7 For ter shades of difference, on which depends all felicity of expression; he seems to have no other principle of selection, than such as was dictated by the cadence of his verse. example, in the ensuing quotation, he wishes to describe the grief of Columbus at beholding the deplorable consequences that result from his discoveries-compassionate would probably have been the proper epithet; but, compassionate would not glide into verse, and Mr. Barlow remembering that the tender were generally compassionate; either concludes, or finds it convenient to conclude, that the converse must be true. He therefore applies to the brave, the noble, and the generous Columbus, an epithet which an English writer would only have conferred on the love-sick heroine of a novel; "While sorrows thus his patriarch pride control, "Hesper reproving, soothes his tender soul."-I. 375. "Her locks loose rolling mantle deep her breast, We have heard of the rolling of the billows, and the rolling of a stone, but who that has not read the Columbiad, has heard of the rolling of a lady's locks? Mr. Barlow knew, that the waves rolled, and the waves flowed, and therefore supposed, that if HAIR flowed, IT must likewise roll. Even those who have joined in the chorus of---" Let us fill the mantling-bowl,"-will probably be startled at the mantling of a female's hair; and there is surely some difference between the constricted embrace of the mantling ivy, and the "luxuriant waving" of dishevelled ringlets. The next great characteristic of his style, is an eternal and invincible monotony. This defect is principally occasioned by a perverse propensity towards the balancing of his epithets. The noun that is governed, is always accommodated with an attendant adjective to proclaim its equality with the noun that governs. If the one be splendid, orient, and divine, the other must be glorious, occidental, and sublime. If the first two feet of a verse be big with the roar of " sounding waves," the fourth and fifth must glitter with the brilliance of "resplendent zones." From the first half of the line we can easily anticipate its conclusion; and the reader who is once accustomed to the dull uniformity of sing-song modulation, occasioned by this peculiarity of structure, proceeds to the continuation of his task in hopeless listlessness: neither exhilarated by the variation, nor captivated by the sweetness of his harmony. The reader who has no inclination to refer to the poem itself, will be content with the following casual examples : "Where annual floods from melting snows descend." "And rising suns salute superior fires."-I. 356. &c. &c. &c. II. 354. This monotony is still further increased by the almost uniform preclusion of the definite article, which by generalizing the epithet, and sometimes the substantive, of which it designates the quality, contributes so essentially to the elevation and the beauty of poetical language. For instance; having described a combat between the Indians and Peruvians, he proceeds to detail the particulars of the onset, and informs us, that "From GRIM CHIEFS is lopt the grizly head."-III. 600. An European poet would have said, -" From THE grim chiefs;" and the superior elegance, as well as propriety of the mode of expression, it is almost needless to elucidate. The languid insipidity of his verse is considerably aggra vated by the uniformity and incorrectness of his rhymes. happens, indeed, that those which recur most frequently, the most inaccurate. Nothing can be more discreditable to a poet, or more fatiguing to the reader, than the continual re petition of couplets, in which the second line may be guessed from the ending of the first. It shews at once frigidity of thought, and barrenness of language, and deprives a writer of all claim to the vigour of genius, or the grace of art. Of this defect, the examples are too numerous to be quoted. The following list we believe to be unrivalled in the annals of criticism, and it may enable our readers to form some idea of their grossness, and their frequency :-- 1 1. "Hesper my name, my seat the brightest THRONE, "In nights whole heaven, my rise the living sun."-I. 167. 2. "No hope remains, far onward o'er the zone, "The trade-wind bears them, with the circling sun." II. 163. 3. "Down the long tracts of time their glory shone, "Broad as the day, and lasting as the sun."-II. 361. 4. "O'er the dark world his mind superior shone, "And seem'd the semblance of his parent sun.”—II. 479. 5. "Then shall he feign a journey to the sun, "To bring the partner of his well-earn'd throne."-II. 559. 6. "Build with assisting hands the golden throne, 7. "And hail, and bless the sceptre of the sun."-II. 645. "Reflect the glories of the parent sun, "And shine the Capac of his future throne." -- II. line the last. f 8. "In high behest, for his own legate known, 9. "Be wise, be mindful of thy realm and throne, 10. "Thou seest through heaven the day-dispensing sun, "In living radiance wheel his golden throne."-ІІІ. 215. 11. "By mystic rights he'll vindicate his throne, "And own thy servant for his duteous son.”—III. 257. 12. "Gaze on the miracle, full credence own, "And vow obedience to the sacred sun."-III. 289. 13. "Dark vault of heaven that greet his daily throne, "Where flee the glories of your absent sun ?"-III. 483. 14. "Behold him rising from his shadowy throne, "To veil this heaven, and drive the conquered sun." III. 655 15. "And does the god obscure his golden throne, "In mournfuldarkness for my slaughtered son?”—III. 693. 16. "All bow obedient to the Incas throne, "And blest Oella hails her living sun."-III. line the last. It will be observed, that all these intances, except one, (and the catalogue might have been considerably augmented,) are extracted from the second and third books. In the same manner driven rhymes with equal uniformity to heaven, and the concluding lines of the sixth and seventh books end with train and plain. Barbarous and unauthorized words, as well as obscure and vulgar expressions, occur with lamentable frequency. "In misty radiance loom a thousand isles."-І. 208. Qu.-What kind of a victim is devoved gore? "All gride the dying, all deface the dead."---VIII. "Threw the pine "Shag the green zone that bounds the boreal skies." I. 759. A writer who undertook a task so arduous as Mr. Barlow's, should not have betrayed such total ignorance of quantity as to make the i in platina long :-- "The pale platīna and the burning gold."---I. 807. Nothing detracts more from the poetical effect of his narration, than the uncouthness of the names that he finds it necessary to introduce; and as his personages flit before our eyes without leaving any distinct impression of their characters; or exciting any sympathetic interest in their fate; the defect remains unpalliated in all the prominence of deformity. In the Iliad, the catalogue of ships, and the repeated introduction of personages, who conduce neither to the progress of the fable, nor to the dignity of the action; may be easily defended. The narration is that of the poet in person: and his allusion to every name, and circumstance that can gratify the pride, or the patriotism of his countrymen, is judicious, and appropriate; but in the Columbiad, the whole of the story is detailed by an ideal personage, and its principal object to which all others are consequently subservient, is to soothe his despondency: it should therefore have been remembered, that all which does not conduce to that effect, is, whatever may be its independent beauties, superfluous, and for that reason reprehensible. But the passages to which we allude, are not only irrelevant to the intention of the poem, but positively bad. To be informed that "Morgan and Smallwood every shock sustained," or that " Blount, Gregory, and Williamson from hill to hill retired," must have afforded but little consolation to the unfortunate hero, thus secluded from light and liberty; with no other prospect before him than that of lingering out the remainder of his days in captivity and sorrow. Still less can it be supposed that insipidity and barbarism such as this, would add to the information, or the pleasure of even an American reader. A warrior is seldom mentioned in the Iliad without some epithet that designates the quality for which he is renowned, or the city of which he is the champion; but Mr. Barlow's adjectives are common to all his heroes he seems to have no conception that a soldier, or a statesman, can have any peculiarities of character-they are all noble, great, or generous, as best suits the purposes of metre: they all fight bravely and are nobly slain. "Hardicanutus Circumspexit; et Exit."-- That there are some passages which prove Mr. Barlow not to be deficient in learning, or ability, we are willing to con |