On this page
-
Text (2)
-
1004l THE LEADEB. [No. 395, October 17, ...
-
THE 11OYAL IRISH ACADEMY. An Address del...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Latter-Day Poetry. Psyche, And Other Poe...
So rusted and crusted with lichens old , I So rotted and spotted by rain and . mould , That in vain I strove to decipher it . The -whole place seemed as if it were dead , So silent the sunshine over it shed Its golden light , —and the grasses tall , That quivered in clefts of the crumbling -wall , And a lizard that glanced with noiseless run Over the moss-grown broken shield , And , panting , stood in the afternoon sun , — Alone a token of life revealed . The castle was silent as a dream , — And its shadow into the courtyard slanted , Longer and longer climbing the "wall Slowly to where the lizard panted . All was still—save the running fall Of the surf-waves under the stern sea-wall , As they plunged along with a shaking gleam , — And I said to myself— " The place is haunted . " I to myself seemed almost weird As I mused there , touched by a sort of spell , — Whether ' twas real or all ideal , The castle , the sea , and myself as well , I was not sure , I could mot tell , The whole so like a vision appeared , — When near me upon the stones I heard A footfall , that with its echo woke The sleeping courtyard , and strangely broke In on my dream , —as a pool is stirred By a sudden stone in its silence thrown , — And turning round , at my side I found A mild old man with a snowy beard .
We have no space for further quotations , or we would cite a poem called e In St . Peters : the Convert talks to his Friend . ' Whatever can be said m favour of the Romish Church , on the score of its appealing to emotion , and sentiment , and the natural love of beauty and splendour , and thus not contenting itself , like the Reformed Church , with simply addressing the intellect on matters of opinion , is here said with subtle perception of the real points at issue , and with great richness of illustration . But our tether is run out , and we must be content with referring thereader to Mr . Story as to one of the best and most promising of new American poets . . _ Orestes and the Avengers . An Hellenic Mystery . In Three Acts By Goronva Camlan , Author of ' Lays from the Cimbric Lyre . ^ CJ- . W . Parker and Son . )—We have here a drama written partly after the ancient Greek model , with Chorus , Strophe , Antistrophe , and Epode , together with many compound words and Hellenic forms of thought and expression , lhe unities , Lowever , are not observed , for there is change of scene . _ The a : lia - ' l ~ « r o « rtc + ^« nn ' A s \ -f + Yi £ * niircnincr "Piitip . s who haunted him . in
revenue for the murder of his mother , is told with a strong feeling for antiquity and with some dramatic power , though of a nature very different from what we are accustomed to in the romantic literature of modern Europe . Mr . Camlan appears to us to be pedantically classical , and to be often dry and wordy where he should be impassioned , rapid , and abrupt ; but there are some tine passages in his play , especially in the speeches of the dark and fatal Sisters who dog the wretched matricide with remorse and terror and appalling visions of his crime , and in those of Orestes himself . At any rate , the stately , processional character of old Greek tragedy is a reli ef in the midst of the feverish flush and noisiness of the current forms r \ f vp . rsft-writincr . _ _ . .
Arnold . A Dramatic History . By Cradock Newton . ( Hope and Co . )—Mr . Newton writes in the very latest fashion , and repeats that idea of winch we are tired of even saying we are tired—the character of a young student laitn ine pains
involved in scepticism , and working his way to tnrougn m love and sorrow . ' Again in these pages we have those wearisome comments on * the a ^ e' and < the soul' which we have read in dozens of other volumes ; and once " more we have to endure ( would to Heaven it were for the last time !—but that it is certain not to be ) those fearfully over-worked passages about 'the stars , ' and ' sunset , ' and ' primal dawns , ' and ' God a . thoughts —or phrases to the same effect , if not precisely those . Arnold exhibits considerable imagination and power of expression , and we could quote several beautiful passages ; but why will Mr . Newton flutter his wings „ . the sickly instead ot into *
exhausted air of morbid eelf-analysis , going yi « cu » . «« . ««« of honest mother Nature ? We have had enough of the poetry of the psychological dissecting-room . In God ' s name , let us have a little more ot the living human heart , and something less of the post mortem examination . But , to show that Mr . Newton is capable of adding to the stock , we will quote two passages from , his ' Dramatic History' : — Hush ! ' tis the hour of woruhip , and earth kneels As a child to evening prayer . Above us , like SiloanCs angel-trovbled waters , all The starry silence is disturb'd with God .
