Aroun 1 thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest L One general song! To Him, ye vocal gales, Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes. Oh talk of Him in solitary glooms! Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar, Who shake the astonish'd world, lift high to heaven Ye headlong torrents, rapid and profound; Along the vale; and thou, majestic main, Sound His stupendous praise, whose greater voice Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers, The listening shades, and teach the night His praise. The long resounding voice, oft breaking clear, And, as each mingling flame increases each, Or if you rather choose the rural shade, For me, when I forget the darling theme, Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song, where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beams Flames on the Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me, Since God is ever present, ever felt, In the void waste as in the city full; Myself in Him, in light ineffable! Come then, expressive silence, muse His praise! THERE are few poems in English literature so universally popular as Goldsmith's "Deserted Village:" next to Bunyan's "Pilgrim," it has, perhaps, been as frequently reprinted as any work in this country and America. The ruin and desolation which the poet predicted would accrue from the increasing wealth and luxury of Britain, have not yet taken place, and it is hoped never will; yet the poetry, notwithstanding, is not less beautiful nor less admired. Robert Blair, the author of the "Grave," was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and father of Lord President Blair, the celebrated Scottish lawyer. The poem is of a highly serious and religious cast, and the grandeur of the language and thought are not unworthy to be compared with the productions of Milton. Some of the passages are familiar as any in our literature. The poetry of John Dyer is seldom mentioned now-a-days, but "Grongar Hill" should be read by every lover of poetry. Byron thought the six lines commencing, "As yon summits soft and fair," the original of Campbell's celebrated lines at the beginning of the "Pleasures of Hope"-"Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." The two short poems by Bruce and Logan are favourable specimens of the authors. They were both of the Church of Scotland-the former a teacher, and the latter a clergyman. Logan wrote some of our most popular hymns; Bruce died young, being only twenty-one years old at his death, but nevertheless left sufficient manuscript to fill a volume of poems, which have established a high reputation for their author. The "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard" is, like Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," universally known and admired. Few, if any, works have been so often reprinted, and in so many forms. Though it consists of verses sufficient to occupy four pages of letter-press only, yet in some instances it has been so elaborately ornamented and illus trated that it has been extended to above a hundred. The "Schoolmistress" of Shenstone is certainly his most popular poem, and, notwithstanding its affected and antiquated phraseology, it must be confessed, deservedly so. Some of our best artists have shewn their appreciation of it by exercising their genius upon it, and some of the finest pictures in the Royal Academy have been taken from it. In two different stanzas, a remarkable coincidence in idea will be found with the well known verses in the "Elegy" of Gray, beginning "Full many a gem, of purest ray serene." William Julius Mickle was an accomplished scholar and elegant translator. He wrote also some highly beautiful poems, among which, first and foremost, should be placed the world-known song of "There is nae luck about the house." "Cumnor Hall," given here, is the ballad from which Sir Walter Scott took his idea of the novel of Kenilworth. |