Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/10

4 memoir of the author, though sincerely desiring that the work might be placed in more competent hands.

If the fame of Mrs. Wakefield had been the chief object in this publication, the number of the pieces would have been considerably less. Only a few of these fugitive verses will become classics and survive the fashion of the year, though very few have been admitted which are unworthy of reprint. But it is true that the collections of our popular poets contain many titles which are short-lived, though pretty, elegant and interesting. However, being composed for an occasion, or springing from the pressure of current events, they are not made for all time, or even for the next generation. But there are some specimens of poetry in this collection which bear the stamp of genius, and have already found their appropriate place in the great repositories of selected poetical inspiration.

The best known of this class is entitled " Over the River," and has been read with tearful eyes and admiring taste by uncounted thousands in our own and other lands. It is many years since the words had been set to music by six or eight different composers. From the nature of its subject, it appeals to the universal heart of mankind, while its form and language are the perfect vehicle of the sentiment. One cannot conceive that any thing can make it less popular a hundred years hence