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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 201
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. « *». The Courtship Of Miles < Long St...
than tlie most genuine admiration of the most profound student of poetry : the nobler success of the two to our minds , and yet we say
this , acknowledging in a great degree the justice of the more critical One charge judgment however . has been made lately against him which
, , seems totally unfounded— -that of a morbid and unhealthy , tone . The days happilare gone by when appeals to false and diseased
feeling could find y any echo ; the new generation are too earnest and too true to respond to them , and in spite of the plaintive and serious
sentiment which is one great charm of Mr . Longfellow ' s verses , there is nothing sentimentaland much which is strong and real and true ,
cased in the form most , likely to attract and hold the imagination and heart of the reader .
Perhaps a little disappointment may follow after reading through the new volume . The longer poem has the disadvantage of being
in hexameters , with very little of the music and grace which , in A spite few of lines hexameter there s are , made here Evangeline and there , and containing Hiawatha some so charming beautiful .
image or tender sentiment , , but they do not redeem the prosaic "weariness of the wholeor lend a charm sufficient to compensate for
, the clumsy telling of , to our minds , a very mistaken plot . The fact on which the tale is founded , is , that Miles Standish ,
one of the band of Puritans who reached New England in the Mayflowerbeing of a stern and warlike disposition , " employed
John Alden , his friend , to pay court in his name to a fair lady who fell in love with , the ambassador and became his wife . " There was
scope here for much of the delicate delineation of feeling and the conflict of love and duty which are so especially the province of
Mr . Longfellow ' s poetry ; but he has not made the most of his story . There is little worth extracting in the two first chapters , where the
two heroes are introduced and the commission is given to John Alden . The third details the " Lover ' s Errand , " and thus John Alden is
described wending his way on his difficult mission . _" Love To and contending fro in his with breast friendshi his thoug p , hts and were self with heaving each and generous dashing impulse _.
" As Washe in a s foundering the bitter sea ship the , with merciless every roll surge of of the the vessel ocean , . ,
1 Must Must I I relinqui relinquish sh it it , all all ? the he j cried the , with hop a e wild the illusion lamentation ? ,
' ; oy , , "Was it it for for this this I have have loved followed and the waited fling and feet worshi and the pped shadow in silence ?
Was I y O Trul ver the the wintry heart is sea deceitful to the desol and ate out snores of its of depths New ' of Eng corruption land ?'
Angels Bise y like of an lig exhalation ht they seem , the I , feel , but misty it are I p see onlv hantoms it delusions distinctl of passion of ! Satan ; . All is clear to me now ;
This is the hand of the Lord ; it , is laid upon me m y anger , Worshi For I have pping followed Astaroth too blindl much y the , the and sin heart imp and ' ious s desires the idols swift and of retribution Baal devices ; ,
This is the cross I must bear , . "
Notices Of Books. 201
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 201
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/57/
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