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ART. XIII. Norbury Park, a Poem; with several others: written on various Octasions. By JAMES WOODHOUSE. 12mo. pp. 132.

THE author of this little volume presumes to recall the public attention to his name, only by his modest mottoSutor ultra crepidam.

James Woodhouse is the Woodstock shoemaker, who many years ago excited the attention of the public, the successor in notoriety to Stephen Duck, but with far superior talents, and the predecessor of Mrs. Yearsley and the Bloomfields. He is now advanced in and when age,

we express a hope that this volume may obtain a successful sale, we add with truth and with pleasure that its merits deserve success.

The following passage will evince that this poet has looked at nature with no inattentive eye.

"Lovelier far than vernal flow'rs,

Thy mushrooms shooting after show'rs;
That fear no more the fatal scythe,
But proudly spread their bonnets blythe,
With coverings form'd of silk and snow,
And lin'd with brightening pink below.
Like banners, bless'd, they speak of
peace,
And tell me trouble soon shall cease;
Still auguring, glad, with aspect bland,
Love's rapturing vintage just at hand ;
But more the later fungus race,
Begot by Phebus' warm embrace,
In summer months, or procreant earth,
By damp September brought to birth;
That, just like Jove, produce their seed,
From teeming brain, for future breed:
Their forms and hues some solace yield,
In wood, or wild, or humid field;
Whose tapering stems, robust, or light,
Like columns catch the searching sight,
To claim remark where c'er I roam;
Supporting each a shapely dome;

Like fair umbrellas, furl'd or spread,
Display their many-colour'd head;
Grey, purple, yellow, white, or brown,
Shap'd like War's shield, or Prelate's crow-
Like Freedom's cap, or Friar's cowl,
Or China's bright inverted bowl-
And while their broadening disks unfold
Gay silvery gills, or nets of gold,
Beneath their shady, curtain d cove,
Perform all offices of love.

In beauty, chief, the eye to chain,
Mong whispering pinės, on arid plsin,
Like Elfs or Fay's embattled bands-
A glittering group, assembled, stands,
Where every arin appears to wield,
With pigmy strength, a giant shield;
And deeply dyed in sanguine gore,
With brazen bosses studded o'er;
While magic Fancy's ear confounds
The whistling winds with hostile sounds."

Thus also these lines addressed t
Shenstone upon his Rural Elegance.

"What! cannot He who form'd the fount
of light,

And shining orbs that ornament the night?
Who hangs his silken curtains round the se
And trims their skirts with fringe of every de
In sheets of radiance spreads the solar heurs,
With soften'd lustre, o'er the tranquil stree
Or, o'er the glittering surface, softly fürt
The whispering winds with gently wait
wings,

While every kindled curl's resplendent rays
Quick dart and drown in bright succes
blaze!-

Who dipp'd in countless greens the wo and bow'rs,

And touch'd, with every tint the faultle flow'rs!

With beauty clothes each beast that rou the plain,

And bird's rich plume with ever-varied stak

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ART. XIV. The Voyage Home from the Cape of Good Hope;
to the Cape, and Notes. By H. W. TYTLER, M. D.

"OUR captain, to whose care was giv'n
Three hundred souls, on ocean driv'n,
Prov'd faithless and unjust;
And, after him, let none rely
On promise, or on Fame's loud cry,
Or in appearance trust.

"Indignant muses! sing the fate
Of him, so poor unfortunate,

And impious suicide;
Who, from the poop, at noon of day,
When all were turn'd a diff'rent way,
Plung'd headlong in the tide.

"Nor voice he rais'd, nor arms he spread; The billows rose above his head,

with other Poems relating 4to. pp. 75.

And sunk him in the main. Yet ladders to his aid were thrown; And gen'rous hearts, by ropes, went down, But all, alas! prov'd vain."

From the preceding specimen the reader will be able to form an adequate opinion on the merits of the poem before us. If its composition has, in any degree, relieved the author from the irksome uniformity of a long voyage, and if his friends have been gratified by its publication, the proposed object has, we presume, been answered.

ART. XV. Poems on various Subjects. By Mrs. GRANT, of Laggan. 8vo. pp. 447.

