1821.] News from Parnasnus. — No. IF. 



that style of versification, of which we 

 find in the Lycidiis of Milton the most 

 heautifu! example. We shall next 

 select one of the invocalions of the 

 NympholepI, which is conceived in a 

 high strain of enthusiasm. 



*' O mother Earth, thou grave, most dread 



and dumb, 

 Of countless races of mysterious man. 

 With all his hopes and fears since time 



began ; 

 Thou cradle of eternity to come. 

 With all its world of wonders, undivulged. 

 Thee I invoke ! 



Thee, by the myriad embryos that reside 

 III thy vast bosom, waiting- auimatiou, 

 With future fruits and harvests by their 



side, 

 Food of a yet unorajanis'd creation ; 

 Thee, by the acorn which a breath may 



blow 

 From its carv'd cup upon thy nursing lap, 

 Rock'd by the breath of ages, till it grow 

 A rooted g'iant, frowning at the blast. 

 And shake not at the roaring thunder-clap : 

 Thee, by the trembling violet, which eyes 

 The sun but once, and unrepiuing dies : 

 Thee, by that sun, whose eye as bright as 



ever 

 Saw Thee upheave from Chaos, and shall 



burn 

 Undimm'd when all thy teguments shall 



sever 

 And to their primeval elements return. 

 By all the winds that rustle in thy woods 

 To chime of piping beaks and bleating 



sheep ; 

 By the dead silence of thy solitudes. 

 And the ucwhisperM secrets of the deep. 

 Thee I invoke ! 



By the delicious summer evenings 

 Diffusing peace o'er all thy green expanse ; 

 By the earthquake's rumbling agony, that 



ilings 



Horror on every living countenance 



Earth, I invoke thee!" 



As a specimen of i-ie andior's powers 



233 



in a lighter style, we subjoin a song of 

 Amarynthns : 



" Come, Shepherdess, O come, 

 Amid the houghs and greenness live with me ; 



Birds shall sing and bees shall hum 

 To welcome thee wltli nature's minstrelsy. 



No peering ray shall glisten 

 Through the thick leaves upon the mossy 

 green 

 Where thou shalt lie 

 When the sun is high, 

 And to the wing'd musicians listen 

 That hop about unseen. 



While I beside thee laid, 

 >\'ill carve thy name on the o'crhanging 

 tfecs 



Or lissum osier's braid. 

 To make thee baskets for wild si i"ot berries; 



Moj/THLv Mag. No. 3'>2. 



Or fetch thee from the brook 

 Lillies, to make a garland for thy locks ; 



Or carve a curious crook. 

 Or willow wattles twist to fold thy flocks. 



When the red setting sun 

 Behind the buruish'd sycamores is seen, 



Whose shadov/s long and dun 

 Streak with dark brown the grass's golden 

 green. 



We'll stand beside the bushes 



To listen to the thrushes, 

 As in the glowing leaves they tell their tale, 



Or in the moonlight flushes 



Catch the passionate gushes 

 Of the enamour'd thriiUng nightingale. 



By Phcebe's lamp on high, 



And the glow-worm's twinkling nigh, 

 Home thro' the silver leafiness we'll stray. 



And in ourbower lie 

 On beds of rushes, flowers, and new mown 

 hay. 



And should the storm be loud, 

 We will but clasp the closer in our nest ; 



For tempests cannot cloud 

 Tlie calm that keeps a sunshine in the bi-east. 



These extiacts will suffice to justify 

 the favonrable opinion we have before 

 expressed, and the work abounds in 

 passages of equal merit. In an under- 

 taking of this sort, it requires a nice 

 liand to hold the balance even between 

 the siniplicity appropriate to the sub- 

 jfct, and tiie vnlgarily upon which it is 

 occasionally compelled to Iwrder. In 

 this the author has succeeded, with 

 some exceptions, which are, however, 

 so few as hardly to deserve mention. 



A greater hazard he has wilfully ex- 

 posed liimself to in provoking a direct 

 comparison with one of the finest parts 

 of Comus, the dialogue between the 

 Lady and the Magician. The effort is 

 in itself well suslained, but it is bad 

 policy to measure strength with a rival 

 from whom notliing but defeat is to be 

 expected. 



To sum up our opinion of the poem, 

 we have no hesitation in saying, that it 

 breathes in many places a highly en- 

 tluisiastic feeling, and exhibits such an 

 easy play of fancy and felicity of ex- 

 pression, as caimot fail to secure it a 

 prominent station in that class of com- 

 position in which it aspires to rank. 



Besides the Pastoral Drama, tlie vo- 

 lume contiiins a talc, called Lucy Mil- 

 ford, founded on the unfortunate at- 

 tachment of two youlliful lovers, whose 

 union is tliwarted by the sudden con- 

 version of the larly's father to the doc- 

 ( riues of methodism. Tl:c yonng man 

 goes to sea, and is wrecked on his re- 

 2 F turn. 



