lent, the sound of quadrupeds,' would be in a modern poet, if used to express the sound of horses. "Let us take another example: 'Pastor cum traheret per freta navibus Idris Helenam perfidus hospitam.' Why is the word traheret used, which, as employed elsewhere, would imply the taking away of Helen against her will? Does it refer to one version of the story according to which Paris did bear her away by force? Were this the case, one would naturally expect, considering the reproachful and denunciatory character of the ode, to find that idea brought out more distinctly. Is it intended to express the reluctance with which, though yielding to her love for Paris, she left her husband and her home? This conception is too refined for an ancient poet to trust to its being made apparent by so light a touch, if indeed we may suppose it to have entered his mind. Was traheret then intended, by its associations with an act of violence, to denote the rapidity and fear of the flight of Paris? or was it merely employed abusively, to use a technical term-only with reference to a part of its signification, as words are not unfrequently used in poetry, though it is always an imperfection? "Such cases are very numerous, in which no modern reader can pronounce with just confidence upon the character of the poetical language of the ancients. Instances are frequently occurring in which, if we admire at all, we must admire at second-hand, upon trust. The meaning and effect of words have undergone changes which it is often not easy, and often not possible, to ascertain with precision. Even in our own language this is the case. Shakspeare says 'Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark "Here Johnson understands him as presenting the ludicrous conception of the ministers of vengeance peeping through a blanket;' and Coleridge, as we see by his TableTalk, conjectured that instead of blanket,'' blank height' was perhaps written by Shakspeare. But by Heaven' we conceive to be meant not the ministers of vengeance, but the lights of heaven; and it is not unpoetical to speak of the moon and stars as peeping through clouds. With the word 'blanket,' our associations are trivial and low; but understand it merely as denoting a thick covering of darkness which closely enwraps the lights of heaven, and it suits well to its place. But our associations with the word are accidental: there is nothing intrinsically more mean in a blanket than a sheet, yet none would object to the expression of a sheet of light." The fortunes of the words only have been different, and that, in all probability, since the time of Shakspeare, considering his use of this word, and the corresponding use of the word rug by Drayton,1 "If such be the character of poetical language, it is clear that, to judge with critical accuracy of that of a distant age or even a foreign land, requires uncommon knowledge and discrimination, as well as an accurate taste; while unfortunately, profound scholarship and cultivated and elegant habits of mind have very rarely been united in the study of the ancient poets. The supposition of a peculiar felicity of expression in their writings is to be judged of, in most cases, rather by extrinsic probabilities, which do not favour it, than by any direct and clear evidence of it that can be produced. We are very liable in this particular to be biassed by prepossession and authority; our imaginations often deceive us; we create the beauty which we fancy that we find. "There is perhaps no poet, in whose productions the characteristics of which we have spoken as giving a superiority to the poetry of later times over that which has preceded, appear more strikingly than in those of Mrs Hemans. When, after reading such works as she has written, we turn over the volumes of a collection of English poetry, like that of Chalmera, we cannot but perceive that the greater part of it appears more worthless and distasteful than before. Much is evidently the work of barren and unformed, vulgar and vicious minds, of individuals without any conception of poetry as the glowing expression of what is most noble in our nature, and often with no title to the name of poet, but from having put into metre thoughts too mean for prose. Such writings as those of Mrs Hemans at once afford evidence of the advance of our race, and are among the most important means of its further purification and progress. The minds, which go forth from their privacy to act with strong moral power upon thousands and ten thousands of other minds, are the real agents in advancing the character of man, and improving his condition. They are instruments of the invisible operations of the Spirit of God."