Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/30

 22 INTRODUCTION

<<We have here a volume of poems by one who holds the character of the poet in high esteem, remembering the time when

'the sacred name Of Poet and of Prophet was the same,'

and believing that great gifts of the mind should only be used for noble purposes. His notion of the proper voca- tion of the poet is expressed in four successive poems, closing with these lines [Mr. Bryant then quoted the three concluding stanzas of 'The Poet : Fourth Treatment'].

" The volume before us is published without the name of the author, but it is ascribed to Dr. J. W. Randall, of Boston, who has found time amid more practical studies and pursuits to produce verses worthy of a high place among compositions of their class. They are the offspring of a mind more attentive to the essential forms and elements of beauty than to their decoration. There is not a single scrap of tinsel in the whole volume. The author is not afraid of what is homely, provided it be true ; and in this peculiarity of his genius, or rather in this manly and sincere taste, he reminds us of the older poets of the English language, to whom we turn when wearied with the artificial graces of modern verse.

" These poems are either descriptive or meditative, and of each the author has given us successful examples. Of the first, 'The Assabet Brook and River' and 'The Morn- ing, Noon, and Night of a Summer's Day ' are among the most remarkable. As a specimen of the other class, we extract the following, not because it is the best, but because it shows the author's power of investing a not very promis- ing subject with beauty." [Mr. Bryant concludes the notice by quoting in full the poem " To Louis Comaro."]

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