Poems by William Cullen Bryant (review) [pp. 41-49]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
L!bttortaI.
BRYANT.
Poeims by Williamni Cutllent Bryanit. Fourth Edition. geto
York - Ilarper andl Brothers.
Mr. Bryant's poetical reputation, both at home and
abroad, is greater, we presume, than that of any other
Ameriican. British critics have firequently awarded him
high praise; and here, tlhe public press have been
unanimous in approbation. We can call to mind no
dissenting voice. Yet the nature, and, most especially the manner, of the expressed opinions in this case,
should be considered as somewhat equivocal, and but
too fiequently must have borne to the mind of the
poet, doubts and dissatisfaction. The edition now before us may be supposed to embrace all such of his
poems as he deems not unworthy his name. These
(amounting to about one hundred) have been "carefully
revised." WVith the exception of some few, about whichl
nothing could well be said, we will speak briefly of them
one by one, but in such order as we may find conilvenient.
The.,ges, a didactic piece of thirty-five Spenserian
stanzas, is the first and longest in the volume. It was
originally printed in 1821, with about half a dozen
others now included in this collection. The design of
the author in this poem is "from a survey of the past
ages of the world, and of the successive advances of
miankind in knowledge and virtue, to justify and confirm
the hopes of the philanthropist for the future destinies of
the hliman race." It is, indeed, an essay on the perfectibility of man, wherein, among other better arguments, some, in the very teeth of analogy, are deduced
from the eternal cycles of physical nature, to sustain a
hope of progression in hlap,iiiess. But it is only as a
poem that we wish to examine Thle ]g,,es. Its commencement is impressive. The four initial lines arrest
the attention at once by a quiet dignity of manner, an
air of placid contemplation, and a versification coinbining the extremes of mrelody and force
When to the common rest that crowns our days,
Called in the noon of life, the good maiin goes,
Or fuill of years, and ripe in wisdom, lays
HLis silver telmples in their last repose
The five concluding lines of the stanza, however, are
not equally effectiveWrhen, o'er the buds of youth, the death-winid blows,
And blilhts the fairest; wlen our bitterest tears
Stream, as the eves of those that love us close,
AVe think on wtiat they wvere, witli many fears
Lest goodness die wvith them, and leave the comining
years.
The defects, here, are all of a metrical and of course
minor nature, but are still defects. The line
When o'er the buds of youth the death-win nd blows
is impeded in its flow by the final th in youth, and especially in death where t follows. The word tears cannot
readily be pronounced after the final st in bitterest; and
its own final consonants, rs, in like manner render an
effort necessary in the Lutterance of stream which cornmmences the next line. In the verse
We think on what they were, with many fears
the w-ord many is, from its nature, too rapidly pronounced for the fulfilment of the time necessary to give weight
to the foot of two syllables. All words of two syllables
do not necessarily constitute a foot (we speak now of the
Pentameter here employed) even although the syllables
be entirely distinct, as in many, very, often and the like.
Such as, without effort, cannot employ in their pronunciation the time demanded by each of the preceding
and succeeding feet of the verse, and occasionally of a
preceding verse, will never fail to offend. It is the perception of this fact which so frequently forces the versifier of delicate ear to employ feet exceeding what are
unjustly called legitimate dimensions. For example.
At page 21 of the volume before us we have the following lines
Lo! to the smiling Arno's classic side
The emulous nations of the West repair!
These verses are exceedingly forcible, yet, upon scanning the latter, we find a syllable too many. We shall
be told possibly that there should be an elision of the e
in the at the commencement. But no-this was not intended. Both the and emulous demand a perfect accentuation. The verse commencing Lo!
Lo! to the smiling Arno's classic side,
has, it will be observed, a Trochee in its first foot. As
is usually the case, the whole line partakes, in consequence, of a stately and emphatic enunciation, and, to
equalize the time in the verse succeeding, something
more is necessary than thie succession of Iambuses which
constitute the ordinary Englslish Pentameter. The equalization is therefore judiciously effected by the introduction of an additional syllable. But in the lines
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
We think on what they were with many fears,
lines to which the preceding observations will equally
apply, this additional syllable is wanting. Did the
rhyme admit of the alteration, every thing necessary
could be accomplished by writing
We think on what they were with many a fear,
Lest goodness die with thenm and leave the coming year.
These remarks may be considered hypercritical-yet
it is undeniable that upon a rigid attention to minutia
such as we have pointed out, any great degree of metrical success must altogether depend. We are more
disposed, too, to dwell upon the particular point mentioned above, since, with regard to it, the American
Monthly, in a late critique upon the poems of Mr. Willis, has evidently done that gentleman injustice. The
reviewer has fiallen into what we conceive the error of
citing, by themselves, (that is to say insulated from the
context) such verses as
The night-wind with a desolate moan swept bly.
With (dilictilt energy and when the roed,
Fell through, anid with the tremuloucs hand of age.
With supernatural wlhiteniess loosely fell.
for the purpose of animadversion. "The license" he
says "of turning stuch words as'passionate' and'delilate' into two syllables could only lhave been taken by
a pupil of the Fantastic School." We are quite sure
that IMr. Willis had no purpose of turning them into
words of two syllables-nor even, as may be supposed
upon a careless examinatioi), of pronotincing them iin the
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