-Christian Examiner, Jan. 1836. 1 See examples, in the notes to Shakspeare. Greek chant of victory, 536 And I too in Arcadia, 541 Angel's greeting, the, 499 Anthony and Cleopatra, last banquet Antique Greek lament, 627 sepulchre, the, 493 Arabella Stuart, 385 Arnold de Brescia, 86 note Ascending a hill leading to a convent, Asdrubal, the wife of, 97 Attendant, to his, from Horace, 298 Bring flowers," 362 Broken chain, the, 491 flower, the, 505 lute, the, 515 Brother and sister in the country, to my, 2 Brother's dirge, the, 545 Bruce at the source of the Nile, 368 -- of an emigrant's child in the - of William the Conqueror, the, 537 491 "By a mountain-stream at rest," 566 Caius Gracchus of Monti, translations Call to battle, the, 547 Caravan in the desert, the, 210 Caroline, to, 524 Carpio, Bernardo del, 456 Carthage, Marius among the ruins of, 212 Casabianca, 369 Castri, the view from, 251 Caswallon's triumph, 150 Cavern of the three Tells, the, 341 Chant of the bards before their mas- sacre, 151 Charlotte, the princess, stanzas on the Charmed picture, the, 458 last sleep, the, 431 morning and evening hymns, 532 Children whom Jesus blessed, the, 601 Christ, on a remembered picture of, 601 - - Infant, with flowers, picture of stilling the tempest, 355 Christian Examiner, the, 336 Christmas carol, 14 - 437 Dalecarlian mine, scene in a, 357 Darkness of the crucifixion, the, 602 Datura Arborea, on the, 623 Daughter of Bernard Barton, to the, 485 - the welcome to, 509 of Clanronald, the, 58 of the Princess Charlotte, on the, Death-day of Körner, the, 425 Delius, to, from Horace, 299 Delphi, the storm of, 241 Delta, criticisms by, 315, 630 spirit, to a, 449 Desert, the burial in the, 516 Deserted house, the, 463 -- from the field of Grütli, on a, 244 Flowers, 628 and music in a room of sick- day of, 592 dial of, 369 Foliage, 621 Forest sanctuary, the, 316 "Fortune, why thus," from Metastasio, Fourteenth century, a tale of the, 213 Marah, the, 496 Fouqué, Brandenburg harvest-song, Fragment,"Rest on your battle-fields," 245 Freed bird, the, 521 Friend, to an aged, 620 Funeral-day of Sir Walter Scott, the, 585 hymn, 581 Future, a thought of the, 498 Gafran's sea-song, 146 Garcilaso de la Vega, "Divine Eliza," Gargano, mount, 90 Genius singing to love, 554 Genoa, night-scene in, 99 George III., stanzas to the memory of, 187 German literature, 426 soldiers' Rhine song, 534 Gertrude, 394 Gesner, morning song from, 52 of the Vaudois mountaineers, Hymns for childhood, 528 "I dream of all things free," 546 "I would we had not met again,” 5€5 in the heart, the, 461 Impromptu to Miss F. A. L., 499 Indian, the aged, 56 with his dead child, the, 450 woman's death-song, 402 Indian's revenge, 590 Inez de Castro, coronation of, 448 North American Review, the, 113, 293, 337, 528 Northern spring, the, 533 Norton, professor, 113, 186, 293, 336, Norwegian war-song, 567 "O thou breeze of spring," 563 "O ye voices gone," 566 O'Connor's child, 508 Ode on the defeat of Sebastian of "O'er the far blue mountains," 563 "Oh! skylark, for thy wing," 544 Old church in an English park, an, Olive tree, the, 602 Orange bough, the, 543 Otho, the emperor, 85 Our daily paths, 370 603 Penitent's offering, the, 496 return, the, 605 Petrarch, translations from, 51 Picture of the Madonna, to a, 517 "Father in heaven," 621 in the wilderness, the, 586 of the lonely student, 577 Prince Madoc's farewell, 149 Prologue to the Poor Gentleman, 21 Properzia Rozzi, 392 Psalm cxlviii. paraphrase of, 533 Psyche borne by zephyrs to the island Quarterly Review, the, 62, 105, 114 Rainbow, the, 529 Records of immature genius, on, 617 Sabbath sonnet, 629 St Cecilia, for a picture of, 505 Scene in a Dalecarlian mine, 357 Schepler, Louise, two sonnets to, 603 Schmidt, the Wanderer from, 523 Schwerin, marshal, grave of, 555 Scott, Sir Walter, 508, 534 1 funeral-day of, 585 Sculptured children, the, 496 night-hymn at, 597 prayer at, 589 sound of the, 356 thought of the, 618 Sea-bird flying inland, the, 484 Sea-song of Gafran, the, 146 Sebastian of Portugal, 256 of, 254 Second-sight, 483 ode on the defeat Secret tribunal, a tale of the, 194 Shepherd-poet of the Alps, the, 512 Shunamite woman, reply of the, 598 Sickness, thoughts during, 627 like night, 628 Siege of Valencia, the, 262 Silent multitude, the, 493 Silver locks, the, 10 Silvio Pellico, to, 622 "Sing to me, gondolier," 563 "Sister! since I met thee last," 559 Sisters, the, 548 Sonnet, "A child midst ancient, 601 "A song for Israel's God," 598 603 "Doth thy heart stir," 619 "For there a holy," 603 66 Nobly thy song," 624 "O gentle story," 620 617 "Oh! what a joy," 621 |