As , unto one who fares Prom homo at eve , dies alltho villago hum , And the last drowsy murmur of the kine—The miats of distance drown the dark ' ning fields—The homestead trees take undistinguished shape—The grey spire fadetli into evening ' s 6 J i As , with sad vision marr'd by sudden tears , He gazoth awhile , then gocth on his way , And morning bringeth unto him new scenes , New duties—likewise have I look'd my last , And Bcek with forward foot the morning land , Nor with unmanful mourning cloud my way , Nor waste my strength on sorrow . This is very exejutaite , though it i » subject to the drawback of being like a ^^ 71 h ) Xc ! r ^^ r ^ . and CoO . is a vo . umo printed
after the quaint old fashion , with head and tail pieces and illustra ted initial letters . It contains some weak , but rather elegant , verses . Weak also are the verses of Mr . Colburn Mayne , who publishes The Lost Friend—a- Crimean Memory ; and Other Poems ( John Chapman ) . Mr . Mayne , however , writes in a genial strain , has a feeling for Nature , and is an admirer of the beautiful country in the neighbourhood of Londonwhich alone says much in his favour . ' Such is Life . ' Sketches and Poems , by * Doubleyou . ' ( Samuel Eyre ) . —This writer is amusing when he confines himself to light , humorous sketches ; but his sentimentalism is dreadful . He dedicates his book to Mr . Dickens ' ; and two Sonnets which he addresses to the great novelist exhibit his poetical powers in a rather favourable light . I Hours of Sim and Shade . Reveries in Prose an < l Verse , with Translations from Various European Languages . By Percy Vernon Gordon De Montgomery . ( London : Groombridge and Sons . Edinburgh : James Hogg . )—It is somewhat strange to find an author with so many high-sounding names publishing his book by subscription ; but Mr . De Montgomery does so , and a magnificent subscription list he puts forth . He likewise publishes a set of panegyrics from various fellow poets , among whom we notice the gentle 4 Quailon , ' who testifies to some of Mr . De Montgomery ' s verses being ' musical as pebbled rills . ' Then we have several commendations of the authors Lecture on ' the Beautiful' ( printed in the present volume ); and a perfect chorus of country clergymen and provincial editors hails this production as a new light to the age . But , while Mr . Percy Vernon Gordon de Montgomery is not above receiving—and printing—the eulogies of friends , he can bestow ' approval on others with a lofty grace . In fact , there appear to be little accommodation bills of puffery passing between him and his acquaintance ; for we find the Rev . F . J . Perry and Miss Elizabeth II . Bailey , authors of books of poems , swelling the song of triumph for Mr . De Montgomery , while , in the advertisements at the end of that gentleman ' s book 1 [/ iuv ^ vlv ^ v »* v < v i v-a *¦** * - >
( nOt lliC ltillbb BlUJJUlill pill ll Ul HIO oiuguiui .. .. v , .. .. v Montgomery patronizing the poems of the llev . F . J . Perry and Miss r Elizabeth R . Bailey . Of the former we are told that ' their flow is as smooth as that of a summer stream ; ' and , to tlie lady , Mr . Percy Vernon Gordon de Montgomery writes : — " Like to a clear fountain scattering its liquid pearls , so hath your richly-stored mind produced thoughts as pure , as bright , as fair , and you have woven them into fadeless garlands of loveliness . " A singular picture is here unfolded of the way in which the celebrities of little provincial coteries attend reciprocal conversaziones of simpering egotism , and admire themselves in each other ' s mirrors . But we find some more strange things among the advertisements . The author lias a new volume in preparation , and he announces that advertisements for it must be lorwarded to himself , as well as those intended for the second edition of the present work ; and he adds a scale of charges . Then comes an announcement of ' Poems by Quintius and Curtius , ' to be published by subscription . " Real service may be rendered the authors by subscribing to the above . writer iwnusu
