AMERICAN. 311 



Queen Mary ; Mellen's Bugle ; Dawes's Spirit of Beauty ; Pier- 

 pont's Mrs of Palestine; and Longfellow's Voices of the Night; 

 as worthy specimens of poetry, chiefly lyrical. 



Of American descriptive, and didactic poetry, one of the oldest 

 specimens is Folger's Looking Glass for the Times, written as early 

 as 1676. Wiggles worth's Day of Doom, created a strong sensation ; 

 but Godfrey's Court of Fancy, attracted little notice. R. T. Paine's 

 Invention of Letters ; Linn's Powers of Genius, and Valerian ; and 

 Lathrop's Vision of Canonicus, are valuable works. Dr. Dwight's 

 Greenfield Hill, is a beautiful poem of this class. Barlow's Hasty 

 Pudding, and his Conspiracy of the Kings, are, we believe, of a 

 satirical or political character. Livingston's Philosophical Solitude, 

 has met with little notice. Trumbull's Progress of Dullness, and 

 Dwight's Triumph of Infidelity, are satirical poems of a high cha- 

 racter. Osborne's Thanksgiving, is a touching description of that 

 social New England festival. Mrs. Sigourney's Zinzendorf, relates 

 to a nobleman of that name who became a Moravian Missionary to 

 the Indians. Hillhouse's Vision of Judgment, and Mellen's Mar- 

 tyr's Triumph, are sublime productipns ; and Bryant's Jlges, 

 exhibits the power and purity of its author. Percival's Voyage 

 of Life, and Consumption, are also excellent. Lunt's poem on 

 Life, and Bacon's on Man, are, we think, worthy of mention. Of 

 Romantic poems, we would name Percival's Wreck, his Prometheus, 

 and The Suicide ; Halleck's Fanny and Mnwick Castle ; Drake's 

 Culprit Fay; Willis's Mclanie; Dawes's Geraldine ; Mitchell's 

 Indecision; Miss Davidson's Amir Khan; and, we believe, Dana's 

 Bucaneer, Whittier's Minstrel Girl, and Sand's Yamoyden. Eve- 

 rest's Babylon; Hill's Ruins oj "Athens ; and Rees's Battle of 

 Saratoga; are, we believe, descriptive poems. Several of Willis's 

 scriptural poems, as JephthaWs Daughter, and Hagar in the Wil- 

 derness, are beautifully descriptive and didactic ; and this character 

 belongs generally to the poems of Mrs. Sigourney and Bryant. 



Of American dramatic poetry, the first specimen was probably the 

 Prince of Parthia, by Thomas Godfrey, Jr. ; and next to it was 

 Leecock's Disappointment, a comic opera, printed in 1767. Mrs. 

 M. Warren, of Boston, wrote The Mulateur, The Group, T7ie 

 Blockheads, and The Motley Assembly ; political plays, during the 

 Revolution. Her tragedies, the Sack of Rome, and the Ladies of 

 Castile, we believe, were written at a later date. W. Dunlap wrote 

 or translated nearly fifty pieces, including The Archers of Switzer- 

 land, the Voice of Nature, and Andre, a tragedy, founded on the fate 

 of Major Andre. Colonel Humphreys wrote the Widow of Mala- 

 bar, a tragedy, from the French ; and Rev. John Blair Linn wrote 

 Bourville Castle, and we believe other dramatic pieces. We must 

 not omit to notice Lathy's Reparation, a comedy ; D. Everett's 

 Daranzel; W. Jones's Independence; W. C. White's Clergyman's 

 Daughter, and Poor Lodger ; J. N. Baker's Marmion, and Su- 

 perstition; C. J. Ingersoll's tragedies, Edwy and Elgiva, and Ju- 

 lian; and D. P. Brown's Sertorius, and Prophet of St. Paul 1 8. 

 Among other works of merit are Willis's Tortesa, the Usurer ; 



