As thus I kept my watch, Like desolate Rizpah, mournful visions came To mock me with its memories of joy. My throat was dry with anguish, and when voice That silent, naked thought, which finds the Throne With fiery face The death-knell of my hope. As o'er the stern I gazed with dim eye on the flashing brine, And shapes, for which man's language hath no name; Convulsive shrieks, Long pent within my bleeding heart, burst forth; A boat was launched. With flashing oar it reached To my hand a scroll they brought, My treasure there. They might have spared that toil: Record or date. The ship held on her course Beneath a foreign sky. Yet 'twere a sin To mourn with bitterness the boy whose smile Cheers me no more, since the sea had him not, Endless praise to Him, Who did not scorn the poor, weak woman's sigh No monument is thine, O babe! that 'neath yon sterile sands dost sleep, The poetry written by MARIA BROOKS must be noticed on account of the very high commendation bestowed upon one of her works by Dr Southey. The title of this poem is Zophiel, or the Bride of Seven. It was published in London in 1833, and in the following year was reprinted in Boston, United States, where it failed to attract notice. The story of the love of an angel for a mortal maiden resembles that of Byron's well-known poem; but the treatment is original. We find in Zophiël nothing to warrant the eulogium by Southey, who described it as the most original poem of its time, and spoke of Mrs Brooks as 'the most original and impassioned of all poetesses.' Her style is sometimes terse and expressive, but frequently harsh and disfigured by inversions of the natural order of words. HANNAH F. GOULD is the author of numerous occasional poems which have enjoyed a considerable popularity. A lively treatment of familiar topics has recommended many of her short pieces of playful verse-such as The Pebble and the Acorn, and Jack Frost. Mrs HALE, who has written several works in prose, is the author of didactic poems of good purport and more than ordinary merit. Mrs GILMAN, chiefly known by her prosewritings, has written several lyrical poems, recommended for their grace and sprightliness, and sometimes illustrating passages in the early history of America. Our limited space compels us to pass briefly over the names of several writers-Amelia Welby, the Misses Fuller, Alice and Phoebe Carey, the sisters Mrs Warfield and Mrs Lee and Miss Sara J. Clarke-all resident in the western states. The poetry of these ladies displays refined sentiment and cultivated taste, though it may be deficient in the power requisite to command a permanent success in the crowded field of modern literature. The fact that so many volumes of verse, such as would have made a reputation in former times, have been produced in a few recent years, is very creditable to the state of culture among the women of America; but we may question the wisdom of the attempt to give a permanent character to effusions of fancy and sentiment which, like many other lovely things, must have their day and pass away. We refer to the several collections of specimens of The Female Poets of America, respectively edited by Caroline May, Buchanan Read, and Rufus W. Griswold. Poets, like other writers, must yield to the circumstances of their times; and the fame of any individual must ultimately depend on the rarity of his talent or genius. As the power of writing pleasing verses becomes more and more a common accomplishment, the standard of criticism must be raised proportionately; and writers who, in other days, might have gained comparatively lasting reputations, must now be content with an occasional notice in the corner of a newspaper. However kind the disposition of the critic, he must adopt a Malthusian doctrine as the literary world becomes densely populated. These remarks must serve as an apology for our omission or brief notice of many names included in the host of poetesses enumerated by Mr Griswold.1 The poems by the two sisters LUCRETIA MARIA and MARGARET M. DAVIDSON have a peculiar interest, partly owing to the melancholy charm of their biographies, written by Miss Sedgwick and Washington Irving. In these two lives, we read the same story of a precocious development of mind, especially of the imaginative powers, followed by consumption and an early death. Lucretia, the elder sister, wrote, in her childhood, poems characterised by depth of feeling, with strong impulse and aspiration, and died at the age of seventeen. After her death, when Irving called at the home of the bereaved mother, he found that the same poetic genius and the same fatal tendencies of physical constitution, were rapidly developed in the younger sister Margaret. She had written poems when she was only eight years old, and, before her fourteenth year, had acquired a power in lyrical effusions resembling that displayed by her sister. Of his last interview with Margaret Davidson, her biographer writes:-"The interval that had elapsed had rapidly developed the powers of her mind, and heightened the loveliness of her person, but my apprehensions had been verified. The soul was wearing out the body. Preparations were making to take her on a tour for the benefit of her health, and her mother appeared to flatter herself that it might prove efficacious; but when I noticed the fragile delicacy of her form, the hectic bloom of her cheek, and the 1 The Female Poets of America. By Rufus Wilmot Griswold. 