Page images
PDF
EPUB

sion. Some of his lines are unsurpassed in this respect. They so quietly unfold a great thought or magnificent image, that we are often taken by surprise. What a striking sense of mortality is afforded by the idea, "The oak

Shall send his roots abroad and pierce thy mould"!

How grand the figure which represents the evening air, as

"God's blessing breathed upon the fainting earth" !

In the same poem he compares

"The gentle souls that passed away"

to the twilight breezes sweeping over a churchyard, —

"Sent forth from heaven among the sons of men,

And gone into the boundless heaven again.”

And what can be more suggestive of the power of the winds than the figure by which they are said to

[ocr errors][merged small]

He would make us feel the hoary age of the mossy and gigantic forest-* trees, and not only alludes to their annual decay and renewal, but significantly adds,

"The century-living crow,

Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died."

To those who have never seen a prairie, how vividly does one spread before the imagination, in the very opening of the poem devoted to those "verdant wastes

!

The progress of Science is admirably hinted in a line of The Ages,

when man is said to

"Unwind the eternal dances of the sky."

Instances like these might be multiplied at pleasure, to illustrate the efficacy of simple diction, and to prove that the elements of real poetry consist in truly grand ideas, uttered without affectation, and in a reverent and earnest spirit.

A beautiful calm, like that which rests on the noble works of the sculptor, breathes from the harp of Bryant. He traces a natural phenomenon, or writes, in melodious numbers, the history of some familiar scene, and then, with almost prophetic emphasis, utters to the charmed ear a high lesson or sublime truth. In that pensive hymn in which he contrasts Man's transitory being with Nature's perennial life, solemn and affecting as are the images, they but serve to deepen the simple monition at the close.

In The Fountain, after a descriptive sketch that brings its limpid flow and flowery banks almost palpably before us, how exquisite is the chronicle that follows! Guided by the poet, we behold that gushing stream, ages past, in the solitude of the old woods, when canopied by the hickory and plane, the humming-bird playing amid its spray, and visited only by the wolf, who comes to "lap its waters," the deer who

leaves her "delicate footprint" on its marge, and the "slow-paced bear that stopped and drank, and leaped across." Then the savage war-cry drowns its murmur, and the wounded foeman creeps slowly to its brink to "slake his death-thirst." Ere long a hunter's lodge is built, "with poles and boughs, beside the crystal well," and at length the lonely place is surrounded with the tokens of civilization.

Thus the minstrel, even

"From the gushing of a simple fount,

Has reasoned to the mighty universe."

The very rhythm of the stanzas To a Waterfowl, gives the impression of its flight. Like the bird's sweeping wing, they float with a calm and majestic cadence to the ear. We see that solitary wanderer of the "cold thin atmosphere; " we watch, almost with awe, its serene course, until "the abyss of heaven has swallowed up its form," and then gratefully echo the bard's consoling inference.

But it is unnecessary to cite from pages so familiar; or we might allude to the grand description of Freedom, and the beautiful Hymn to Death as among the noblest specimens of modern verse. great principle of Bryant's faith is that

"Eternal Love doth keep

In his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep."

The

To set forth, in strains the most attractive and lofty, this glorious sentiment, is the constant aim of his poetry. Gifted must be the man who is loyal to so high a vocation. From the din of outward activity, the vain turmoil of mechanical life, it is delightful and ennobling to turn to a true poet, -one who scatters flowers along our path, and lifts our gaze to the stars, — breaking, by a word, the spell of blind custom, so that we recognize once more the original glory of the universe, and bear again the latent music of our own souls. This high service has Bryant fulfilled. It will identify his memory with the loveliest scenes of his native land, and endear it to her children forever.*

*Thoughts on the Poets.

NOTE TO SKETCH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.

literature. To the complete edition of his writings, revised by his own hand in the pleasant autumn of his life, and received by his countrymen with renewed evidences of sympathy and respect, have been added, since his decease, two volumes of uncollected papers consisting of Spanish legends, early contributions to the newspaper press, and a few personal memoirs and reminiscences. William Hickling Prescott closed his brief but brilliant literary career on the 28th of January, 1859. His last historical work, Philip II., was left unfinished. James Paulding did not long survive the old friend and literary comrade with whom he wrote Salmagundi; and the best of this pioneer author's writings will soon be published in a revised and uniform series. Theodore Parker died in Florence, Italy, May 10, 1860. His latest work is entitled Theodore Par

