323 
1821.] Clare's Village Min Mr el, and other Poems. 
44 If nought was seen he heard a squish 
squash sound.’’ 
44 While merrily the snuff went pinching 
round the ring*.” 
“ Yon parish huts, where want is shov'd to 
die.” 
“ Eat it all an’ she would, for she car'd not 
a pin. 
She'd other fish frying as then." 
If if; be urged that such language is 
appropriate to the subjects treated of, 
we reply, that subjects to which such 
language is best adapted, are not those 
' which a poet should have chosen ; or, 
if selected for the exercise of his nnise, 
he should have spoken of them in the 
dialect that 44 the muses love.'* When 
a writer who had submitted his produc¬ 
tion to the inspection of Voltaire, con¬ 
tended, in defence of some passage 
which the latter censured as low, that it 
was natural, the wit replied, 44 Avec 
permission , Monsieur , mon - est bien 
natureL et cependant je porte des cu¬ 
lottes." 
Another disadvantage attending the 
Village Minstrel, is, the involuntary 
‘comparison which it forces on the mind 
with the exquisite poem of Beattie ; a 
comparison that can hardly prove fa¬ 
vourable to the Northamptonshire bard. 
We do not allude to the plan of the 
poem, for Mr. Clare's Minstrel appears 
to he without any, and is composed 
principally of detached descriptions, 
most of which might change places with 
one another, without the reader’s being 
conscious of the alteration. But not 
only in the structure of the verse, hut 
in many imitative passages, we seem to 
perceive an attempt to present us in 
Lubin, with a species of travestie of 
our old acquaintance Edwin, and we 
cannot approve of the experiment. In¬ 
deed the author of the present collec¬ 
tion seems, on more than one occasion, 
to have lost sight of his ground, being 
previously occupied by those whom he 
could hardly expect to displace. We 
< could have dispensed witfi his verses on 
Solitude, after Grainger's Ode on the 
fsame subject; his 4 * Sorrows for the 
Death of a favourite Tabby Cat,” will 
Ihardly be sympathised in, by those who 
bear Gray’s Selirna in remembrance, 
and it is very unfortunate fc r his 44 Song 
to a City Girl,” that it can not be read 
'■without recalling to our minds the ini¬ 
mitable old bailad, 44 Oh, come with 
me, and he my love.” 
An allusion has already been made 
/to the productions of Burns aiul Bloom¬ 
field, In both these writers, Jthe defect 
of early education appears to have been 
in great measure supplied, in the for¬ 
mer by such natural abilities, as per¬ 
haps, with the exception of Shakspeare, 
scarcely any other man ever possessed ; 
and in the latter, there is strong rea¬ 
son to suspect, by the refining touches 
of the fostering hand, by which they 
were first presented to the public. But 
in the volumes before us, the conse¬ 
quences of this defect are perpetually 
visible. The author seems always in¬ 
capable of sustaining an equal flight; 
and hence, it we meet with a passage 
we are disposed to approve, it is fre¬ 
quently but an introduction to speci¬ 
mens of the bathos, which could not be 
exceeded by the citations t of the learned 
Scriblerus himself. For .example : 
44 O native scenes, nought to tny jiie.art 
clings nearer, 
Than you, ye Edens of my youthful hours, 
Nought in this world warms my affections 
dearer, 
Than you, ye plains of white and yellow 
fiou ers /” 
Tile following verses we have no he¬ 
sitation in pronouncing beautiful; in¬ 
deed it appears to us, that there are no 
others equal to them in the whole 
collection : 
iC I cannot pass the very bramble, weeping 
*Nealh dewy tear-drops that its spears 
surround, 
Like harlot’s mock’ry, on the wan cheek 
creeping, 
Gilding the poison that is meant to 
wound.” 
But would any one imagine, that 
the}' are almost immediately preceded, 
in the same piece, by such a line as, 
44 Winding the zig-zag lane, turning and 
turning ?” 
Again, speaking of the lark, Clare 
says, 
44 With day-break’s beauties I have much 
been taken , 
As thy first anthem breath’d its melody.’’ 
Can there be a greater contrast, than 
that between the richness and force of 
the latter of these two lines, and the 
feeble vulgarity of that which precedes 
it? 
We must likewise mark our strong 
disapprobation of the innovating style 
introduced in many parts of these 
volumes, by the employment of unau¬ 
thorised contractions, and the use of 
words that have hitherto been strangers 
alike to our prose and poetry. Take, 
out of many, the subjoined specimens. 
44 Aud then, for sake of's boys and wenches 
dear.” 
And's 
