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M*> TEta 'i/B-AfeBft. INo. 310, Saturday...
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THE POETS AND POETBT OF AMERICA. }-\ The...
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TWO NOVELS, Amberhill. By A. J. Barrowcl...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Inca.S Of Peru. Cuzco Aftd Lima : A ...
Nfevertheless , Mf . Markham * s book contains sources of interest apart from its episodes of speculation . The writer saw Cuzeo , which only Miller , Pentland , Castelnau , and Gibbon had seen before him , and whicli none ot those * ra ? elters had described , picturesquely or in detail . Mr . Markham siaccount , illustrated by coloured lithographs , is both minute and graphic . He tound the ruins spread over a large space in the north-west comer of a valley more tlian eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea , and two thousand above the summit of the Great St . Bernard . The houses arc built of stone , the traditionary palace of the Incas standing on a terrace of irregular masonry , with carvings of mythological figures , and a staircase leading to the structures above . In these remains the rocks are cut in perfect parallelograms , with fine edges , fitted closely together . The lintels are of a slate-coloured limestone . The Incas had chosen their military position with an admirable knowledge of strategy , the citadel of Cuzco being seated , on a table-land , enclosed by rivers and ravines , ajad by a treble Cyclopaean wall , a work of astonishing magnitude . It is built in exact parallels , with salient and retiring angles , of masses of the rock often from ten to twelve feet in length , so hewn as to rival the edifices of the Mogul architects , who " designed like Titans and finished like jewellers . ^ In the neighbourhood are the pits whence they were quarried , in which still lie blocks of stone , in various stages of preparation . From a description of this singular group of rains , and of the plains around them . , once the brightest habitation of the Inca race , Mr . Markham proceeds to sketch the actual aspects of Peru , combining with his antiquarian dialectics an interesting and reliable report on the condition of the Republic . His " volume is one which , betraying , as it does , both shallowness and assumption , is fresh j variedj and informing .
M*> Teta 'I/B-Afebft. Ino. 310, Saturday...
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The Poets And Poetbt Of America. }-\ The...
THE POETS AND POETBT OF AMERICA . } - \ The Poef e and Poetry of America . By Rufus Wilmot Griswold . London : Triibner and Co . 1 A- COiitscTibN of " Poems by Authors in their Teens" would not , w ' imagintej , be very delightful reading . H ere and there we might detect a form * of originality which it would be interesting to compare with the fruit of the 4 matured genius- —here and there we might be startled by the precocious vigour 1 orfertilily of a Shelley or a Keats j but , generally , even genius is not original in -its early efforts ^ and a song like Childe Jlarold is preluded by faint chirpings * like the Hours of Idleness . " The main characteristic of such a volume as j we hate imagined would be feeble and stiff imitation . It would have a psychologieal and biographical interest , but , considered as poetry , it would be /^ eaty . ' . . - ¦ ¦ ' s ' \ ' ¦ . * " . . " ; ¦ ¦ . : '¦ . - . I % i ^ ? ^ S ^ f the % me character , and the same order of interest , belongs - ^ ¦^•^ ry ^ Gri ^^ ldfs'largc ^ volunie : of . ' selections from the American poets . It V ' ^ f ^^ i ^ jf progress oX a poetic literatur e which may be said , figuratively ^^ f >^^?^ ^ "* A * teehs- ^ -Si literature which has hardl y yet passed through ^ e 6 ta . g ^ 3 f-. 'litntation , and is only beginning to put forth oriffinatins power . ^^ Ji ei yfi ^ in : tKio it ~ y * ;¦*• — 1 .