Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 7th June 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 548, Untitled Article

Page 548
Page 20
20 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • (ftf U ^ ( ft pi** "KUpX, XlllZI* »
  • Text (8)
  • 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.

      Untitled Article

      Hoeing my onion-patch , and rows of carrots and parsnips . . . crossing savannas . . trailing in forests , „ . £ k 3 Kb ^ 4 ? s * s » u frsxrs w kssu * .. VwSup ^ tto mOk . to and ft » o » a limb overhead . . . where the buck turns foriouslv at the hunter , > . Where the rattlesnake suns his flabby length on a rock ... where the otter is feeding on fish , , Where the alligator in his tough pimples sleeps by the bayou . Where the black bear is searching for roots or honey . . . where the beaver pats the mud with his paddle-tail ; . . Over the growing sugar .... over the cotton plant .... over the rice in its low , moist , field ; , Over the sharp-peaked farmhouse with its scalloped scum and slender shoots from tne gutters ; Over the western persimmon .... over the long-leaved corn and the delicate blue

      flowered flax ; . Over the white and brown buckwheat , a hummer and a buzzer there with the rest , Over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the breeze ; Scaling mountains .... pulling myself cautiously up .... holding on by low scragged limbs , Walking the path worn in the grass and beat through the leaves of the brush ; Where the quail is whistling betwixt the woods and the wheatlot , Where the bat flies in the July eve ... where the great goldbug drops through the dark ; Where the flails keep time on the barn floor , Where the brook puts out of the roots of the old tree and flows to the meadow , Where cattle stand and shake away flies with the tremulous shuddering of their hides , Where the cheese-cloth hangs in the kitchen , and andirons straddle the hearth-slab , and cobwebs fall in festoons from the rafters ; Where triphammers crash . . . where the press is whirling its cylinders ; Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes out of its ribs .

      The House by the Sea . A Poem . By Thomas Buchanan Read . ( Philadelphia : Parry and McMillan . ) — Whosoever likes a story steeped in morbid horrors , and pressing on the mind -with a sickening weight of supernatural dread , will be pleased with this weird tale , in which suicides , ghosts , demons , a maniac , a reanimated corpse , and some miserable human beings trembling at their perpetual contact with the spirit-world , perform a disagreeable masquerade by a wild sea-shore , among rocks and in a desolate house , amidst storms and darkness and livid lig ht . The author seems to have based his poetical style in a great degree on that of Shelley , but on the most unhappy and least sterling elements of that great poet ' s genius . This particular poem , however , must have been written in a fit of somnambulism after reading Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner" and " Christabel . " Of the

      latter it more especially reminds us in the vagueness of the story , m its dusk diablerie , in the mysterious and beautiful ghost-lady , and in the irregular , overflowing octo-syllabic verse . We perceive by some criticisms of former works by Mr . Read , appended to the present volume , that he is recognized by several of his countrymen as one of the chief of American poets . For ourselves , we can only judge from the work now before us , which exhibits power , of an unhealthy kind , in some parts , together with a degree of weakness and conventionality in other parts , from which we should suppose that the author is still very young . But the efiect of the whole is most unpleasant . It is as if we had been sitting in a charnel-house , surrounded by halfalive corpses , stirring about in the darkness and the close , hot air ; or as if we had but imperfectly recovered from a debauch of opium .

      The Poetical Works of Augustine Duganne . ( Philadelphia : Parry and McMillan . )—The Quaker city here presents us with a thick , large-sized octavo , crammed full of verses , satirical , lyrical , sonorous , and denunciatory . The author is a most vehement Republican , whose sympathies with the cause of the people are so cosmopolitan that he sings democratic hymns for half the nations of the earth , and loftily frowns down upon " Mr . Bull . " He has evidently got the gp ft of great fluency , for here in this one volume are poems enough for a lifetime , though the author ' s portrait , fronting the title-page , exhibits him as a man yet in the freshness of his years .

