LIFE OF WILSON. cxvii 



events, must be obvious to many of the readers of this poem, who are ac- 

 quainted with the author's talents for description, and his appropriate diction, 

 of which we are presented with examples in his letters and his Ornithology. 

 On first reading this production such was my impression, and a reperusal has 

 not induced me to change my opinion. 

 In his exordium he is not very happy : 



" Sons of the city ! ye whom crowds and noise 

 Bereave of peace, and Nature's rural joys." 



The noise of a crowded city may bereave its inhabitants of peace, but it is dif- 

 ficult to conceive how it can have a tendency to deprive them of the delights 

 of the country. 



In the account of his companions and himself he is too circumstantial, 

 details of this kind correspond not well with the dignity of poetry : 



"An oilskin covering glittered round his head." 

 "A knapsack crammed by Friendship's generous care 

 With cakes and cordials, drams and dainty fare ; 

 Flasks filled with powder, leathern belts with shot, 

 Clothes, colors, paper, pencils, — and what not." 



Also in another place : 



" Full loaded peach trees drooping hung around, 

 Their mellow fruit thick scattered o'er the ground ; 

 Six cents procured us a sufficient store. 

 Our napkins crammed and pockets running o^er." 



Many of his rhymes are bad, particularly in the latter part of the poem, 

 from the carelessness of the composition of which, one is led to conjecture that 

 he was weary of his protracted labor. We have tale and smile; sent and 

 want ; blest and past ; bespread and clad; and many other similar imperfec- 

 tions. 



The conclusion of the poem is a specimen of slovenly and inaccurate com- 

 position : 



" And when some short and broken slumbers came 

 Still round us roaring swept th' outrageous stream; 

 Whelmed in the deep we sunk engulfed, forlorn ; 

 Or down the dreadful rapids helpless borne ; 

 Groaning we start 1 and at the loudening war, 

 Ask our bewildered senses where we are." 



In common with those who are ignorant of naval aifairs, he commits a 

 blunder in the use of the technical term main-sheet, mistaking it for a sail : 



" They trim their thundering sail. 



The boom and main-sheet bending to the gale." 



The main-sheet is the rope by means of which the boom is governed, either 

 eased off, or drawn in, as suits the state of the wind. 