To the works of American authors above enumerated, the fifteen years which have since elapsed have added characteristic and valuable materials. Bancroft's History of the United States has now reached its ninth volume, which brings the record far into the epoch of the Revolution. Emerson has added English Traits, and The Conduct of Life, to his series of essays; Longfellow, Hiawatha, Miles Standish, The Wayside Inn, Flower de Luce, and a translation of Dante's Divina Commedia to his poetical writings. Holmes has written a new volume of essays and a novel. Donald G. Mitchell has given to the public two pleasant volumes of rural essays-My Farm at Edgewood, and Wet Days at Edgewood, a book of Traveller's Tales, and a novel of New England life- Dr. Johns. Bayard Taylor has published two American stories, Hannah Thurston, and the Story of Kenneth, and two poems, Theker's Experience as a Minister, with some Account Poet's Story, and The Picture of St. John. Sabine and Lossing have continued their popular historical labors; Bushnell added to his philosophical exposition of religious and social subjects; Higginson and Parkman in prose, and Bryant, Whittier, and Halleck in poetry, contributed new writings to the nation's stock; while to the previous excellent translations of the masterpieces of German literature by Charles T. Brooks, are to be added the Titan and Hesperus of Richter, the humorous Jobsiad, and Goethe's Faust.

Henry James has published a religious and metaphysical treatise called Substance and Shadow; George II. Calvert, a new volume of foreign travel and sojourn, entitled First Years in Europe, and an interesting essay, The Gentleman. William W. Story has embodied in a work with the title Roba di Roma, the results of long and patient observation of the habits, customs, and normal aspects of the Eternal City; and William D. Howell gives us a charming record of Venetian Life. James Jackson Jarves, in two substantial volumes, Art Studies, and the Art Idea, has imparted much general historical information and aesthetic philosophy in regard to the fine arts. Saxe, Aldrich, Street, Stoddard, Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Aken, Alice Carey, and other poctical writers have added fresh volumes to the library of American verse; while in the departments of educational literature, political disquisition, theology, science, popular and juvenile books, adapted to wants of a vast and wide-spread population, the supply of new and desirable works has been constant, and, for the most part, creditable to the average taste, love of knowledge, and prevalent intelligence and rectitude.

Since the preceding Sketch was written, the obituary record of our authors has withdrawn some of the earliest and most endeared. Washington Irving died on the 28th of November, 1859, in the ripeness of his age and fame, having, but a few months previous, finished the Life of Washington-his last and appropriate labor of love in the field of native

of his Early Life and Education for the Ministry — an autobiographical narrative which throws much light on the early influences and original endowments whose combination led eventually to his peculiar opinions and original course as a reformer and theologian. For a complete understanding of his career and character, however, which in many respects were exceptional, a perusal of his life and correspondence is requisite.*

Edward Everett, after the issue of three substantial volumes of orations, which, in view of both topics and treatment, may be justly regarded as of national value and significance, at the age of sixty traversed the United States to deliver his oration on the character of Washington, for the twofold patriotic purpose of allaying the sectional animosity which afterwards culminated in civil war, and to raise the funds requisite for the purchase of Mount Vernonthe home and tomb of Washington. During the civil conflict the eloquent voice and pen of Everett were constantly pleading and protesting for the Union, and, crowned with this final work of honor and patriotism, he died on the 15th of January, 1865.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, since the previous mention of his writings, passed a year in Italy, and gave to the public the graceful fruit of that sojourn in one of his most beautiful and characteristic romancesthe Marble Faun. After relinquishing the consulship at Liverpool, and returning to Concord, Massachusetts, the results of his observation and reflection during several years' residence in England appeared in a delightful volume of local sketches entitled Our Old Home- in style, insight, descriptive skill and quiet humor, worthy of his artistic pen and genial yet subtle observation. Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, May 19, 1864, while on a journey for his health, which had gradually failed. He left a story of English life unfinished, and the passages from his note-books which have appeared

The Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, by John Weiss. New York, 1861.

in the Atlantic Monthly since his death, indicate the thoughtfulness with which he contemplated even the most familiar phenomena of life and nature, and the elaborate study whereby he prepared himself to interpret and illustrate them. The wayward yet studious career of Percival terminated in Illinois, soon after his geological survey of Wisconsin, May 2, 1856. Many of his poems have obtained a merited popularity; and the eccentricities growing out of his sensitive organization, independent spirit, and scientific zeal, are well set forth in the recently published Life and Letters of the gifted but perverse poet.*