      But his " facility" is not without the attendant " fatal" influence ; and had he written less he might have been worth more . His satires have smartness and sting ; he has lyrical passion , and might add something to his country ' s literature if he would but concentrate his strength , instead of diluting it in a wash of words . His Republicanism is not of the largest or most generous kind , because it appeals only to a class , and cannot recognize the diversities of good , but is denunciatory and impatient . Yet , while the Old World wastes so visibly beneath military oppression , this rough counterpoise from the west of the Atlantic may be needed ; and so we will not quarrel with Mr . Duganne's peculiar form of exclusiveness , but wait patiently for the time which shall hold all interests in an equal scale .

      Poems . By Thomas William Parsons . ( Boston : Ticknor and Fields . )—Mr . Parsons writes , through a large part of his volume , in the spirit of those English versifiers of the middle oi last century , who paid more attention to the elegant turn of their compositions than to the weight of their matter . Some of his poems are prettv and graceful ; and , although he has no great depth or originality , and is sometimes contentedly common-place , ho is neither spasmodic nor obscure . German ly rics . By Charles T . Brooke . ( Boston : Ticknor , Reed , and Fields . )—There is a certain affinity between the Gorman and the American mind : therefore , these translations from the chief poets of modern Rhineland should be of the best quality . Wo must confess , however , that the English is sometimes clumsy and involved , as if the translator could not easily render the thoughts of his authors into a new language . But the volume may servo aa a not unpleasant index to recent German poetry , of use to those who cannot read the original tongue .

      Untitled Article

      THE MUNICIPAL DIRECTORY . The Municipal Directory for 1856 . Kelly and Co . This Manual is intended for the use of persons interested in the working of the Metropolitan Local Management Act . That act culled into existence a number of governing bodies , with considerable powers , aa well as a

      multitude of offices , filled by the parishioners of the several districts . The Messrs . Kelly have published , in a compact form , a directory containing the names and addresses of the members of the metropolitan board , and local vestries . Their resources , as publishers of the best general directory , have enabled them to produce an accurate volume , the utility of which will be obvious to the general body of parishioners .

      Untitled Article

      THE AMATEUR PANTOMIME . The second amateur pantomime ever produced in this or perhaps any other city was ushered into gaslight on Monday evening , according to announcement , at the LrcEDM Theatre . We gave in our last impression a general ideaot the subject and the treatment , and can now only repeat our regret that an occasion which should have been devoted to nothing but mirth and charity ( two very dear and loving sisters , if Exeter Hall will believe us ) , should have been degraded into a means of flouting the most sacred of human causes—the cause of free action and free thought , now doubly to be revered and championed because it is under a thick , though we will hope a temporary , cloud . However , we will turn from this painful subject , and regard the performance in its brighter and more honest features . Her Majesty , fatigued by her masonic laboursm the

      morning at the Wellington College , was not present ; but the Prince ot Wale * , one of his brothers , and their suite , occupied thfe Royal box . The representation was to the full as successful as the last ; and Mr . Albert Smith is greatly funny in the part of Tell , and in a thimble-rigging performance at a country fair in the after-part of the pantomime . It is invidious , however , to mention one actor where all were good ; and our space does not permit us to describe each of the puntomimists . Suffice it to say that the spirit and physical energy displayed were extraordinary ; that the whole thing overflowed with action ana practical fun ; that Miss Mary Oliver and Miss Rosina Wright lent their graceful aid to the non-professionals ; and that the performance was uproariously successful . The proceeds will be given , at the desire of the Queen , to the Royal Female Naval School . . A second representation will take place in about a fortnight s time , most probably at Drury-lane . Already the applications for seats aro moat numerous , and as the prices will be lower than on the previous occasion , a crowded nouse is anticipated . It is stated that the proceeds of this and any subsequent performances ( some of which , at large provincial towns , are in c ° ntanplatwn ) yiu be devoted to the foundation of a charitable fund , to be called Ine tickling Fund , " for the immediate relief of destitute literary men .

