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MRS. HEMANS. 



The writings of Mrs. Hemans have been so justly 

 estimated, that any praise of ours can be Httle more 

 than an echo of the pubUc voice. Her poetry, so 

 full of deep sentiment, so pure, and elevating, calls 

 up images and emotions, like those v^ith which we 

 view the briUiancy of the evening star in the stillness 

 of a summer night. It alhes itself to every thing 

 belonging to the better part of our nature. Her 

 poems, indeed, are of unequal merit. In some of 

 them, as the Voice of Spring, and the Revellers, the 

 conception is so imaginative, and there is such free- 

 ^ dom of execution, that they approach nearer than 

 almost any other poetry, to giving in words the very 

 forms of thought and imagination. The imperfection 

 of language, the embarrassments of versification, all 

 that is material and mechanical disappears ; and the 

 vision floats before us "an aery stream." There is a 

 correspondence of all the parts, contributing to a 

 common effect ; the flow and expression of the lan- 

 guage is in accordance with the thought and senti- 

 ment ; and the right tone of feeling, true to nature 

 and virtue, is heard throughout, without failure or 

 exaggeration. With this unbroken unity of charac- 

 ter, her finer poems " discourse most eloquent music." 

 The charm is found equally in others, very different 

 from the two just mentioned. It appears, for 

 instance, in the verses on a dead infant, suggested 

 by one of Chantrey's statues, beginning, "Thou 

 sleepest ; but when wilt thou wake, fair child ? " 

 The marble of Chantrey can hardly have more of 

 calm, monumental, melancholy beauty than these 

 lines. It appears again in the dreamy and shadowy 

 flow of images through her Elysium, over which is 

 diffused so much truth and tenderness of feeling ; 

 in the rapid and strong conception, and lofty senti- 

 ment of her Pilgrim Fathers ; in the solemn and 

 gloomy grandeur of her Treasures of the Deep ; in 

 her magnificent reply to the question, Where slumber 



