LIFE OF WILSON. 
clxxxvii 
poem, from the carelessness of the composition of which one is led 
to conjecture that he was weary of his protracted labour. We 
hawQ tale smile ; sent ivant ; and past; bespread and 
clad ; and many other similar imperfections. 
The conclusion of the poem is a specimen of slovenly and 
inaccurate composition : 
“ And when some short and broken slumbers came 
“ Still round us roaring swept th’ outrageous stream ; 
“ Whelm’d in the deep we sunk, engulf'd, forlorn ; 
Or down the dreadful rapids helpless borne; 
“ Groaning we start ! and, at the loudening war. 
Ask our bewilder’d senses where we are." 
In common with those who are ignorant of naval affairs, he com- 
mits a blunder in the use of the technical term main^sheet, mistak- 
ing 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 govern- 
ed, either eased off, or drawn in, as suits the state of the wind. 
In a poem consisting of more than two thousand lines, it 
would be strange if some touches of excellence could not be found, 
some passages which prove that the author not only possessed poet- 
ical ideas, but also was familiar with the art of poetical expression. 
In his description of the calm, smoky, autumnal weather, which, in 
America, is usually denominated the Indian Summer, we are pre- 
sented with a beautiful image, which I do not recollect to have 
seen elsewhere : 
“ Slow sailed the thistle-down along the lawn.” 