      Untitled Article

      THE PICTURE GALLERY AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . A modekn gallery , divided between English and foreign artists , has been opened at the Crystal Palace , but is not yet complete . The visitor finds a suite of rooms one of which contains works of native art , while the rest are devoted to the ex- ' hibition of French , German , and other continental paintings . We borrow a few particulars from the Times : — " The best display is in the rooms allotted to continental art . Many of the best English pictures—among others one by David Roberts—have not yet arrived . There are , indeed , a " Sancho Panza" of Leslie ' s ; a capital portrait of Charles Kean aa Louis XI ., by Phillips ; a landscape , with a foreground of ferns , by Antony ; one of Frost ' s sea-nymphs ; some calves , by Horlar ; and some works by PickersgUl , Herring Rolt , and others . But , on the whole , the English part of the exhibition seems to be the most backward . Of the German school , the principal work is a landscape with

      figures by old Lessing , which is , indeed , a first-rate specimen of the style . Every detail here is admirable , the light of the fire , the stonework of the ruins , the action of the figures ; but best of all are the keeping and harmony of the whole —the fi gure * not being lost in the landscape , and the landscape not being a mere background to the figures . Jordan exhibits a wedding scene that is full of life ; Leu , a landscape of water and mountains , the former remarkable for its transparency ; Gude and Weber send some noteworthy landscapes ; while the fruit of Preye and the cabinet picture of Tidemand , in which peasants appear around a fire , are also well worth looking into . Of the Belgian school , Pieron sends two landscapes , both interesting to the English visitor , although there are very few foreign landscapes which he can look at with perfect satisfaction . In the French room , the oxen of Rosa Bonheur , the horses of

      Montpezan , which are almost always good in intention , if sometimes faulty hi drawing . The horses painted by Dreux , with a long avenue behind , is a bold attempt at perspective and foreshortening which few of our artists would even think of . If the attempt is not quite successful , the motive is at least praiseworthy . In the same spirit , Sebron contributes a view of New York in snow , the horses dashing down the street at a quick trot . Courbet sends some of his remarkable pictures ; Couturier has some excellent poultry ; and Biard has a picture of Gulliver at Brobdignag , which , as usual with him , is better in conception than in execution . We must not forget , however , among the Belgian pictures an architectural scene by Henry Leys , in which the tone is very fine ; an old woman and boy , by De Bloch ; and a couple of donkeys , by Stevens . "

      (Ftf U ^ ( Ft Pi** "Kupx, Xlllzi* »

      € l ) t Mb . —?—

      Untitled Article

      HISTORI . The night but one after the grotesque drolleries of the Amateur Plint" ™™ ; i tho Lyceum Tiikatbh was again crowded to behold the first appearanco of the great Italian tragedian , Madame Kistoiu . The play was the ^* J « ^ Ernkht Lkoouvu , translated into the actress ' s own language , riic excitement of expectation in tho house before tho rising of tho curtain , and the "" cnm * m thusiasm awakened by tho performance , were such as are rarely seen . * lll < 1 "' Kistoiu has made an unmistakable success ; but tho expression ot our owu opinions on the character of her acting we reserve for a future week

      Untitled Article

      Mauabie Alrkutini on Monday night made her first appearance at I Majesty ' s Theatre ns Leonora in tho Trovatovc , on which occasion she rn with grout success ; and Mademoiselle Makuo Taglioni hits ? P arklei * J ^ 'fo audience in a spirit-stirring ballot . At tho Royal Italian Oi'Kra , the lavor of Donikktti was reproduced boforo tho Queen on Ihuraday .

      Untitled Article

      Thus Flyhu , Dutchman- * piece which comes to us like a ghost ^ of « ot her d y ha 9 started up into a new existence at tho A »™ ™\ Madamo Ckl jr P J the spectral skipper ; and Whigut provides plenty of food for the laufaiiw- r boxes , pit , and gallery .

      Untitled Article

      54 , 2 THE LEADER . [ No . 324 , Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 7, 1856, page 548, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2144/page/20/