1849. almost unearthly lustre of her eye, I felt convinced that she was not long for this world; in truth, she already appeared more spiritual than mortal.' Margaret died in 1838, before she had reached the age of sixteen. Her biography leaves a warning against the stimulant mode of early education. Mental powers too highly cultivated in childhood, exhaust the resources of the physical system. The perfect flower is developed at the expense of a loss of vitality and hardihood in the plant; and so the wildflower, with its scanty petals, lives and blooms by the waysides from one century to another, while the highly-cultivated variety has a delicacy as remarkable as its beauty. Scott had a good reason for his prayer, that none of his children might be endowed with poetic genius. The Sinless Child and other poems, by Mrs OKES SMITH, have been described as possessing more than ordinary merit; and several pleasing specimens might be culled from the writings of Elizabeth Hall, Emma C. Embury, Mrs Ellett, Anna P. Dinnies, and Lucy Hooper. Some traits of individuality appear in the flowing versification of Mrs FRANCES S. OSGOOD, who, like other poetesses, endeavours to blend instruction with song. Here is a stanza from the poem entitled Labour : ""Labour is worship!"- the robin is singing; the wild-bee is ringing; Listen! that eloquent whisper, upspringing, Speaks to thy soul from out nature's great heart. Only man, in the plan, shrinks from his part. The fact that elegant literature has been so widely cultivated by the women of America, must be regarded as a good feature in the progress of society. So far as their poetry has exercised any influence on practical life, it has had a tendency to refine taste and cultivate good sentiments.' PROSE-FICTION. ALLSTON-PAULDING-FLINT-DANA. The wide circulation of English novels and romances—whether good or bad in moral tendency-has had an important influence on the literary taste, minor morals, and general culture of readers in the United States. The splendours of our fashionable novels have been more attractive than tales of true life in the backwoods; and too many young republicans have confessed their preference for aristocratic fictions, especially when some fraction of a dollar has sufficed as an introduction to all the solemnities described by Bulwer, Disraeli, Warren, Mrs Gore, and other novelists. While the rich and varied stores of fiction provided by the labour of British authors may be bought at a trifling outlay, the American writer of fiction comes before the public in a very disadvantageous position. He demands for his new and untried work some considerable remuneration, while his bookseller is offering the best of Scott's romances at the cost of a few cents. We have Washington Irving's own authority for the fact that, when he recommended to certain publishers the work of a young American writer, 'they even declined to publish it at the author's cost; alleging that it was not worth their while to trouble themselves about native works of doubtful success, while they could pick and choose among the successful works daily poured out by the British press, for the copyright of which they had nothing to pay.' On the moral effects of this unfair competition, an American writer offers the following remarks:1 'Novels are the class of books which as yet we provide least for ourselves, and depend for most on the mother-country. They constitute a stock of reading of the utmost importance in its influence on the moral tastes and principles, and so on the political security of a nation. They are read very extensively; they are especial favourites of that period of life when the character is forming; and in the formation of character, their exciting addresses to the imagination and feelings give them an exceeding power. The hero or heroine of the fictitious tale is, to the young man or woman, for the time being, the perfection of humanity; and the condition of society, in which its gorgeous scenes are laid, presents itself as the beau-idéal of human life. But the hero or heroine of the English tales we read, is an idea different from what can be realised in a republican state; and the 1 North American Review, No. 116. |