We compare her with those great poets, though we have read her preface and see how sincerely she deprecates any such comparison, not merely because her theme is the same as theirs, but because, as we must again repeat, her field of vision and nobleness of conception are such, that we cannot forbear trying her by the same high standard to see what she lacks. Of the "Drama of Exile" and other poems of the same character, we may say that we shall never read them again, but we are very glad to have read them once, to see how the grand mysteries look to her, to share with her the conception and outline of what would, in the hands of a more powerful artist, have come forth a great poem. Our favorite, above anything we have read of hers, is the " Rhyme of the Duchess May," equally admirable in thought and execution, in poetic meaning and romantic grace. Were there room here, it should be inserted, as a sufficient evidence of the writer's high claims; but it is too long, and does not well bear being broken. The touches throughout are fine and forcible, but they need the unison of the whole to give them their due effect. Most of these poems have great originality in the thought and the motive powers. It is these, we suppose, that have made "The Brown Rosarie" so popular. It has long been handed about in manuscript, and hours have been spent in copying it, which would have been spared if the publication of these volumes in America had been expected so soon. It does not please us so well as many of the others. The following, for instance, is just as original, full of grace, and, almost, perfectly simple: THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST.* How sweetly natural! and how distinct is the picture of the * Several poems mentioned in these articles, and published in the first instance, are omitted now on account of their length. little girl, as she sits by the brook. The poem cannot fail to charm all who have treasured the precious memories of their own childhood, and remember how romance was there interwoven with reality. Miss Barrett makes many most fair and distinct pictures, such as this of the Duchess May at the fatal moment when her lord's fortress was giving way : Low she dropt her head and lower, till her hair coiled on the floor. And tear after tear you heard, fall distinct as any word Which you might be listening for. "Get thee in, thou soft ladie!-here is never a place for thee." "Braid thy hair and clasp thy gown, that thy beauty in its moan She stood up in bitter case, with a pale yet steady face, Toll slowly! Like a statue thunderstruck, which, though quivering, seems to look And her feet trod in, with pride, her own tears i' the stone beside. Toll slowly! Go to, faithful friends, go to !—Judge no more what ladies do, and so on. There are passages in that poem beyond praise. Here are descriptions as fine of another sort of person from LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP. Her foot upon the new-mown grass—bareheaded—with the flowing With a branch of dewy maple, which her right hand held above her, For her eyes alone smiled constantly: her lips had serious sweetness, How fine are both the descriptive and critical touches in the following passage: Ay, and sometimes on the hill-side, while we sat down in the gowans, With the forest green behind us, and its shadow cast before; And the river running under; and across it, from the rowens, There, obedient to her praying, did I-read aloud the poems Or at times a modern volume-Wordsworth's solemn-thoughted idyl, Or from Browning some "Pomegranate," which, if cut deep down the middle, Or I read there, sometimes, hoarsely, some new poem of my making— Oh, your poets never read their own best verses to their worth, For the echo, in you, breaks upon the words which you are speaking, After, when we were grown tired of books, the silence round us flinging Oh, to see or hear her singing! scarce I know which is divinest For her looks sing too-she modulates her gestures on the tune; And her mouth stirs with the song, like song; and when the notes are finest, "Tis the eyes that shoot out vocal light, and seem to swell them on. Then we talked-oh, how we talked! her voice so cadenced in the talking, Made another singing-of the soul! a music without bars— While the leafy sounds of woodlands, humming round where we were walking, Brought interposition worthy-sweet,- -as skies about the stars. And she spake such good thoughts natural, as if she always thought them— Just as ready to fly east as west, which ever way besought them, In her utmost lightness there is truth-and often she speaks lightly; We must copy yet one other poem to give some idea of the range of Miss Barrett's power. THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN. If it be said that the poetry, the tragedy here is in the facts, yet how rare is it to find a mind that can both feel and upbear such facts. We have already said, that, as a poet, Miss Barrett is deficient in plastic energy, and that she is diffuse. We must add many blemishes of overstrained and constrained thought and expression. The ways in which words are coined or forced from their habitual meanings does not carry its excuse with it. We find no gain that compensates the loss of elegance and simplicity. One practice which has already had its censors of using the adjective for the noun, as in the cases of "The cry of the Human," Leaning from the Golden," we, also, find offensive, not only to the habitual tastes, but to the sympathies of the very mood awakened by the writer. We hear that she has long been an invalid, and, while the knowledge of this increases admiration for her achievements and delight at the extent of the influence,-so much light flowing from the darkness of the sick room,-we seem to trace injurious results, too. There is often a want of pliant and glowing life. The sun does not always warm the marble. We have spoken of the great book culture of this mind. We must now say that this culture is too great in proportion to that it has received from actual life. The lore is not always assimilated to the new form; the illustrations sometimes impede the attention rather than help its course; and we are too much and too often reminded of other minds and other lives. Great variety of metres are used, and with force and facility. But they have not that deep music which belongs to metres which are the native growth of the poet's mind. In that case, others may have used them, but we feel that, if they had not, he must have invented them; that they are original with him. Miss Barrett is more favoured by the grand and thoughtful, than by the lyric muse. We have thus pointed out all the faults we could find in Miss Barrett, feeling that her strength and nobleness deserves this act of high respect. She has no need of leniency, or caution. The best comment upon such critiques may be made by subjoining this paragraph from her Preface: "If it were not presumptuous language on the lips of one to whom life is more than usually uncertain, my favourite wish for this work would be, that it be received by the public as a deposite, ambitious of approaching to the nature of a security for a future offering of more value and acceptability. I would fain do better, and I feel as if I might do better: I aspire to do better. In any case, my poems, while full of faults, as I go forward to my critics and confess, have my life and heart in them. They are not empty shells. If it must be said of me that I have contributed unworthy verses, I also to the many rejected by the age, it cannot, at least be said that I have done so in a light or irresponsible spirit. Poetry has been as serious a thing to me as life itself; and life has been a very serious thing; there has been no playing at skittles for me in either. I never mistook pleasure for the final cause of poetry; nor leisure, for the hour of the poet. I have done my work, so far, as work; not as mere hand and head work apart from the personal being, but as the completest expression of that being to which I could attain; and, as work, I offer it to the public, feeling its faultiness more deeply than any of my readers, because measured from the height of my aspiration, but feeling also that the reverence and sincerity with which the work was done should protect it in the thoughts of the reverent and sincere." |