Robert S. Lowell has published a local romance of freshness and picturesque attraction, and several expressive poems; Edward S. Rand, Jr., a pleasant and useful series of horticultural works; John Milton Mackie, two or three sprightly and graceful books of travel; and the lamented Dr. Kane, a most successful narrative of his arctic adventures. One of the most individual of the American authors who have become known to fame since the preceding record was written, is Henry D. Thoreau, intimately known and highly esteemed by a few near neighbors and friends during his life, including Emerson and Hawthorne. It is only since his death, which occurred May 7, 1862, that his peculiar traits have been generally recognized through his writings. He aspired to a life of frugal independence and moral isolation, and carried out the desire with singular heroism and patience. His experience as a hermit on the Concord River, his observant excursions to the woods of Maine, the

explored by such curious and loving eyes, have a remarkable freshness of tone and fulness of detail; while on themes of a social and political nature his comments are those of a bold and ardent reformer. Few books possess a more genuine American scope and flavor than Thoreau's.

Gail Hamilton has become a household word in New England as the nom de plume of a trenchant and graphic female essayist; and Trowbridge has gained popularity as an American story-teller. J. G. Holland has proved one of the most successful of American authors, if pecuniary results and popularity may be regarded as the test. Long engaged in the editorial charge of a New England daily newspaper, and brought into intimate contact with the people, their tastes and wants seem to have been remarkably appreciated by this prolific literary purveyor thereto. He has written novels, poems, lectures, and essays, founded on or directed to the wants and tendencies of life and nature in New England, and reflecting, with great authenticity, the local peculiarities, natural phases, and characteristic qualities of the region and the people.

To this list of the eminent departed must be added the names of many of our clergy who enjoyed and exerted a literary as well as religious influencesuch as Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Dr. Robinson, Francis Wayland, George Bush, Clement C. Moore, Dr. Alexander, Pise, C. W. Upham, George W. Bethune, Dr. Baird, Starr King, John Pierpont, and others, as well as several useful and respected female authors:- among them, Mrs. Caroline Kirk-sands of Cape Cod, and other native scenes, rarely land, Mrs. Sigourney, Mrs. Farnham, Hannah F. Gould, Alice B. Haven, Mrs. Emma C. Embury, Mrs. Farrar, Miss Leslie, and Miss Maria Cummins; with a number of miscellaneous writers, whose labors illustrated special subjects, as Schoolcraft, in aboriginal history and ethnology. Goodrich in popular education, and Walsh and Buckingham in editorial essays; Theodore Sedgwick, Horace Mann, Hildreth, Benjamin, Choate, Kettell, Dr. Francis, Josiah Quincy, and G. L. Duyckink. During the interval which has elapsed, and notwithstanding a civil conflict of four years, unparalleled in history for patriotic self-devotion and the lavish sacrifice of life and treasure to reassert and vindicate forever the integrity of the nation, several new and important additions have been made to our catalogue of able and honored authors and of standard works in native literature. John Lothrop Motley has gained a European reputation by his History of the Dutch Republic and of the Netherlands-works of elaborate research and artistic finish, written with an earnest sympathy in the struggles of those who laid the foundations of civil and religious freedom, and with a force and grace of style both appropriate and attractive. A valuable addition to this department also is the History of New England, by John Gorham Palfrey, wherein is evident much original research and a more comprehensive and vivid treatment than had before been given to the subject. In the sphere of philology and economical science, George P. Marsh has written with erudition and efficiency: his History and Origin of the English Language, his Lec-outbreak of the rebellion, first awakened public tures on the English Language, and his treatise entitled Man and Nature have been recognized as singularly able and suggestive works on both sides of the ocean. In popular biography James Parton has won deserved distinction by the thoroughness of his investigation, and the dramatic form of his delineation; his lives of Burr, Jackson, and Frank-action from indifference to eulogy was not, however, lin are read and relished by thousands. William R. Alger's History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, is the most complete, curious, and interesting work of its kind which has appeared in our country.

The Life and Letters of James Gates Percival, by Julius II. Ward. Boston. Ticknor & Fields, 1866.

Although the war for the Union elicited many memorable utterances in the form of logical discussion, eloquent appeal and invective, graphic narration, and lyric pathos or power, perhaps it revealed no more interesting literary phenomena than the advent of a young writer of romance previously quite unappreciated. A vivid sketch which Theodore Winthrop wrote of the march of the Seventh Regiment from New York to Baltimore on the

attention to his spirit and skill as a raconteur; and when, a few months later, he gallantly laid down his young life for his country, the writings which had vainly sought a publisher while he lived were hailed by a host of sympathetic readers as the literary legacy of a youthful martyr. This natural re

a mere tribute to valor and fealty. The chivalrous nature and artistic sympathics of Major Winthrop, his love of adventure, his narrative skill, and a certain dramatic fire, are embodied and embalmed in these volumes of travel and romance in a manner full of high literary promise and genuine personal

interest.

