то

MRS. ABBOTT LAWRENCE,

AS A SINCERE EXPRESSION OF

REGARD, RESPECT, AND GRATITUDE,

THIS BOOK

IS INSCRIBED, BY HER OBLIGED AND

AFFECTIONATE FRIEND.

THE LADIES' WREATH.

PART FIRST.

FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS.*

THE name of Mrs. Hemans stands pre-eminent among female poetic writers, as unquestionably as the rose holds the rank of "garden queen" among the flowers. She has gone from us, but the light of her genius will never be dimmed, nor the song of her harp forgotten. She has thrilled those chords of the human soul, which, while the race of man continues, cannot but respond to her sentiments. Love, in all its purest, holiest, sweetest emotions of household affections, patriotism and devotion, was the mighty spell by which she wrought; and till love shall cease from earth, her name can never die.

In perusing the poems of Mrs. Hemans, we are struck with her wonderful perception of the beautiful. This seems to be her peculiar gift. Whatever be the scene

* The poems of Mrs. Hemans have been published in a variety of forms, and in many editions. The latest and most complete is the American edition, published, since her decease, by Mr. Ash, of Philadelphia. It comprises all her works, in one volume, octavo.

described, the character or object introduced, she always gathers around her images and allusions of exceeding beauty; and these selected with a moral taste so pure and refined, that it seems to have shed the lustre of heaven upon the things of earth.

And yet, over these bright visions, incomparable in loveliness as they are, is the blending of human cares and sorrows, and the shadow of Nature's decay. Nothing is satisfying, nothing is abiding. She saw the perfectness of the Creator's works in their most attractive forms; but she saw that Death was in the world, and that all which was made was subject to the Destroyer.

Hence the sadness which pervades nearly all her poems, with the exception of those she wrote towards the close of her career. It was not her own blighted hopes that gave to her harp its note of wo. Hers is the lament for the lot of humanity, dwelling amid so much beauty which must fade and perish like the crushed flower; and in the midst of the joy and harmony which for her pervaded all Nature, she yet could not avoid discerning, with the spirit of the mystic prophetess,

"The low footsteps of each coming ill."

And so wonderfully was her genius endowed with the power of expressing "thoughts which create thoughts" in the minds of others, that there is scarcely a human heart but is moved by these strains of feeling or imagination. The truth of the description is acknowledged at once. For, though many of the moving scenes in the poems of Mrs. Hemans were undoubtedly fictitious, yet the feelings, the struggles, the sorrows bear the seal of reality. She saw with her mind's eye and felt in her own soul all that she has portrayed. And thus she compels the sympathy of her readers to follow her

bidding, and by the dream of the poet to interpret their own feelings, and struggles, and sorrows.

Still there is none of the gloom of misanthropy in the strains of Mrs. Hemans. She had naturally a cheerful, even mirthful disposition, as her private letters* show, and she had the loving, hoping heart of a true woman. She was the poet of home. Around the hearth she gathered the sweetest and saddest images of her fancy. There was her throne of power, to the muse of man unapproachable. In these domestic attachments, and in her sympathy with her own sex, may be found the main causes of her unparalleled success in the choice of subjects. This purity and justness of moral taste, which always selects the theme best suited to the position of the writer, is a beautiful element in the character of a literary woman.

We consider her example of refined moral taste in directing the efforts of female genius as of inestimable benefit to the young imaginative reader; and so purely beautiful did her poems appear, that we scarcely knew when to pause in our selection. Mrs. Hemans does, in truth, merit the gratitude as well as admiration of her sex, for she has exalted the genius of woman, and shown an example of excellence in private life,—thus proving that the cultivation of the highest gifts of intellect are not incompatible with the performance of our humblest duties.

But the crowning grace of her genius was her love of the good. In her earlier studies she searched for this in objects of sense or creations of fancy. But the shadow of change and decay marred the loveliness of Nature, and the spirit of the poet grew restless and

* See Memorials of Mrs. Hemans, with Illustrations of her Literary Character and Private Correspondence. By Henry F. Chorley.