THESE poems are submitted to the public under circumstances which excite interest and bespeak indulgence.

They are the productions of native genius, brought forth amid rocks and wilds, and at intervals snatched from the laborious duties of domestic life. But we shall allow the lady to introduce her own offspring with the simple grace by which she is distinguished.

"Go, artless records of a life obscure,
Memorials dear of loves and friendships past,
Of blameless minds, from strife and envy pure;
Go, scatter'd by affliction's bitter blast,
And tell the proud, the busy, and the gay,
How rural peace consumes the quiet day.
Ye dear companions, in life's thorny way,
Who see your modest virtues here display'd,
Forgive, for well you know the unstudied
lay

Was only meant to soothe the lonely shade.
But, when the rude thorn wounds the song

ster's breast,

cret nest."

The lengthen'd strains of woe betray her scIntroductory verses. The longest and most finished piece

in the volume, entitled "The Highlanders, or Sketches of Highland Scenery and Manners, with some Reflections on Emigration," contains much novel and picturesque description, with many fine strains of pathos and moral reflection; the versification is modelled on that of Goldsmith, and in the passages relative to emigration, there is some similarity, which perhaps could scarcely be avoided, to the sentiments of the Deserted Village. In the family. tion of Farquhar at Glen Doe, there worship of the peasant, and the recepis a slight imitation of the "Cottar's Saturday Night;" but, in general, Mrs. Grant is very far from deserving the appellation of a plagiarist. The far greater part of her scenery is snatched from the sublime and savage landscapes before her eyes; whilst by much the larger portion of her sentiment is drawn from the pure and copious spring within her bosom. The removal to the mountain shealings, or “summer flitting” affords an apt example.

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men,

The shelter'd bothys rise to shield the train,
Who joy to view their summer haunts again;
For here again the sylvan age returns,

Nor man the curse of ceaseless labour mourns:
Fair Freedom walks abroad, unties her zone,
And joys to see the landscape all her own.

"Thrown careless on the slope-see va-
cant Ease

Bask in the sun, or court the cooling breeze;
And musing Fancy, by some brook reclin'd,
In language clothe the murmurs of the wind;
Or frame to vocal reeds the native lay,

Or form of mountain-flowers the chaplet gay.
See Sport, with Exercise and Health combin'd,
In happy union, fleeter than the wind,
Thro' pathless wastes the sprightly game pur-

sue,

Oft out of reach, but never out of view:' While eager Hope impetuous grasps the prize, And Ardour lightens in the hunter's eyes. At length, exulting o'er the trembling spoil, They see the dun deer fall to crown their toil. "And when calm evening bathes the flow'rs in dew,

Where with coy wing the ptarmigan retires,
And high beyond the rolling mist aspires,
Iu safest solitude and purest air,
To rear her young with ford maternal care:
And mountain hares, white as the drifted snow,
Ascend, while fear and danger pant below;
Or, where the eagle darts his vigorous flight
From cliffs sublime, to trace the realms of
light."

The escape of the Chevalier; the he roism of Flora Macdonald; the cruelty of the English troops, after the battle of Culloden; the universal dejection and landers, consequent on the Disarming depopulating emigrations of the highAct, are subjects which, in a poem like the present, could not be passed over in silence; and in the hands of Mrs. Grant, they are far from being destitute of interest. Whatever may be thought of our author as a philosopher or politician; whatever fault may be found with her want of method, and occasional prolixity, few, we imagine, will peruse the Highlanders, without admiration of the patriotic spirit which inspires it, and the gleams of genuine poetry by which it is

enlivened.

The smaller pieces are principally in the familiar style, and were intended only for the amusement of the particular friends of the writer; thus it has happened that they have somewhat too much of locality to be thoroughly relished by the public at large; yet they humour and fancy. The best of them are easy, and by no means destitute of have considerable tenderness and pathos.