INDEX

TO ENGLISH LITERATURE.

A.

Abelard, 28.

Асса, 27.

Adam, Davie, 53.

Addison, Joseph, 289-295.
Adrian, Abbot, 26.

Ailred of Rievaux, 30.
Akenside, Mark, 354.
Albert, Archbishop
York, 27.
Alcuin, 26, 27.
Aldhelm, 26.
Alfred, king, 27; his trans-
lation of Bede, 27.
Alfred, or Alured of Bev-
erley, 30.

[blocks in formation]

ger, 29.

Baillie, Joanna, 374.
Baldwyne, Richard, 84.
Bale, Bishop, 70, 112, 114.
Ballads, 67, 68, 375.
Banim, John, 450.
of Barbauld, Mrs., 373.
Barbour, 36, 55, 61.
Barclay, Robert, 185.
Barklay, Alexander, 66.
Barnfield, Richard, 86.
Barrow, Isaac, 254.
Barton, Bernard, 432.
Battle of Finnesburg, 26; of
Otterburne, 68.
Baxter, Richard, 184.
Bayly, Thomas Haynes,
432.

Alfric, 28; another, 28; an-
other, 28.

Amory, Thomas, 348.
Aneren Riwle, the, 33.
Ancrum, Earl of, 87.
Angles, 16.
Anglo-Norman literature,
28, 55.
Anglo-Saxon, date of its
change into English, 25;
language, 16, 23, 25; lit-
erature in Latin, 26; po-
etry, the vernacular, 26;
prose, the vernacular, 27.
Anglo-Saxons, 14; rise of
literature among, 15, 26.
Anselm, 23-30.

Anstey, Christopher, 373.
Aquinas, Thomas, 31.
Arbuthnot, Dr. John, 281.
Armstrong, John, 359.
Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 461.
Arthur, legends of king,
23, 31.

Ascham, Roger, 64.
Ashmole, Elias, 264.
Asser, Bishop, 27.

Athelstane, 28.

Atterbury, Bishop, 296.

Aubrey, John, 264.

Austen, Miss, 451.

Beattie, James, 350.
Beaumont, 157; Sir John,
86.

Bec, Abbey of, 28, 29.
Becket, Thomas, 30.
Beckford, William, 453.
Bede, 18, 26, 27.
Behn, Mrs. Aphra, 245.
Bell, Currer. See Brontë.
Bellenden, John, 70.
Bentham, Jeremy, 473.
Bentley, Richard, 302.
Beowulf, Lay of, 16.
Berengarius of Tours, 29.
Berkeley, Bishop, 299.
Bernard, St., 28, 31.
Berners, Lord, 62.
Bible, English translation
of, 57.

Birch, Dr. Thomas, 347.
Blacklock, Thomas, 373.
Blackmore, Sir Richard,
288.

Blackstone, Sir William,
342.

[blocks in formation]

Blackwood's Magazine, 469.
Blair, Robert, 350.

Bloomfield, Robert, 433.
Boleyn, George, 70.

Bolingbroke, Viscount, 298.
Boniface, 27.

Boston, Thomas, 264.
Boswell, James, 337.
Bowles, Rev. William Lisle,
432.

Boyle and Bentley Contro-
versy, 302; Robert, 261.
Breton, Nicholas, 85.
Brontë, Charlotte, 458.
Brooke, Arthur, 85; Henry,
374; Lord, Fulk Greville,
85.

Broome, 164; William, 267.
Brown, Dr. Thomas, 347;
Tom, 302.

Browne, Isaac Hawkins,
373; Sir Thomas, 178;
William, 171.
Browning, Mrs., 435.
Bruce, James, 349; Michael,
373.

Brunton, Mrs. Mary, 458.
Brut d'Angleterre, 31, 32.
Bryan, Sir Francis, 70.
Bryant, Jacob, 348.
Buchanan, George, 87, 107,
170.

Buckingham, Duke of, 247.
Budgell, Eustace, 302.'
Bull, George, 263.
Bunyan, John, 221-225.
Burke, Edmund, 339.
Burnet, Gilbert, 262; James.
See Monboddo. Thomas,
261.

Burney, Frances, 440.
Burns, Robert, 366.
Burton, Robert, 104.
Butler, Bishop, 343; Sam-
uel, 207, 212.
Byrom, John, 372.
Byron, Lord, 396-104.
(533)

« PreviousContinue »