say the "deep sea," and
the expression "deep woe" is certainly familiar. But
in the first case the sea is actually deep; in the second,
woe is but metaphorically so. Sound, therefore-not
sense, is the basis of the analogy, and the image is consequently incorrect.
Some faults of a minor kind we may also discover in
Zinzendorff. We dislike the use made by the poetess
of antique modes of expression-here most unequivocally out of place. For example.
Where the red council-fire
Disturbed the trance of midnight, long they sate.
What time, with hatred fierce and unsubdued,
The woad-stained Briton, in his wattled boat,
Ctuailed'neath the glance of Rome.
The versification of Zinzendorff is particularly goodalways sweet-occasionally energetic. We are enabled to point out only one defective line in the poem,
and in this the defect has arisen fromn an attempt to
contract enthusiasm into a word of three syllables.
He who found
This blest enthusiasm nerve his weary heart.
There are, however, somne errors of accentuationfor example:
So strong in that rnisanthrope's bosom wrought
A fienzied malice.
Again
He would have made himself
A green oasis mid the strife of tongues.
We observe too that Mrs. Sigourney places the accent
in Wyoming on the second syllable.
'Twas summer in Wyoming. Through the breast,
&C.
And the lore
Of sad Wyoming's chivalry, a part
Of classic song.
But we have no right to quarrel with her for this.
The word is so pronounced by those who should know
best. Campbell, however, places the accent on the
first syllable.
On Susquehannah's banks, fair Wyoming!
We will conclude our remarks upon Zinzendorff with
a passage of surpassing beauty, energy, and poetic
power. Why cannot Mrs. Sigourney write always
thus?
Not a breath
Disturbed the tide of eloquence. So fixed
Were that rude auditory, it would seem
Almost asif a nation had become
Bronzed into statues. Now and then a sigh,
The unbidden messenger of thought profound,
Parted the lip; or somnie barbarian brow
Contracted closer in a haughty frown,
As scowled the cynic,'mid his idol fanes,
When on Mars-Hill the inspired Apostle preached
Jesus of Nazareth.
These lines are glowing all over with the true radiance
of poetry. The image in italics is perfect. Of the
versification, it is not too much to say that it reminds
us of Miltonic power. The slight roughness in the
line commencing "When on Mars-Hill," and the discord introduced at the word "inspired," evince an ear
attuned to the delicacies of melody, and form an appropriate introduction to the sonorous and emphatic closing-Jesus of Nazareth.
Of the minor poems in the volume before us, we must
be pardoned for speaking in a cursory mariner. Of
course they include many degrees of excellence. Their
beauties and their faults are, generally, the beauties
and the faults of Zinzendorff. We will particularize a
few of each.
On page 67, in a poem entitled Female Education,
occur the following lines:
Break Oblivion's sleep,
And toil with florist's art
To plant the scenes of virtue deep
In childhood's fruitful heart!
To thee the babe is given,
Fair from its glorious Sire;
Go-nur se it for the King of Heaven,
And He will pay the hire.
The conclusion of this is bathetic to a degree bordering
upon the grotesque.
At page 160 is an error in metre-of course an oversight. We point it out merely because, did we write
ourselves, we should like to be treated in a similar
manner. For'centred' we should probably read'con-.
centred.'
The wealth of every age
Thou host center'd here,
The ancient tome, the classic page,
The wit, the poet, and the sage,
All at thy nod appear.
At page 233, line 10, the expression "Thou iavert
their friend," although many precedents may be found
to justify it —is nevertheless not English. The same
error occurs frequently in the volume.
The poem entitled The Pholatos, at page 105, has the
following introductory prose sentence: "It is a fact
familiar to Conchliologists, that the genus Pholas possesses the property of phosphorescence. It has been
asserted that this may be restored, even when the animal is in a dried state, by the application of water, but
is extinguished by the least quantity of brandy." This
odd fact in Natural History is precisely what Cowley
would have seized with avidity for the purpose of
preaching therefirom a poetical homily on Temperance.
But that Mrs. Sigourney should have thought herself
justifiable in using it for such purpose, is what we cannot understand. What business has her good taste
with so palpable and so ludicrous a conceit? Let us
now turn to a more pleasing task.
In the -Friends of Nlan, (a poem originally published
in our own Messenger,) the versification throughout is
of the first order of excellence. We select an example.
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