into descriptions which may entertain, but neither strengthen nor elevate the mind. GRAY, fastidious in taste and jealous of reputation, has left few productions of his Muse, but they are exquisite in their kind. His well-known Elegy, will be read while there is a human mind capable either of feeling or of taste; yet must we lament its entire destitution of those truths, which by bringing "life and immortality to light" have robbed death of its sting, and the grave of its terrors. This deficiency has been supplied by an anonymous American poet, whose interesting lines will be found on the 253rd page. COWPER is the most useful and interesting of Christian Poets. Greatly inferior to MILTON in creative genius, he excels him in moral effect, by coming home to the business and bosoms of men. If he does not, like our Epic Bard, enable us to range through ideal worlds, he shows as as in a lucid and faithful mirror the scenery and interests of our own. If he does not, like him, invest the facts of Revelation with high imaginings, he inculcates its special verities with unsparing fidelity and poetic charm. Even his satire is kindly severe, wounding to heal; while in his humorous pieces, it is the moral which adorns the tale. Contemporary with Cowper, though a Poet of very different order, was the unhappy BURNS. We admire his Hogarth-like humour, his thrilling pathos, his native grace and fire, but we lament his abuse of the extraordinary talents with which "the Father of lights" had endued him. His "Cotter's Saturday-Night" will transmit to distant ages a faithful picture of Scottish piety in humble life. Its length alone prevented its insertion. Of the same nation with Burns, was the meek, tender, and pious GRAHAME. The several pieces introduced from his works carry with them their own recommendation. Having arrived at our own time, BYRON, its brightest poetical ornament, claims our first attention. We are not insensible either to the might or the charm of his Lordship's genius, but we confess that his productions remind us of poison presented in a golden chalice, or of the serpent which fascinates to deceive, and lures to destroy. Even his descriptions of Nature are interwoven with sentiments which no believer in the truth of Scripture, or friend to human happiness can approve. We have, though not without difficulty, furnished a few unexceptionable extracts from his works. We cannot refrain from expressing our admiration of "The Course of Time." It is a Poem which will live when some of its more flashy compeers shall have been forgotten. It may have been over-praised; it is occasionally harsh and prosaic; but withal, it is a work of extraordinary merit and promise ;-promise alas,—never to be realized in the present world! Its highly-gifted Author can no more be soothed by flattery, nor grieved by censure. His earthly Harp lies broken and silent in death, but he has taken up the "Harp of Eternity" and is singing the "new song" in rapt and undying strains "In the blest kingdom meek of joy and love, POLLOK, by his premature removal to a better world, reminds us of the lamented KIRK WHITE, whose memory Southey and Byron have united to embalm. His Poetry is now identified with the affecting history of his life, and "Each gives each a double charm." His early death is among those hidden mysteries of Providence, which we wait the Fight of Eternity to reveal. Our notice of living Poets, must be very brief. WORDSWORTH abounds in musings, which are exceedingly beautiful, though occasionally obscure. CRABBE is the poetic Morland of the day. His graphic sketches of life cannot fail to interest and please, though we wish they were less morbid, and not deformed by occasional caricatures of Evangelical Truth. CAMPBELL, who has written no second work worthy of his superior genius, seems determined to leave us to "The Pleasures of Hope." We find in SIR W. SCOTT several faithful pictures of Nature and well-told tales of olden time, but it is not by his poetry chiefly that he will be known to posterity; indeed its reputation seems to be already on the decline. SOUTHEY has exchanged his Aonian flights for the more profitable walks of prose, and as his principles have greatly improved in his maturer years, we wish that he would favour us with more frequent effusions of his Muse; of a different class, however, from his "Vision of Judgment." COLERIDGE, if he had written nothing but his "Chamouny,” included in this Selection, would deserve to rank with Poets of a superior ordet. MONTGOMERY, more than any other living Poet, resembles the amiable CowPER, and is entitled to the rare praise of having written "No line which dying he need wish to blot." The Poetry of Mrs. HEMANS reminds us of her first name, as few excel her in correctness of sentiment, or Felicity of diction. She is worthy of being associated with a BARBAULD, a H. MORE, and a J. TAYLOR. BOWRING has not only transfused the beauties of Foreign Poets into his own language, but is himself a Poet of no ordinary merit. In this brief notice of many of the Poets of our Country, we have omitted several names, dear both to genius and to piety, and from whose works we have enriched our Selection. In compiling our volume, we have endeavoured to confine ourselves to Poetry of a superior order, except in instances in which the pith and unction of the sentiment more than compensate the defects of the Muse. Rigid attention has been paid to the principles of the Work, so that we hope it contains nothing offensive to the purest Morals, or inconsistent with Revealed Truth. The Arrangement will we hope be found convenient, and supply a deficiency which must have been often remarked in works of a similar kind. We beg to acknowledge our obligations to various living Authors; particularly to Messrs. MONTGOMERY, BOWRING, EDMESTON, and CONDER; also to our gifted, but too-much-neglected Townsman, CARRINGTON. We are much indebted to our Subscribers, and beg them to accept the Vignette, as an expression of our gratitude for their kind Patronage of the volume, which we now commend to their judgment-to public inspection-and to the blessing of God. Devonport, January, 1829. T. WILLCOCKS T. HORTON. PAGE. 142 82 67 ...... .... 33 95 89 ABASH'D be all the boast of age 290 72 ..... 143 222 254 255 206 209 ........ .... INDEX. .... ...... .... ...... .... .... ..... .... PAGE. BEAUTIFUL are you in your lowliness 57 .... 71 56 ...... .... ...... PAGE. Deep in Sabea's fragrant groves retired 138 90 .... EACH fabled fount of comfort dry 128 59 FAIR are the provinces that England For Man to tell how human life began 116 ......................... .. .... .... 86 38 HAIL, and farewell, thou lovely guest 62 174 115 How cheerfully the unpartiall Sunne.. 178 43 .... .... I ASK'D an aged man, a man of cares 25 2. 261 ....... 12 gaze upon yon orbs of light 200 I saw it in my evening walk 58 A: I saw them in white raiment 1 I sing of God the mighty source................ 3 169 It happen'd on a solemn even-tide.... 160 235 225 ........... It seems as if the summer sky........ 265 PAGE. I bow before the power 16 ............ I did but see him and he disappeared 246 236 If this delicious, grateful flower I ........ .. ... PACE. Loud blew the storm of night, 39 MANTLED in storms;-attended by the 47 11 ...... ...... .... .... .... .... .... NAY, do not wantonly destroy 68 260 Nay, shrink not from that word Farewell 239 14 172 41 136 .... .... OBSCUREST night involved the sky 229 270 260 .... .... O bury not the dead by day. O God, whose thunder shakes the sky 178 41 34 |
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