PRESUMPTUOUS POETRY.* 



THE world never produced shall we except Shakspeare ? a 

 greater man than John Milton. And yet, we believe, that even at 

 this day the English poet is very little known by his countrymen. 

 Accordingly, whenever a new poem appears, purporting to be of a 

 religious nature, we constantly find that our modern critics make a 

 present of his name to the new poet ; congratulate themselves on 

 their shew of reading ; and rely, confidently enough, on the credu- 

 lity of the modern book-buying world. Thus, a few years ago, we 

 had Mr. Milton Montgomery, whom, it appears, the present age has ^ 

 already left to the more cool award of posterity ; and now, it seems, 

 Mr. Heraud is come with a very important and imposing appearance 

 to assert his claims to the same honour. " I have as much right to | 

 be here as you have/' he seems to say, in the words of the man about/ 

 to be hanged, to his rival, as he stands beside him on the banks of the T 

 Lethean lake ; and truly, when we look upon the ponderous per- 

 formance before us, we are hardly disposed to question his title. 



In truth, upon the present occasion, another deceit has been at- 

 tempted to be played off upon us by some of our modern critics. Ano- 

 ther pasteboard watchcase, made for the hour, has been converted by 

 this magnifying medium, into a Westminster- Abbey. We are cu- 

 rious to behold the new leviathan in poetic literature we expect his 

 appearance, we hail his approach we draw nearer we examine 

 we touch, and lo ! encrusted with an amiable self conceit, protected 

 by a testaceous covering of compressed variety, a Milton oyster ! 



It is not to be doubted or denied that an attempt to present the 

 modern world with a second epic, is one of no common difficulty and 

 danger. We cannot conceive a man, even of the very highest powers, 

 contemplating such a work without feeling that he is about to en- 

 counter no small share of the one, and is bound to overcome no or- 

 dinary degree of the other. Mr. Heraud truly says that " few are 

 the minds capable of appreciating an endeavour so difficult, yet laud- 

 able ;" but he will not be offended with us if we shew, to the best of our 

 ability, however incapable we may be of appreciating the endeavour, 

 that he has not succeeded in it. He will not deny, in many modern in- 

 stances, the Epopeia has been found to be a poppy and that the epic 

 has not seldom acted as Ipecacuhana, without, however, its benefi- 

 cial effects. 



When Salmoneus proposed to himself to imitate Jove's thunder, he 

 found it necessary to call into requisition a vast deal of brass ; and 

 we have no doubt that he made a great noise in his time, and 

 by the aid of critics was led to believe himself a mighty clever fel- 

 low ; in like manner, supplied with a sufficient stock of brass, Mr. 

 Heraud seems to have set about emulating the thunder of Milton. 



" The Judgment of the Flood. By John A. Heraud. London, 1834. 



