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 Idaeis 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 Chalmers, 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. INDEX Aaron's Rod, 405 Abbotsford, farewell to, 508 Aber church, sonnet on, 603 Affection, prayer of, 596 Aged friend, to an, 620 Aged Indian, the, 56 "Ah cease!" from Metastasio, 49 Album at Rosanna, lines written for of Miss F. A. L., lines written in Alcestis, death-song of, 502 of Alfieri, the, 121 Alpine horn, the, 545 the shepherd-poet of the, 512 Ancestral song, the, 467 tears," from Greek chant of victory, 536 And I too in Arcadia, 541 passage, 434 of the air, the, 602 Brandenburg harvest-song, from La Motte Fouqué, 348 Bride of the Greek isle, the, 388 Broken chain, the, 491 flower, the, 505 lute, the, 515 Brother and sister in the country, to Brother's dirge, the, 545 Bruce at the source of the Nile, 368 departure into exile, the, 238 Clanronald, death of, 58 Cleopatra and Anthony, last banquet of, 93 Cliffs of Dover, the, 376 Cœur-de-Lion at the bier of his father, 346 Coleridge's epitaph, on reading, 623 Dalecarlian mine, scene in a, 357 Darkness of the crucifixion, the, 602 Datura Arborea, on the, 623 Daughter of Bernard Barton, to the, 485 Death and the warrior, 490 - the welcome to, 509 of Clanronald, the, 58 of Conradin, the, 103 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 parting song, 351 Green isles of ocean, the, 146 Grutli, on a flower from, 244 - Hall of Cynddylan, the, 147 house, the, 511 "He never smiled again," 346 "He walk'd with God," 495 Heart of Bruce in Melrose Abbey, the, 476 Hebe of Canova, on the, 53 - to the memory of, 423 Hero's death, the, 59 Highland chief in Waverley, dirge of the, 57 Hirlas horn, the, 146 Holy Family, repose of a, 600 Homes of England, the, 412 Hope, the song of, 546 Horace, translations from, 298 prayer, 377 romance, an, 427 Howel's song, 150 Huguenot's farewell, the, 626 Humboldt on the Southern cross, 332 of the traveller's household on of the Vaudois mountaincers, Hymns for childhood, 528 "I dream of all things free," 546 "I would we had not met again," 565 Il Conte di Carmagnola, the, 125 - 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 Marius among the ruins of Carthage, 212 Mary at the feet of Christ, 599 the memorial of, 599 Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre, 600 resurrection, 600 Memory of a sister-in-law, to the, 486 of Lord Charles Murray, to of Sir E. Pakenham, to the, 55 Message to the dead, the, 459 answer to, 343 note Metastasio, translations from, 47 remembrance of, 623 "Near thee, still near thee," 538 Nightingale's death-song, the, 481 "No searching eye," 47 North American Review, the, 113, 293, Northern spring, the, 533 Norton, professor, 113, 186, 293, 336, Norwegian war-song, 567 "O thou breeze of spring," 503 "O ye voices gone," 566 "O ye voices round," 545 O'Connor's child, 508 Ode on the defeat of Sebastian of "O'er the far blue mountains," 563 Old church in an English park, an, Olive tree, the, 602 Orange bough, the, 543 Lady's well, 365 Owen Glyndwr's war-song, 149 Pæstan rose, the, 28 note Painter's last work, the, 505 603 Pakenham, Sir E., to the memory of, 55 Palm-tree, the, 430 l'almer, the, 501 Paradise, a thought of, 606 Parting of summer, the, 366 ship, the, 473 song, a, 500 words, 459 Passing away, 489 Pastorini, sonnet from, 49 Patriarchal life, images of, 620 Patriotic effusions of the Italian poets, translations from, 137 Paul and Virginia, on reading, 620 Peasant girl of the Rhone, the, 401 Penitent anointing Christ's feet, the, Penitent's offering, the, 496 return, the, 605 Petrarch, translations from, 51 Pilgrim fathers, landing of the, 429 Pilgrim's song to the evening star, 360 Places of worship, 602 "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 Sabbath sonnet, 629 Sacred harp, the, 600 Sadness and mirth, 480 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 funeral-day of, 585 Sculptured children, the, 496 Sea, distant sound of the, 618 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 Siege of Valencia, the, 262 Silent multitude, the, 493 Silver locks, the, 10 Silvio Pellico, to, 622 released, 622 Sing to me, gondolier," 563 "Sister! since I met thee last," 559 Soldier's deathbed, the, 461 song of memory, the, 358 Song for air by Hummel, 490 - founded on an Arabian anecdote, 293 of Delos, 535 of emigration, 451 of hope, the, 546 of Mina's soldiers, 541 of night, the, 471 of penitence, the, 609 of the battle of Morgarten, the, 253 of the rose, a, 550 of the Spanish wanderer, 361 Songs for summer hours, 541 of captivity, 545 of our fathers, the, 366 of Spain, 539 of the affections, 442 of the Cid, 238 Sonnet, "A child midst ancient, 601 "For there a holy," 603 "I met that image," 601 Italia, oh no more," 138 617 "Oh! what a joy," 621 "Once more the eternal," 622 "Saved from the perils," 46 "Spirit, whose life sustaining, "Still are the cowslips," 619 Sylph of the breeze," 51 "The sainted spirit," 50 |