"A Familiar Epistle to a Friend," notwithstanding some negligence and incorrectness, is a remarkably pleasing poem, and inspires us with the utmost respect and affection for the author; it And bids the thrush his mellow note renew, proves (what indeed it is highly illiberal, With answering music maidens pour the lay, however common, to deny) the possi And drain the listening kine at close of day:bility of a female poet's turning aside Delighted echoes spread the cheerful strains, And rapt attention holds the silent swains: But holds not long-for every thicket round Young voices mix'd in cheerful chorus sound. Each lone recess the wand'ring tribes explore, And now return exulting with their store Of berries, that in rich luxuriance spread, O'er the dark heath their crimson lustre shed; Or trailing o'er the rocky fragment's side, The glossy foliage spreads its verdant pride; While raspberries richly flavour'd, climb on high,

And bask in all the radiance of the sky;
Or brambles, on the brook's wild margin

spread,

With jetty lustre deck their pebbly bed:

from her darling pursuit at the summons of duty, and stooping to fulfil the humble offices of the nurse and the housewife-the wife and the motherand again returning to these pursuits, after the busiest years of life are past. for the entertainment of her friends and the benefit of her family.

There are two poems translated from the Gaelic. They possess considerable beauty, but partake of the prolixity and obscurity so disgusting in the poems of Ossian: the prose dissertation prefixed is sensible and elegant. Mrs. Grant ap

pears to give the truest and most candid account of the celebrated version of Macpherson that has yet been published.

We have already said, that the poems of Mrs. Grant are entitled to indulgence; but we should be deficient in our duty to the public, and indeed to the author, did we neglect to point out some faults which call for correction. We do not stop to particularize the bad rhymes, but they are numerous. poorest of all expletives so frequently occurs, as so deep, so sweet," &c. "The clan's proud standard waves

amain."

That

"When probity and wisdom both combine With all the poignant humour of a Burns,”

10

and several similar lines are flat and redundant in the extreme. Industry, support, sonorous, aærial, &c. should never make their appearance on this side the Tweed; nor such prosody as

"Dear Beatrice with pleasure I read your kind letter,"

"More difficult to clear than his rev'rence's text."

constructed, and most of the pieces Several sentences are inaccurately Mrs. Grant evidently possesses those might be compressed with advantage. great requisites for poetic excellence, a lively fancy and a feeling heart, and we shall be rejoiced to announce a second edition of her poems with omissions and corrections.

ART. XVI. Armine and Elvira: a legendary Tale. The Ninth Edition. With other Poems. By EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, M. A. 12mo. pp. 132.

THE elegant tale of Armine and Elvira, first given to the world in 1771, has acquired for its author a degree of poetical fame, which naturally led us expect great pleasure from the perusal of the volume before us. Time, we fattered ourselves, must have ripened, Tom blossoms so fragrant and beautiful, mellow and delicious fruit.

In this pleasing anticipation we have een somewhat deceived. The tender lant of poesy, it is probable, has reeived but little culture from Mr. CartTight during the last thirty years: thus he vernal bloom of fancy has been sufered to fade in neglect, and has only een succeeded by an autumnul blow qually transient and less lovely.

Our author must not, however, be onfounded with the herd of common ersifiers: though deficient in strength ed boldness-never brilliant, and rarely riginal-he is always moral, generally gant, often ingenious, and sometimes thetic. There is a striking resem

blance between the style and genius of Mr. Cartwright and of his friend Dr. Langhorne; but the former is less chargeable than the latter with obscu-. rity and affectation.

"Youth and Age," an ode from the Swedish, may certainly " be considered as a literary curiosity" as well as an agreeable and elegant piece; though, but for the advertisement, we should never have conjectured it to be of foreign birth.

None of the new pieces are of great length, nor does their author claim for them any higher title than that of " Trifles." The following is a trifle, but surely a very tender and pleasing one. "Not once the sun has deign'd to shine

My Susan, thro' this day so drear,
'Tis yet, save that which made thee mine
To me the brightest of the year.
"This day first saw those eyes so blue,

Their fascinating beams display—
Blest day! to come with rapture new,
Yet never steal a charm away!"

ART. XVII. Nuga Poetica. By F. SAYERS, M. D. 8vo. pp. 37.

