286 NURSERY POETRY. 



their parents. If their grief could have been assuaged, it must have 

 been by the deep and general sympathy which all the country side 

 could not fail to have manifested at the melancholy catastrophe. 



The reader must have been struck with the absence of all meretri- 

 cious ornament in the poem to which I have called their attention. Any 

 other poet would, if the fact had not been really so, have represented 

 the occurrence as having taken place in a fine summer's morning or 

 evening, in order that he might have an opportunity of introducing 

 the usual common-places about "the melody of feathered choristers," 

 "gentle zephyrs," the golden radiance of the sun," &c. : supposing 

 that to interlard the incidents of the story with such glittering non- 

 sense as this would give it an additional effect. Our poet knew 

 better. He knew that what Thomson says in his "Seasons" of 

 female beauty holds equally true of poetry, namely, that 



- " It is, 

 When unadorned, adorned the most.'' 



Brevity is said to be the soul of wit ; it is the soul of poetry also. 

 The poet ought, above all things, to avoid what is called " spinning 

 out." It is the besetting sin of poets, the grand rock on which so 

 many thousands of them make shipwreck of their reputation. The 

 poem of " Jack and Gill" we commend in this respect to their spe- 

 cial attention. It constitutes an example which they ought to 

 follow. It contains as much in its four lines as is to be met with in 

 many a goodly-sized octavo. It has in it, as I have said and shown, 

 all the elements of a grand heroic poem. In other words, it is a 

 grand heroic poem. 



Who the author is, is not known. This is the greater pity, as he 

 is by that means deprived of the distinguished fame which his poem 

 must have ensured him. It is certain of immortality : so would the 

 author, had he been known. However, regrets on this head are 

 unavailing now. 



Dr. Johnson used to say that he would much rather have been 

 the author of the well-known ballad of "Chevy Chase" than of all 

 his own works put together. I am not as yet so voluminous a 

 writer as Dr. Johnson, nor am I sure that I stand quite so high in 

 the literary world ; but I certainly must say, that I would infinitely 

 rather be the author of the poem of " Jack and Gill," than of all 

 the works which have proceeded from my pen. Of this I am quite 

 certain, that nothing of mine will ever attain so extensive or lasting 

 a popularity. 



I trust I have said sufficient to raise the poem of " Jack and Gill" 

 to its proper rank in the world of poetry. There are other Nursery 

 Poems, for which I must do a similar service ; but time and space 

 admonish me to desist for the present. 



J. G. 



