Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/34

 26 INTRODUCTION

tortured strains of some English versifiers and the puerile repetitions of others to these beautiful poems. Their phi- losophy is lofty, but not cold. We feel that we are with one who has loved and suffered much, but whose sorrow has only made him love his race the more.

" It is hard to select particular pieces from this collec- tion for especial praise, because almost all, both in power and finish, stand far above the recent poems of the day. The ' Lament of Orpheus,' a new treatment of an old subject, is finely conceived. It is written in an original metre of great beauty, and the effect is increased still more by the cumulative structure of the verse. But, if any one piece were to be selected as the great poem of the book, it would be the 'Ode to Conscience.' This rises to absolute grandeur. Its searching keenness pierces all disguise. It deserves to stand side by side with Derz- havin's ' Ode to God,' and the very best poems of Mr, Bryant.

" The narrow limits of a newspaper criticism, however, allow no space for an analysis of this most interesting book. If these words shall induce any lover of poetry to read it, he will assuredly find that worth about which the author so modestly doubts.

"We are tempted to look back to the day when, printed on coarse paper and bound in pamphlet form, the poems of Mr. Bryant were first given to the world. Time has at length arrayed them in a finer dress. No skill of the en- graver or the binder is now deemed too good to be used in adorning them. Worth has at length found them out. Perhaps the judgment of time will draw these little poems, also, from their retirement, and clothe them, too, in purple and fine linen. To one who reads them attentively, such a fate cannot seem strange, while by one who studies them it is almost to be anticipated."

�� �