On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    My God , my life ! if thou appear , , . ' Not death itself can make ma fear ; Thy presence cheers the , sable gloom , And gilds the horrors of the tomb . Not all its horrors can affright , If thou appear , ruy God , my light !

    Thy love shall all my fears coutroul , And glory dawn around my soul .

    In assigning to the devotional poetry of Mrs * Steele a tenderness and sentiment which that of ]\ lrs . Barbauld does not possess , we by no means intend to attribute to the former a genius equal to that of the latter . Mrs . Barbauld is , in our opinion , the first poetess of England- Her style is truly classical , and her verses display , not only the correctness of a pure ta ^ te , but also the masculine vigour of powerful talent . There is in them none of that tender and amiable weakness which is usually attributed to the female character : —

    they possess all the energy of a male intellect , and are full of that strong poetical inspiration which the French critics denominate by the expressive term verve . The genius of Mrs . Barbauld , indeed , like her own bird of Jove ^ soars far above the level of effeminate song , and the strong pinions of her muse are too vigorous to be crushed by opposition , though , with all the illiberal violence of " bigot rage , " it has vainly tried to check their towering

    flight . It is much to be regretted that , during her life , those pinions were too often folded up in indolence , and that their flight has , at length , been suspended in death . The poems of Mrs . Barbauld are , indeed , few and short ; but their excellence is such , that , like the polished compositions of Gray—which they resemble rather in brevity and classical taste than in kindthey will continue to be admired as long as the language in which they are written is cultivated and read .

    Amongst the many minstrels of Great Britain , not one has exclusively devoted his harp to the praise of God , or attained that celebrity in sacred song which such an exclusive devotion alone is likely to produce . ' * The Sacred Melodies" of Moore , though possessing great poetical beauty , appear to us to blend too much of the tenderness of love with the exalted feeling of devotion , and to bear too near a resemblance in tone and sentiment to the amatory effusions of his muse : whilst they are adorned with too great a profusion of roses and diamonds for the chaste sublimity of sacred song . " The Hebrew

    Melodies" of Byron are written in a style more suited to the dignity of the subject , and some of them are truly sublime , but they breathe more of the soul of Jewish patriotism than of Christian devotion . Montgomery ' s " Songs of Zion , " though evidently dictated by devout feelings , and occasionally displaying the strength of his genius and the fervour of his piety , are not equal to what might have been expected from the author of " The World before the Flood /'* The sacred minstrel who shall transfuse the spirit of the

    * The amiable muse of Montgomery has been accused of latterly losing herself amongst the mysticisms of religion—of wasting her strength in the pursuit of shadows , and darkening the original lustre of her pinions in the charnel-house of superstition . We must confess that his piety sometimes appears to us to throw over his pages a melancholy and gloom , which it is the office of religion rather to remove than to create : but amidst this occasional gloom the light of his genius is so far from being extinguished , that it shines through it with all the mild and pensive radiance of the evening star . Even in her most mournful strains there is a soothing and

    elevating influence , such as we have sometimes felt when wandering alone through the dim aisles of a church , whilst the last beams of day shed a soft but fading lustre through the pictured panes . Though , then , Montgomery ' s views of religion may have imparted a certain colouring to his later poems , it is still the colouring of genius : he has dipped his pencil in graver hues , but in the harmony with which he has

    blended them together , and the lights which he has thrown across their darkest shade , we recognise the hand of a master . * The World before the Flood , " affords a most satisfactory proof of this observation . In this beautiful poem , the episode of Javan and Zillah exhibits one of the tenderest pictures of pure and faithful love ; and the nobkj description of the death of Adam is as fine a paV&age as occurs in any

    Untitled Article

    On . Devotional Poetry * 267

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1826, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2548/page/5/