---H- . j ju--....... ^_ _ -izv ^ . — . _ 5 . j _ . _ 5 ! . __ , i .. ; -: r ^ r : ^ ou ni iv is a vaiuawie acuution io tue uurtai ^ aun periiaps me f ^ ° S ^^ P ^ bUity is heightened by the very decided impression which ^ olerably persistent reading is likely to leave—that , with two or three brilli ^ t \ excfeptibris , it gives us qtiite as much as we want to know of the American poets ; In more than six hundred double-columned pages , large ^ bctaVOj ; there is room for quite satiating specimens of poets whom we may regard as the Gottscheds , the Bodmers , and the Hagedorns of America . Mere specimens of Bryant and Longfellow will content no lover of poetry j hut , happily , - their entire works are easily accessible . The reader should be Warned , too , that the " Fable for Critics / ' a satirical poem by James Russell . Lowell , shows a much higher order of talent than would-be inferred from the samples given in this volume of the writer ' s sentimental poetry . _ Some- *> f the names in Dr . Griswold ' s collection are likely to surprise the . English reader , who has been accustomed to associate them with graver business in life and literature than that of verse writing . It seems that Johu Qumcy Adams not only perpetrated , but printed , a great deal of very indifferent verse . Mr . Bancroft , too , has published " Poems , " which are about the jF ade of second-rate album verses—at least , if we may trust Dr . Gris-Wokis judgment for giving us fair specimens . Perhaps we ought to allow individual poets the benefit of a doubt as to the validity of that judgment , and admit that they may have written very fine things , which Dr . Griswold hits strangely neglected in favour of the very common-place things he has inserted . Still his volume , as a whole , may be presumed to present a failaverage of American poetry ; and certainly , with the exception of the two poets for whom we have already intimated our admiration , and of one or two flashes of originality—such as Edgar Poe ' s « Raven , "— -it is poetry difficult toread and easy to forget . Mr . Bayard Taylor arrests us xnore than most of ' ^ SV ^ u , ? ° ; " ?* " > ? K ^ O *" " « charming bit of simple pathos , and Kubleh , " a story in which an Arabian mare is the heroine , is finely told , and tempts us to quote a passage :- — . ' „ . , Never yet , O Arabs , never yet was like to Kubleh . t And Sofufc loved her . She was more to him Than all hfe snowjr-bosotned odalisques . For many years , beside his tent ehe stood , The glory of , the tribe . k '•"• ¦ At last she died : i -Wed , Tvuile the fire waa yet in all her limba—Died for the life of Sofuk , whom Bhe loved . » . . ,, The base Jeboura— -on whom be Allah ' s curse !—;„ „ Came on his path , when fay fiorn any camp , And would have slain hiih , but that Kublqb . sprang , Against the javelin-po . inta ana boro them down , <> — ¦ ¦ / ± nd' ^ i ) n '< * th * open desort . IVoU-nded sore , \ imti , , ^^ urged her lighi limbs into tnndclentag speed , ,, ¦ ¦ ' . ¦ : ¦; \ iX ^ to ^ * nwind <* laggard . On and on * M " a ^ fSfiJSt ^ ^ breath her , and behind > ' : V- $ H $£ ^' « *« $ oloud y turbulence , 8 * ^ Kf «*»¦«« EWia , downward hurl'd » y AUaUB feolt , Bweopfl . wLthita burning hair t i i i 1 j I
The waste of darkness . On and on , the bleak , - Bare ridges rose before her , came and passed ; And « very flying leap with fresher blood Her nostril Btain'd , till Sofuk ' s brow and breast Were flecked with crimson foam . He would have turned To save bis treasure , though himself were lost , But Kubleh fiercely snapp'd the brazen rein . At last , when through her spent and quiverin g frame The sharp throes ran , our distant teats arose , And with a neigh , whose shrill excess of joy Ov ercame its agony , she stopp'd and fell . The Shammar men came round her as she lay , And Sofuk raised her head and held i t close Against bis breast . Her dull and glazing eve Met his , and with a shuddering gasp she died . Then like a child his bursting grief made way In passionate tears , and with him . all the tribe Wept for the faithful mare . Dr . Griswold ' s labours have not been confined to selection . He opens with a brief survey , including fragmentary specimens , of American poetry before the Revolution , and throughout the volume the selections from each joet are preceded by a slight biographical and critical sketch . His narrative is rather bold , and his criticism has the opposite defect of being more rhetorical than judicious ; still , we have to be grateful to him for his diligence in putting together a useful summary of facts . If our readers share our previous ignorance , they will perhaps be interested , as