OF a thin pamphlet, with a title so pretending, a short account will suffice. longest and most finished piece, enled,Theseus and Ariadne, from an thalamium by Catullus," is an elently versified poem, more concise, yet ore ornamented than the original, of ich it is rather an abstract than a vern. In some passages we could wish

at more of the costume of the Latin bard been preserved, and that it had been AWN. REV. VOL. II.

less completely transformed into a modern English production. Translation, it should be recollected, may be instruc tive, whilst imitation can only be enter taining. For instance-a literal version of the lines,

"Non humilis curvis purgatur vinea rastrią. Non glebam prono convellit vomere taurus. Non fala attenuat frondatorum arboris um

bram,"

would have given the English reader

0

some new ideas, some insight into the
peculiarities of foreign and ancient hus-
bandry; whereas the expressions,

"The fields deserted give to sweetest peace
The tired steer; the rattling harrows cease :
The plowshare rusts unheeded, and the oak
No longer trembles to the woodman's stroke,"
present him only with domestic images
fong familiar to his imagination. Again,
there is a picturesque distinctness in
“Candida permulcens liquidis vestigia lym-

phis,

Purpureave tuum consternens veste cubile," which recalls the simplicity of patriarchal manners, but which is totally lost in

"every office had been dear That served thy wants to ease, thy life to cheer."

It is singular that the modern should have fallen short of the delicacy of the ancient poet in making Ariadne" breathe her fervent prayer," for the safety of Theseus, forgetful of the " tacito labello," of his master.

"Tulia qui reddis pro dulci præmia vita," is affectedly rendered

"That thus repays The gift of life, the boon of gilded days."

And in several instances the copy falls short of the energy of the original.

"Jack the Giant Killer," possesse considerable merit as a good natured parody on Homer, and a sly satire on his modern imitators.

Of the smaller pieces it may be remarked that their diction, though fre quently elegant, is considerably infected with those quaint and unauthorized novelties, by which too many writers of the present day endeavour to elevate tre and prosaic ideas into a semblance of The following elegiac high poetry. stanzas, improperly styled a Sonnet, will be a sufficient specimen.

"To a Snow-drop.

"Fair flower! but yesterday thy milk-white

vest

A pearly dew-drop on earth's bosom lay;
At noon thy green stem rear'd its silken crest,
To meet the radiance of the transient ray.

"The night came on-amid the storm-cloud's
lower

The hail fell thick-the biting frost-winds rose,
To-day I mark thy silvery front no more-
Deep art thou buried in the drifted snow».

"Like innocence by chilling woe opprest,
But for a while thou'rt bent by winter's tread,
Again with Heaven's all-cheering sun-shine
blest,

Thou'lt rear to brighter hours thy spotless head."

ART. XVIII. A short Account of John Marriot, including Extracts from some of hi Poetical Productions. 12mo.

Letters, to which are added some of his A Short account indeed; out of a hundred and ninety-four pages it employs nine! however there is enough of it.

Mr. Marriot was one of the people called Quakers, and this little volume of posthumous poems appears to be edited by a member of that respectable society. Mr. Marriot was of a mild and amiable disposition, received a religious education, and profited by it, as appears from

PP. 194. his resignation under the severe affliction of a disappointment in his affections Many of these poetical pieces were writ ten when he was very young; they wen not intended for the public eye, and had Mr. Marriot been alive, many of them probably, would not have been exposed to it. They have the general merit of mediocrity.

ART. XIX. Poems; consisting of Elegies, Sonnets, Songs, &c. and Phautoms; er, ti. Irishman in England; a Farce in two Acts. By T. JONES. 12mo. pp. 136. MR. Jones has been tried in the Court ment of the law is-but as this is the pr of Criticism, and found guilty of violat- soner's first offence, the Court, in it ing the laws of poetry, by writing and mercy, remits the sentence. publishing nonsense verses: the judg

ART. XX. Il Fiore della Poesia Italiana, Sc. The Flowers of the Italian Poetry of i 18th Century, preceded by some historical Notices of the Poets. The whole selected ara compiled by G. B. CASSANO, Professor of Languages and of Italian Literature.

THESE little volumes contain a judicious selection of beautiful poems: higher

praise cannot be bestowed upon a com pilation of such trifling extent; yet shut

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