Critical Notices [pp. 112-128]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
of poetic excellence, will be exemplified in the passage
we now quote, beginning at page 187, vol. i.
"There can scarcely be a more beautiful and appropriate arrangement of words, than in the following
stanza from Childe Harold:
The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew,
As glad to waft him front his native home;
And fast the white rocks faded from his view,
And soon were lost in circumamibient foam;
And then it may be of his wish to roam
Repented he, but in his bosom slept
The silent thouslit, nor from his lips did come
One word of wail, whilstothers sate and wept,
And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept.
Without committing a crime so heinous as that of
entirely spoiling this verse, it is easy to alter it so as to
bring it down to the level of ordinary composition; and
thus we may illustrate the essential difference between
poetry and mere versification.
The sails were trimm'd and fair the light winds blew,
As glad to force him from lhis native home,
And fast the white rocks vanish'd from his view,
And soon were lost amid the circling foam:
And then,perchance, of his fonel wish to roam
Repented he, but in his bosom slept
The wish, nor from his silent lips did come
One mournful word, whilst others sat and wept,
And to the heedless breeze theirfruitless moaning kept.
It is impossible not to be struck with the harmony
of the original words as they are placed in this stanza.
The very sound is graceful, as well as musical; like
the motion of the winds and waves, blended with the
majestic movement of a gallant ship. "The sails were
filled" conveys no association with the work of man;
but substitute the word trimmed, and you see the busy
sailors at once. The word'waft' follows in perfect
unison with the whole of the preceding line, and maintains the invisible agency of the'light winds;' while
the word'glad' before it, gives an idea of their power
as an unseen intelligence.'Fading' is also a happy
expression, to denote the gradual obscurity and disappearing of the'white rocks;' but the'circumambient
foam' is perhaps the most poetical expression of the
whole, and such as could scarcely have proceeded from
a low or ordinary mind."
All this is well-but what follows is not so. "It may
be amusing"-says Miss Stickney,at page 189, "to see
how a poet, and that of no mean order, can undesignedly murder his own offspring" —and she proceeds to
extract, from Shelley, in illustration, some passages, of
whose exquisite beauty she has evidently not the slightest comprehension. She commences with
a Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken."
" Sicken" is here italicized; and the author of the
" Poetry of Life" thinks the word so undeniably offensive as to render a farther allusion to it unnecessary.
A few lines below, she quotes, in the same tone of
criticism, the terrific image in the Ode to Naples.
" Naples!-thou heart of men, which ever pantest
Naked, beneath the lidless eye of Heaven!"
And again, on the next page, from the same author
"Thou art the wine whose drunkenness is all
:We can desire, O Love!"
Miss Stickney should immediately burn her copy of
Shelley-it is to her capacities a sealed book.
MISS SEDGWICK'S SKETCHES.
Tales and Sketches. By Miss Sedgwick,./uthor of " The
Linwoods," "Hope Leslie," /c. fc. Philadelphia: Carey,
Lea, and Blanchard.
This volume includes —A Reminiscence of Federalism —The Catholic Iroquois-The Country CousinO'd Maids —The Chivalric Sailor-Mary Dyre-Cacoethes Scribendi-The Eldest Sister —St. Catharine's
Eve —Romance in Real Life-and the Canary Family.
All of these pieces, we believe, have been published
before. Of most of them we can speak with certaintyfor having, in earlier days, been enamored of their pervading spirit of mingled chivalry and pathos, we cannot
now forget them even in their new habiliments. Old
Maids-The Country Cousin-and one or two others,
we have read before-and should be willing to read
again. These, our ancient fi-iends, are worthy of the
pen which wrote "Hope Leslie" and "The Linwoods."
"Old Maids," in spite of the equivocal nature of its
title, is full of noble and tender feeling —a specimen of
fine writing, involving in its melancholy details what
we must consider the beau-ideal of feminine disinterestedness —the ne plus ultra of sisterly devotion. The
"Country Cousin" possesses all the peculiar features of
the tale just spoken of, with something more of serious
and even solemn thought. The "Chivalric Sailor" is
full of a very different, and of a more exciting, although
less painful interest. We remember its original appearance under the title of "Modern Chivalry." The
"Romance of Real Life" we now read for the first
time —it is a tale of striking vicissitudes, but not the
best thing we have seen from the pen of Miss Sedgwick-that a story is "founded on fact," is very
seldom a recommendation. "The Catholic Iroquois"
is also new to us —a stirring history of Christian faith
and martyrdom. The "Reminiscence of Federalism"
relates to a period of thirty years ago in New England-is a mingled web of merriment and gloom —and
replete with engrossing interest. "Mary Dyre" is a
veracious sketch of certain horrible and bloody facts
which are a portion of the History of Fanaticism.
Mary is slightly mentioned by Sewal, the annalist of
"the people called Qtuakers," to which sect the maiden
belonged. She died in vindicating the rights of conscience. This piece originally appeared in one of our
Souvenirs. "St. Catherine's Eve" is "utnie histoire
touchante qui montre a quel point l'enseignemeat religieux
pouvoit gtre perverti, et combien le Clerge,toit loin d'etre
le gardien des mteurs publiques" —the tale appertains to
the thirteenth century. "Cacoethes Scribendi" is told
with equal grace and vivacity. "The Canary Family"
is a tale for the young —brief, pointed and quaint. But
the best of the series, in every respect, is the sweet and
simple history of " The Eldest Sister."
While we rejoice that Miss Sedgwick has thought
proper to condense into their present form these evidences of her genius which have been so long floating
at random before the eye of the world —still we think
her rash in having risked the publication so immediately after "The Linwoods." None of these "Sketches"
have the merit of an equal number of pages in that
very fine novel —and the descent from good to inferior
(although the inferior be very far from bad) is most
generally detrimental to literary fame. tacilis descensus
Jverni.
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