we were , to learn through Dr . Griswold that " Home , sweet Home " was written by an American—the * dramatist Payne . Mr . Whittier has rather a spirited ballad founded on one of the most startling examples we have met with of Puritan intolerance in the American colonists : — Two young persons , son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick , of Salem , who had himself been imprisoned and deprived of all bis property for having enterained two Quakers at bis bouse , were fined ten pounds each for non-attendance t church , which they -were unable to pay . The case being represented to the General Court , at Boston , that body issued an order which may still be seen on . the court records , blearing the signature of Edward Rawson , Secretary , by which . the treasurer of the county was " fully empowered to sell the saridpersons to any of the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes , to answer said fines / ' An attempt was made to carry this barbarous order into execution , but no shipmaster was found willing to convey them to the West Indies . The state of society indicated by this anecdote must have found a congenial poet in the Rev . Michael"Wigglesworth , who " flourished" between 1631 and 1707 . Dr . Griswold tells us : — His most celebrated performance , ' * The Day of Doom , or a Poetical Descrip " tidn of the Great and Last Judgment , with a sborfc Discourse about Eternity , " passed through six editions in this country , and was reprinted in London . A few verses will show its quality"StUl _ was the night , serene aud bright , Wnenaumen sleeping lay ; Calm was the season , and carnal reason Thought so 'twould last for aye . ' Soul , take thine ease , let sorrow cease , Much good thou hast in store : ' This was their soug ; their cups among , The evening before . " After the " sheep''have received their reward , the several classes of " goats " are arraigned before the judgment seat , and , in turn , begin to excuse themselves . When the infants object to damnation on the ground that " Adam is set free And saved from Mb trespass , Whose sinful fall hath , spilt them , all , And brought them to this pass , "the Puritan tbeologist does not sustain his doctrine very well , nor quite to bis own satisfaction even : and the Judge , admitting the palliating circumstances , decides that although " In bliss They may not hope to dwell , Still unto them He will allow The easiest room , in hell . " At length the general sentence is pronounced , and the condemned begin to " Wring their hands , their caitiff-hands , And gnash their teeth for terror ; They cry , they roar , for anguish sore , And gnaw their tongues for horror . But got away , without delay , Christ pities not your cry : Depart to hell , there may ye yell , And roar eternally . " Before quitting Dr . Griswold ' s volume we ought to mention that it contains some well-executed portraits and is altogether a handsome book . The portrait of Bryant , from a daguerreotype , is particularly fine 5 the refined moral expression of the head perfectl y corresponds with the spirit of his poetry .
Two Novels, Amberhill. By A. J. Barrowcl...
TWO NOVELS , Amberhill . By A . J . Barrowcliffe . Two Vols . Smith and Elder . The Monetons . By Susanna Moodie . Two Vols . Bontlcy . Amderiiill belongs to the barbaric orflcr . It is amnss of gold mid colour , of superb eccentricity and grotesque elaboration . It is the history of an Agony , narrated by one who imagines that she has advanced sufficiently in her art to rebuke , with authority , the race of young , prolix , and exuberant writers . Verbal harmonics , she tells us , she utterly abhora ; worshipping only the precious Idea , which is essential Eloquence . But if criticism have any value it is the repressing such offences as Amberhill , and the reclamation of the offender . For , hero is a now writer , with a superior mind and an original pen , who tells a sad , delirious tale , with spasmodic labour , nnd almost blasphemes in Bcnrch of effect . Should the book be a success , A . J . lkrrowcliflo is for ever a failure . She supposes that a grand moral lesson may be conveyed by a story with-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01031856/page/18/
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