130 Observations on a malignant Criticism on the Columbiad. (March 1, 
Thine be the joys that minds immortal 
grace, 
As thine the deeds that bless a kindred race. 
Now raise thy sorrowed soul to views more 
bright, 
The vision’d ages rushing on thy sight: 
Werlds, beyund worlds, shall bring to light 
their stores, 
Ties nature, science, blend their utmost 
‘powers ; 
To Ane: concentred in one blaze of fame, 
Th’ ungatherd glories that await tay 
name : 
As that great seer, whose animating rod 
Taught “Jacob? s sons their wonder-working 
«God, 
Who led enough dreary wastes the murmur- 
ing band, 
And reached the confines of the Promised. 
Land 5 
Opprest with years, from Pisgah’s towering 
height, 
On fruitful Canaan feasted long his sight 5 
The bliss of unborn nations warm’d his 
breast, 
Repaid his toils, and sooth’d his soul to rest : 
Thus o'er thy subject wave shait thou be- 
hold 
Far pee realms their future charms ua- 
fold s 
In nobler pomp another Pisgah rise, 
Beneath whose foct thy new-found Canaan 
lies, 
There, rapt in vision, hail my favourite 
clime, 
And tastethe blessings of remofest time.” 
He ascends with Columbus to an emi- 
nence above the loftiest of the Pyren- 
nees; and the Mount of Vision Is pour- 
paved with the most expansive and mag- 
nificent efforts of F poetical description : 
‘¢ Led by the Power, the hero gained the 
height, 
New strength and brilliance fiush’d his mortal 
sight, 
When calm before them flowed the western 
main, 
Far stretched, immense, a sky-encircled 
plain : ’ 
‘No sail, no isle, no — invests the 
bound, 
Nor billowy surze Giant the vast pro- 
found} 
"Till, deep in distant heavens, the sen’s ulae 
ray 
“Topt unknown cliffs, and cailed them upto 
day 3 . 
Slow glimmering into sight, wide regions 
crews, 4 
And rose and brighten’d to the expanding 
view 5 
“Fair sweep the waves, the lessening OS08 
smiles 
I misty radiance loom.a thousand istes 5 
Near and more near, the long-drawn coas‘s 
arise, 
Bays stretch their arms, and mountains lift 
the skies ; 
The lakes high-mounded point the streams. 
their way, 
Slopes, ridges, plains, their spreading skirts 
display, 
The vales branch forth, high walk the ap- 
proaching groves, 
And all the majesty of Nature moves.” 
Ilesper, by the exertion of his super- 
nal power, presents to the eyes of Co- 
Jumbus the whcle of the vast and diver- 
sified extent of the northern and southern: 
regions of America, which are depicted — 
through the medium of her guardian deity, 
with an incomparable felicity and gran-. 
deur of poetic expression. ‘T would se- 
lect the descriptions of the Lakes Erie- 
and Superior, the rivers Maragnon, Lau-_ 
rence, and Missisippi,as the most resplen- 
dent instances of the facility and gigan- 
tic energies of Mr. Barlow’s muse. In 
lis delineation of those noble streams, : 
there is a bold and surging tide of verse, 
strongly imitative of the swelling waves: 
and resistiess current of the ocean, like 
rivers of the New World, and which will) 
not suffer in competition with the subli- 
mest efforts of any poet with whom we. 
are acquainted (not excepting Milton,) 
froin the remotest ages of antiquity to 
the present period: its length will not 
admit of insertion ; but in the ensuing pa- 
pers upon this beautiful production, Bb. 
shail indulge myself in the transcription 
of such passages as appear to form 
conspicuous features in the general plan. 
of the poem. In the mean time, the 
apostrophe from the illustrious Drake, and. 
the rapturous address of Columbus to 
Hesper, in which, prompted by a burst. 
of enthusiasm on the view of the straits 
of Magellan, and recalling to memory his 
long and fondly-cherished idea of the 
existence of a western passage to the 
shores of India, he beseeches Hesper to re- 
store the vigour of his youth, and shelter 
him from. the rage of tyranny, in some 
of the delightful and yet undiscovered 
fountries of the new continent, are too 
interesting not to claim the immediate 
atiention of your readers. 
*t Where the cold circles gird the southern. 
ok 
yy SAS 
| Brave Magellan’s wild channel caught his 
eyes ? ; Pe 
The loug cleft-ridges walled the spreading: 
‘Ways 1G ts 
Gyat gleume fay westward to an unknowa 
ote s 
Soon 
