The coinage of her heart are they, Affections are as thoughts to her, The image of themselves by turns,— Of her bright face one glance will trace And of her voice in echoing hearts When death is nigh my latest sigh I fill'd this cup to one made up Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex The seeraing paragon Her health! and would on earth there stood, Some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry, And weariness a name. It was the misfortune of Mr. Pinkney to have been born too far Bouth. Had he been a New Englander, it is probable that he would have been ranked as the first of American lyrists, by that magnanimous cabal which has so long controlled the destinies of American Letters, in conducting the thing called "The North American Review." The poem just cited is especially beautiful; but the poetic elevation which it induces, we must refer chiefly to our sympathy in the poet's enthusiasm. We pardon his hyperboles for the evident earnestness with which they are uttered. It was by no means my design, however, to expatiate upon the merits of what I should read you. These will necessarily speak for themselves. Boccalini, in his "Advertisements from Parnassus," tells us that Zoilus once presented Apollo a very caustic criticism upon a very admirable book:-whereupon the god asked him for the beauties of the work. He replied that he only busied himself about the errors. On hearing this, Apollo, hand ing him a sack of unwinnowed wheat, bade him pick out all the chat for his reward. Now this fable answers very well as a hit at the critics-but I am by no means sure that the god was in the right. I am by no means certain that the true limits of the critical duty are not grossly misunderstood. Excellence, in a poem especially, may be considered in the light of an axiom, which need only be properly put, to become self-evident. It is not excellence if it require to be demonstrated as such :-and thus, to point out too particularly the merits of a work of Art, is to admit that they are not merits altogether. Among the "Melodies" of Thomas Moore, is one whose distin guished character as a poem proper, seems to have been singularly left out of view. I allude to his lines beginning-" Come rest in this bosom." The intense energy of their expression is not sur passed by anything in Byron. There are two of the lines in which a sentiment is conveyed that embodies the all in all of the divine passion of Love-a sentiment which, perhaps, has found its echo in more, and in more passionate, human hearts than any other single sentiment ever embodied in words: Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer, Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here; Oh! what was love made for, if 't is not the same Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art. Thou hast call'd me thy Angel in moments of bliss. It has been the fashion, of late days, to deny Moore Imagination, while granting him Fancy-a distinction originating with Coleridge-than whom no man more fully comprehended the great powers of Moore. The fact is, that the fancy of this poet so far predominates over all his other faculties, and over the fancy of all other men, as to have induced, very naturally, the idea that he is fanciful only. But never was there a greater mistake. Never was grosser wrong done the fame of a true poet. In the compass of the English language I can call to mind no poem more profound ly-more wierdly imaginative, in the best sense, than the lines commencing "I would I were by that dim lake"—which are the composition of Thomas Moore. I regret that I am unable to remember them. One of the noblest-and, speaking of Faney, one of the most singularly fanciful of modern poets, was Thomas Hood. His "Fait Ines" had always, for me, an inexpressible charm: O saw ve not fair Ines? She's gone into the West, To dazzle when the sun is down, With morning blushes on her cheek, O turn again, fair Ines, Before the fall of night, For fear the moon should shine alone, And stars univall'd bright; And blessed will the lover be That walks beneath their light, And breathes the love against thy cheek I dare not even write! Would I had been, fair Ines, That gallant cavalier, Who rode so gaily by thy side, And whisper'd thee so near! Were there no bonny dames at home, Or no true lovers here, That he should cross the seas to win The dearest of the dear? I saw thee, lovely Ines, With bands of noble gentlemen, And gentle youth and maidens gay, And snowy plumes they wore; It would have been a beauteous dream, -If it had been no more! Alas, alas, fair Ines, She went away with song, With Music waiting on her steps, In sounds that sang Farewell, Farewell, To her you've loved so long, Farewell, farewell, fair Ines, That vessel never bore The smile that blessed one lover's heart "The Haunted House," by the same author, is one of the truest poems ever written-one of the truest-one of the most unexceptionable-One of the most thoroughly artistic, both in its theme and in its execution. It is, moreover, powerfully ideal-imaginative. I regret that its length renders it unsuitable for the purposes of this Lecture. In place of it, permit me to offer the universally appreciated "Bridge of Sighs." The bleak wind of March In she plunged boldly, Take her up tenderly, Ere her limbs frigidly Perishing gloomily, And leaving, with meekness, The vigor of this poem is no less remarkable than its pathos The versification, although carrying the fanciful to the very verge of the fantastic, is nevertheless admirably adapted to the wild insanity which is the thesis of the poem. Among the minor poems of Lord Byron, is one which has never received from the critics the praise which it undoubtedly deserves: Though the day of my destiny's over, And the star of my fate hath declined, The faults which so many could find; And the love which my spirit hath painted Then when nature around me is smiling, I do not believe it beguiling, Because it reminds me of thine; And when winds are at war with the ocean, If their billows excite an emotion, It is that they bear me from thee |