Be mine, all mine, let good or ill betide. Through time and through eternity I'll love thee, From loving and adoring thee next Him: Artev. I fear, my Adriana, 't is a rash That which hath made me weak shall make me strong, And if some tax thou payest for that love, Thou shalt receive it back from Love's exchequer. Adri. Upon this finger be the first tax raised [Draws off a ring, which she gives him. Now what shall I receive? Artev. The like from mine. I had forgotten-I have it not to day ; Give Love a good night's rest within thy heart, HARTLEY COLERIDGE. (1796-1849). THE FIRST MAN-A SONNET. WHAT was 't awaken'd first the untried ear POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 569 Of the crowd of poetical writers, male and female, in the three kingdoms, whose numbers have enriched the literature of the present century, we can afford room for the names of very few; we must omit many probably equal, or perhaps superior, in merit to some of those selected. William Gifford; Dr. J. Wolcot (Peter Pindar); Rev. William Lisle Bowles; Edwin Atherstone ("Nineveh "); Bernard Barton; Rev. George Croly; Thomas Pringle; Ebenezer Elliot (Corn Law Rhymes); J. Sterling ("The Sexton")-he is the Archeus of the Noctes in Blackwood's Magazine; W. M. Milnes; Alaric Watts and Mrs. Watts; William and Mary Howitt; Thomas Aird; Miss Blamire; Mrs. Barbauld; Miss Seward; Mrs. Tighe ("Psyche"); Miss Caroline Bowles, afterwards Mrs. Southey; Eliza Cook; Isa Craig; Bessy Parkes; W. Allingham; Coventry Patmore; W. C. Bennett; Gerald Massey; George Macdonald; James Hedderwick; Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (son of the novelist), etc. vated the language of Scotland are also numerous :-Alexander Wilson The writers who have culti(the ornithologist, originally a Paisley weaver); Robert Tannahill, also a native of Paisley; Hector Macneil ("Will and Jean "); John Mayne ("Logan Braes," etc.); Sir Alexander Boswell, the son of Johnson's Boswell ("Jenny dang the Weaver," etc.); the late William Tennant, Professor of Hebrew in the University of St. Andrews ("Anster Fair "); William Motherwell; Robert Nicol; James Ballantine (poems and songs, interspersed in the "Gaberlunzie's Wallet" and, the "Miller of Deanhaugh"); Robert Gilfillan; William Thom, the hand-loom weaver, of Inverury, whose death in poverty and neglect has been made the subject of reproach against Scotland; David Vedder; Alexander Maclagan, etc. The Dramatists of the conclusion of the eighteenth, and of the present century, are-Joanna Baillie (Plays of the Passions); Matthew Gregory Lewis (Castle Spectre); W. Godwin; W. Sotheby; Richard Lalor Shiel; Miss Mitford; Mrs. Inchbald; Thomas Morton; George Colman (the Younger); John Tobin; Leigh Hunt; Messrs. Reynolds, Holcroft, Horne, Douglas Jerrold, etc. The drama has assumed within this period the form of the Dramatic Poem: this style of construction is often preferred in poems strictly of the epic character. Many of these writers, and others, have produced compositions which posterity will not probably let die; some have found their way into foreign languages. The "minor" Scottish poets especially have lately been translated into German. The kindred genius of the British and German tongues (see Scott's "Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad ") facilitates the reciprocal transfusion of their poetry, especially in the case of the language of Scotland; moreover, the lyrical grace and hearty natural feeling of these Scottish compositions are calculated to carry their influence beyond their national limits, especially among a people so closely allied in feeling and character as are the Germans to the Scotch. Of late years the poetical industry of the country has exhibited no peculiar development: the "great masters" have departed. Mr. Tennyson, at present, occupies the position of the "most distinguished poet of the day," and he has been steadily increasing in popularity. Of what may be termed "the psychological school, spiritual not metaphysical," "Bells and Pomegranates," "The King and the book," etc. by Robert Browning, and "Ballads and Romances," by R. H. Horne, author of the drama "Orion," are works which attracted much of the 570 POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. public attention, though written in what may be called the transcendental style, and wanting in simplicity. In conclusion we may say that although in this country the tendency of the age is more towards prose fictionthe novel having become in some sort a necessary of life-poetry is still sedulously cultivated, and the elder bards are studied and appreciated with critical taste and enthusiasm. AMERICAN POETS. SYDNEY SMITH in 1818 wrote "Literature the Americans have none-no native literature. It is all imported. They had a Franklin, indeed, and may afford to live for half a century on his fame. There is, or was, a Mr. Dwight, who wrote some poems; and his baptismal name was Timothy. There is also a small account of Virginia by Jefferson, and an epic by Joel Barrow; and some pieces of pleasantry by Mr. Irving. But why should the Americans write books, when a six weeks' passage brings them, in their own tongue, our sense, science, and genius in bales and hogsheads? Prairies, steam-boats, grist-mills, are their natural objects for centuries to come." There was even then exaggeration in this judgment of the witty Canon of St. Paul's, for the name of Jonathan Edwards was great in metaphysics; and his grandson Timothy Dwight, though a poor poet, was an able and popular theologian and miscellaneous writer; while in fiction Brockden Brown (the first American littérateur by profession) was no mean pioneer. Since then fifty years have wrought strange alteration. The six weeks' passage from England has been contracted into one of ten or twelve days, and so far from the facility of communication tending to repress native literature, American authors have come forward vigorously in almost every department, and been read over all Europe. Washington Irving, Channing, Bancroft, Prescott, and Ticknor, stand in the first rank of prose writers; and though in poetry the triumph is less marked, the names of Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Halleck, Willis, and a few others, occupy no inconsiderable position. We can afford space for but scanty gleanings, yet a few extracts will shew that there are features of originality in these strains of the young American Muse. THE son of a physician in Massachusetts, Mr. Bryant was carefully educated, and distinguished himself at Williams College, after which he studied for the bar. Having practised as a barrister for some years, he removed in 1825 to New York, and attached himself to periodical literature, first as editor of the Monthly Review, and subsequently as editor of the Evening Post, which he still (1872) conducts. From his tenth year Mr. Bryant has been known as a poet. His precocity exceeded that of Cowley or Pope, but he has not been voluminous. His pieces are all contained in one volume, and are remarkable for their refined meditative character and simple chaste beauty of expression. They transport us, as Washington Irving remarks, "into the depths of the solemn primeval forest, the shores of the lonely lake, and the banks of the wild nameless stream." Mr. Bryant is also author of "Letters of a Traveller in Europe and America." His first piece is a meditation on death, to which he prefixes the Greek compound title of "Thanatopsis." THANATOPSIS. To him who in the love of Nature holds When thoughts Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, To Nature's teachings, while from all around— In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim To mix for ever with the elements, To be a brother to the insensible rock And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain Shalt thou retire alone-nor couldst thou wish |