564 
POETRY. 
Arr. XXIII. Petrarca: a Collection of Sonnets from various Authors; with an Ins 
troductory Dissertation on the Qrigin and Structure of the Sonnet. By GeorGe Hen- 
_DERSON, 12mo. pp. 192. 
THERE is no artifice employed by 
the book manufacturers of this age of 
commercial speculation, which calls 
more loudly for critical reprehension 
than the immoderate use of compila- 
tion and selection. By this nefarious 
practice the original author is defrauded 
of the hard-earned recompence of genius 
—the public is tricked into repeated 
purchases of the same thing under dif- 
ferent titles—and the literary profes- 
sion is degraded intw a system of scarce- 
ly-legal robbery. 
The gleaner of the present collection 
introduces it by the following admirably- 
constructed sentence: “ It certainly may 
not be deemed the least presumptuous 
undertaking in any one who shall attempt 
to point ‘out to public regard the beau- 
ties of others.” Jn his case, however, 
his humility ‘considers it as singularly 
fortunate, that the possibility of his mus- 
taking in judgment “ has been almost 
prevented by the earlier decision of one 
who in like matters seldom errs,—the 
public.” That is, the volumes froin 
which he pilfers are in every body’s 
hands. Could any ill-natured critic 
have demonstrated more clearly the in- 
utility of his book? Mr. Southey it 
Art. XXIV. 
PREMISING that divine poeta isto be 
literally rendered poetic divine, weaddress 
_Dr. Booker in the words of Virgil— 
seems was hard-hearted enough not to 
comply with the collector’s desire of 
“ enriching” his * book” (or himself) 
with a few of his admired sonnets. Pro- 
bably that gentleman conceived that the 
consent of the public ought to be ob- 
tained as well ashis own: an idea which 
seems to have escaped several others 
who are mentioned as consenting to the 
reprinting of their productions. The 
« dissertation’”’ is penned in a style be- 
neath criticism, but extremely pompous 
and evidently laboured. As to the son- 
nets themselves, a few of them are good, 
good at least for sonnets,which at best are 
but stiff difficult trifles, and surely more 
remote from the simplicity which they 
often affect than any other class of poems 
in our language. But the majority of 
them are little better than ravings of 
““ moon-struck melancholy,’’ aed by 
hysterical affectation, or drivelling inco- 
herencies, lisped by sentiment in a do- 
tage, than which nothing can be conceiv- 
ed more hostile to genuine poetry, manly 
sense, and that sensibility which strength- 
ens while it elevates the soul—which 
checks selfishness, adorms virtue, gives 
a zest to domestic privacy, and increases 
the sum of human happiness. 
Calista, a Picture of modern Life; a Poem, in three Parts. By Lust 
Booker, LL. D. 
4to. pp. 28. ny 
«« Tale tuum nolis carmen, divine Poeta, - 
*« Quale sopor.” 
Art. XXV. The Suicide, with otber Poems, by the Rev. C. W. Etuztston, M. A. 
Svo. pp. 150. ; 
_ WE cannot praise this book, It is 
unnecessary to notice faults, where there 
are no merits. The. sm of omission is 
deadly. 
ART. SAVI. Scenss of Youth, or rural Recollections; with other Poems. By Wirtiam 
' J 
Hot.ioway. 
THE publication of a second vclume 
indicates that Mr. Holloway has found 
purchasers for the first. His verses are 
- very respectable. _ We extract this little 
poem, not as the best, but as the 
shortest. 
«© Expostulation to a Bird started in a 
favourite Falk. 
<< Sweet native of this brake entaneled dell, 
Where, the last spring, I mark’d amid the 
boughs 
Svo. pp. 160. 
Thy pensile cradle wave, and heard the trill 
‘Of thy soft mother’s kind attentive spouse, 
Who took his stand upon the hedge-row 
green, } n 
To watch the school-boy's wild and wane 
d'ring steps : i, 
O startle not! no stranger to’this scene, 
With cruel heart, or hand felonious creeps. 
Here, where the moss climbs up the steepy 
bank, ‘i 
On whose soft bosom basking violets lie, 
And modest primroses, or cowslips lank, 
