THE AUTHOR OF "DARTMOOR. * oy 



JLuxuriant southern bank, appears, unbailed 

 By him ; nor in the high and clust'ring hedge 

 Does Flora plant the flow'r that gives the wind 

 Its odour, that sweet honeysuckle, which 

 Is fair as fragrant, but his well-pleased eye 

 Acknowledges its charms. Intent to mark 

 Each object thus, delighted to survey 

 Those forms and hues which Nature ever shows 

 In infinite display. " 



Having thus far alluded to the merits of Carrington 

 ill the poem under consideration, it is the duty of can- 

 did criticism to notice his faults : these lie, not in the 

 spirit of the work, nor in the ideas of the man, but in 

 the» execution — the mechanical part — ^of his produc- 

 tion : they were not the result of negligence, nor want 

 of care, but originated in his wanting the practice, 

 experience and judgment which he subsequently 

 acquired. 



There are passages in the " Canks of Tamar" which 

 might be read as plain prose by the transposition of 

 one or two words, and even without this in some 

 cases, ex, gr. : — 



" Though the hand 

 Of boastful, spruce and calculating art 

 Has here no level and right-angled streets, 

 And traces here no long unbroken lines 

 Of buildings uniform : '^ p. 28. 



This becomes plain prose by merely transposing the 

 last two words. Again : — 



"The hand 

 Of skill and dauntless perseverance has 

 Pierced the mountain side, and led the stream 

 Of Tavy through the cavern." 



Let this be printed as prose, and no one would ever 

 suppose it had been intended for blank verse. 



Several epithets and expressions might be pointed 

 out, the propriety of which is liable to question, at all 

 events they might have been avoided by varying the 

 phrases, or remodelling the sentences in which they 

 occur. Instance — 



" Where sheets of verdure rolled, vile rubbish meets 

 The eye disgusted." p. 39 



VOL. II. — 1833. M 