Send for specimens , pronounced by a tiistinguisneci " < " »^ not mentioned ) " to be « in the highest degree honourable to their authors . Further on , we come across this notification : — "Poetry , lrose , and Acrostics written upon any Subject . Poems and Acrostics suitable tor Ladies' Albums . Birth-day Presents , Presentation Books , & c ., tor " »« - » ; Crown in Stamps . Address , Clarence , 4 , Johnson-street , Notting-nill . Mr . Percy Vernon Gordon De Montgomery , by the way , lives at Wot tinghill ; and this brings us back again to him . We always wish to greet every humble struTcler for a literary position with sympathy and . encouragement , but Mr . De Montgomery seems to be in no want either of praise or puoding , and he has a tone of complacent self-conceit which provokes severe . 01 ,. -r 1 _ -r » £ u ~ „„ ., „ uT-qjti ns vpt . but tuiiincr mv harp : tin . iici j
reprooi . an uit > «^ c " ^ oa ^ o . - » -- - ~ - = > ; , , quivering chords are but vibrating witrPa feeble prelude ; yet 1 hope hcifr after to boldly sweep the lyre , till its tones swell into noble , lofty strains . W !™™ i ? iT ;!^ E « nll «« tion of Poems , Tales , Essays , & c , he promises
that * his whole energies will be devoted to the worn : he will emp loj Ins utmost elForts to give living expressions to living thoughts so that his book may prove worthy the perusal of all intellectual minds : He prints extiacts from his lectures and fragments from his note-book , uader the evident impre sion that such gems should not be lost ; and , with all this selt-woi h p , Eeexhibits no trace of faculty . His < poetry' « the merest connnon-plac , and his prose is a species of copy-book sentmieiitalism , stuck all ovei witu showy gauds of metaphor . r v - idrlWnas in Poetrv . A Series of Poems . By the B ^ v . M . Viuuy . aim 1
( Arthur Hall , Virtue , and Co . ) -These < pencil imp' . are very . uu ^ There is nothing offensive in the poetry ; but it is just such as clei g > men arc in the habit of pouring out-copious , fluent , vapid , and colourlc- Still more copious is a thick volume containing twelve books oitooj couplet , and entitled The Lad Judgment ( Longman ) . Vc . y d »' foolish are these verses ; and they have the aggravation of some 11 » ou ravm-s about eternal punishment-a state oi things which the . ut contemplates with the sweet serenity of a bigot warming himself at Uk . which consumes his heretic opponent .
1004l The Leadeb. [No. 395, October 17, ...
1004 l THE LEADEB . [ No . 395 , October 17 , JL 857 .
The 11oyal Irish Academy. An Address Del...
THE 11 OYAL IRISH ACADEMY . An Address delivered to the President and Members of the Royal Irish Amtlemy , at thew Meeting , February i ) , 1857 . By John Mitchell . Komblc , A . M . J Dublin : Hodges , Smith , and Co . ; London , ucu Most archaeologists , adopting a mode of arrangement usual among 110 Danish mvaw , classify their Celtic collection as belonging to the slo »^ bronze , and the iron periods . The first of these , having reference 10 a j remote antiquity , and to the earliest ages of human culture , cousins u j of flint arrow-heads , sharp splinters of the same substance , ^ , > at 3 quurians have agreed to consider « s knives , and thos « curious unpi culled celts , formed of granite , black basalt , « ud other hard atone . - silicious arrow-heads exhibit , in many cases , a very high degree 01 ^ in others , they are merely rude fragments , chipped oil lrom a lar c ^ and were in almost general use among barbarous tribea in every poi
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 17, 1857, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17101857/page/20/
-