Notices of New Works [pp. 472-476]

Notices of New Works.
"Thanks before Meat," there is a quaintness suggestive of the old English writers
Children of the pathless wood,
Dwelling in deep solitude,
Born of earth and blessed of heaven,
Proofs of love that God hath given;
Pledges from His bounteous hand,
Ever fair and sinless band
You say if mine e'er touch your lips,
Some song of love they first must sing — Some dainty rhyme they first must bring,
To praise the crimson of their tips.
You make me give the thanks and praise
Before I touch the luscious fruit;
You make me sing when it would suit
My lip to banish all delays.
When your gentle mother, Spring,
Heard the happy robin sing,
Then we saw her, calm and slow,
Lift the coverlet of snow
From your ti ny forms, an d press
Your pure lips with tenderness.
And we knew she lingered there,
Whispering words of love and prayer;
For at last each sleeping child,
Looking upward, sweetly smiled,
With the beauty of the skies
Mirrored in its dewy eyes!
0 sweet! I fea r the blood that r un s
Its courses in your azure veins,
That reds your cheek with health's flush
stains,
Smacks of the stern old Puritans!
But for the boon you ask, you give
The richest, rarest Lydian wine — The taste of those twin lips divine,
Whose promise bids my frail song live.
Low winds whispering through the trees;
Dreamy murmurings of bees;
Notes of birds and flow of rills;
Music that the rain distils;
Your sweet cradle songs are these,
And unnumbered melodies.
But our string of verses must be brought
to an end, and we turn from these volumes
of poetry to discuss works of another
kind.
0, ye children of the wood,
Messengers of solitude,
Ye are dearer far to me
Than the nurslings of the lea!
For ye bring to heart and brain
Childhood's rosy dreams again.
WORKS OF MICHAEL DE MONTAIGNE. Com prising his Essays, Journey into Italy, and
Letters, with Notes from all the Commen tators, Biographical and Bibliographical
ATotices, ~rc. By W. HAZLITT. A new
and carefully revised edition. Edited
by O. W. WIGHT. In Four Volumes.
New York: Derby & Jackson.
The name of R. A. Oakes is not unfamiliar to the readers of the Messenger, since
it has been appended now and then to
meritorious verses which have graced the
magazine. We like much that is revealed
of the writer in this modest volume which
may be read from beginning to end in
fifteen minutes; we like the refinement,
the simplicity, the love of beauty his poetical exercises make manifest, and we think
Mr. Oakes might win a reputation for himself in literature such as few among the
rising poets can boast, if he would write
more carefully. These lines on Herrick
are worthy of the theme
Messrs. Derby and Jackson have entered upon a most praiseworthy undertaking,
being nothing less than a republication,
in an acceptable form, of the entire series
of the French classics in English. Five
volumes of this edition are before us. They
are handsomely printed and neatly bound,
and the work of translation has been faithfully executed. The quaint old essayist
of France who stands out as the intellectual exponent of his country for the period
in which he flourished, as his contemnporaries Shakspeare in England and Cervantes in Spain, well deserves to be
studied by all who would familiarize
themselves with the history of literature.
475
1859.1
MAY FLOWERS.
THANKS BEFORE MEAT.
ADVENTURES oF TIELIMMACHUS. By FENEL.ON.
T?-anslated by Dr. Hawkesworth; with a
Life of Fenelon by Lamartine. dn Essay
on his Genius and Character by Villemain,
Critical and Bibliographical Notices, 4c.
Same E(litor and Publisher. [From J.
W. Randolph, 121 Main Street.
He made no grand Rights soaring to the
sun;
Within his verse no flaunting pennons
flame;
Among the golden daffodils he won
The glory of his deathless name.
What quaint conceit and golden fancy
fills
His antique goblets to the very lees;
The rain of an eternal fragrance spills
Its sweetnessin Hesperides.
In the following, which he entitles