Page:Fitz-Greene Halleck, A Memorial.djvu/15

Rh Drake, and Bryant, with a true gentlemanly instinct, he shrank from popular applause. But when the author of “Fanny,” and the co-author of the “Croakers,” could no longer preserve his disguise; when his old publisher, Coleman, broke the seals of secresy, and he stood revealed; when he was sought after by the best society in New York, (and what a brilliant society it was in those grand old days!) when he was exposed to all the adulations of fashion, wealth, and intellect, he preserved his quiet balance, his modest, gentlemanly demeanor, and lived and moved an example worthy of imitation. When we reflect that, at this time, Halleck was the most popular poet in the country,—for Drake was dead and Bryant scarcely known,—and that no other American poet could be called his rival, we may well admire that unpretending modesty which always formed the chief charm in his character. Upon one occasion, in after-years, when he was invited to a brilliant party in New York, he declined the invitation, and said, quietly, to a friend, “I always avoided notoriety in my earlier days,—and I am too old a lion now to shake my mane in a lady’s drawing-room.”

While I have made the endeavor to bring before you a faint sketch of the character of the man, which you have done me the honor to invite me to elucidate, permit me to give a glance at the opposite of such a poet, and show you a Poet’s Critic.

There is a class of unfortunates in this and in other literary countries, who, although blest with undoubted genius, are compelled by Fate and Publishers to blossom once a month. They are known by Gods and