324 News from Parnassus,. .No. XI. [Nov. 1, 
“ And's merry sport when harvest came 
again.” 
“ And well’s he knows, with ceremony 
kind.” 
“ While I, as unconcern’d, went soodling 
on.” 
“ He heard the tootling robin sound her 
knell.” 
“ If yah set any store by one yah will.” 
16 How he to scape shool'd many a pace 
beyond.” 
We leave it to the sober judgment of 
our readers, to decide, whether these, 
though indisputable, are desirable addi¬ 
tions to our language. We may per¬ 
haps be told, that a Glossary is annexed 
to the book ; but this does not alter our 
view of the subject. If the example of 
Burns, Ramsay, Ferguson, or other 
Scottish poets he pleaded, we answer, 
that they employed a dialect in general 
use through an entire country., and not 
the mere patois of a small district. If 
the peculiar phraseology of the Nor¬ 
thamptonshire rustics is to be licensed 
in poetry, we see no reason why that of 
Lancashire, Somersetshire, and other 
counties should not be allowed an equal 
currency ; and thus our language would 
be surprisingly enriched, by the legiti¬ 
mization of all the varieties of speech 
in use among the canaille throughout 
the kingdom. 
Our surprise is not uufrequently ex¬ 
cited, by meeting with lines whose 
weakness Can scarcely he exceeded. 
“ As grinning north winds horribly did 
blow. 
And pepper’d o’er my head their hail and 
snow.” 
tc Last spring he was living, but now he’s 
no more !” 
The following effusions of filial affec¬ 
tion may perhaps do honour to the 
heart ot the writer, but certainly reflect 
little credit on his muse. 
“Bless thee, my father! thou'st been kind 
to me, 
And God, who saw it, will be kind to thee.” 
“ My mother too, thy kindness shall be 
' met, 
And e’er I’m able, will I pay the debt ; 
For wbat thou’st done, and what gone 
through for me. 
My last earn’d sixpence will I break with 
thee.” 
The annexed instances, as well as 
numerous others, of“ vile alliteration,''’ 
are likewise to us, who tire no admirers 
of that figure ol speech, a strong im¬ 
peachment of the author's good taste. 
“ While maidens fair, with bosoms bare , 
Go coolly to their cows'' 
“ Now wenches listen^ and let lovers lie, ,T 
“ Hay-makers hustlin om the rain to 
hide." 
“ Keep off the bothering bustle of the 
wind.” 
We trust our readers will readily 
perceive that the above strictures have 
not been dictated by a spirit of fastidi¬ 
ous or splenetic criticism; they have 
been prompted solely by a wish to res¬ 
cue our literature from the inroads 
attempted to be made upon it by false 
taste or mistaken benevolence. It is 
with real pleasure that we turn from 
tiiis unwelcome part of our task, to 
point out some favourable specimens of 
the native talent which we have already 
said the author possesses, and tvhich 
would, we doubt not, in other circum¬ 
stances than those in which he has 
been placed, have developed themselves 
to much greater advantage. 
The following apostrophe possesses 
considerable spirit, and unfortunately 
contains but too much truth. 
“ O England, boasted land of liberty, 
With strangers, still thou mayst thy title 
own, 
But thy poor slaves the alteration see, 
With many a loss to them the truth is 
known : 
Like emigrating bird thy freedom’s flown, 
While mongrel clowns, low as their root¬ 
ing plough, 
Disdain thy laws to put in force their own; 
And every village owns its tyrants now, 
And parish slaves must live as parish kings 
allow.” 
In his invocation to poverty, the au¬ 
thor has evidently written from the 
genuine impulse of his feelings, and has 
embodied them in a manner that can 
hardly fail to excite the sympathy of 
every reader not destitute of sensibility. 
“ O Poverty ! thy frowns were early dealt 
O’er him who mourn’d thee, not by fancy 
led, 
To whine and wail o’er woes he never felt, 
Staining his rhymes with tears he never 
shed, 
And heaving sighs a mock song only 
bred:— 
Alas! he knew too much of every pain, 
That show er’d full thick on his unshel¬ 
ter'd head, 
And, as his tears and sighs did erst com¬ 
plain, 
His numbers took it up, and wept it o’er 
again.” 
Ill our opinion, however, the writer 
of tlie present collection has excelled 
in his sonnets more than in any other 
species of composition that he has at¬ 
tempted. The second volume contains 
upwards of fifty of these short poems, 
many 
