MACDONALD-GERALD MASSEY. Under the pseudonym of Sydney Yendys' MR SYDNEY DOBELL has published several elaborate poetical works. He was born at Peckham Rye in 1824, but spent the greater part of his youth in the neighbourhood of Cheltenham, where his father was engaged in business as a wine-merchant. In his intervals of leisure the young poet-whose regular employment was in his father's countinghouse-contrived to write a dramatic poem, The Roman, published in 1850, and still the best of his works. In 1854 appeared Balder, Part the First; in 1855, Sonnets on the War, written in conjunction with Mr A. Smith; and in 1856, England in Time of War. A man of cultivated intellectual tastes and benevolence of character, Mr Dobell seems to have taken up some false or exaggerated theories of poetry and philosophy, and to have wasted fine thoughts and conceptions on uncongenial themes. The great error of our young poets consists in the want of simplicity and nature. They heap up images and sentiments, the ornaments of poetry, without aiming at order, consistency, and the natural development of passion or feeling. We have thus many beautiful and fanciful ideas, but few complete or correct poems. Part of this defect is no doubt to be attributed to the youth of the poets, for taste and judgment come slowly even where genius is abundant, but part also is due to neglect of the old masters of song. In Mr Dobell's first poem, however, are some passages of finished blank verse: [The Italian Brothers.] I had a brother, We were twin shoots from one dead stem. He grew Of fancies; neither laughed, nor fought, nor played, And when perchance I heard him called my brother, [The Ruins of Ancient Rome.] The hoar unconscious walls, bisson and bare, Wore out the stone, strange hermit birds croaked forth Rank weeds and grasses, Sweet pensive herbs, that had been gay elsewhere, The day has gone by when the public of this country could be justly charged with neglect of native genius. Any manifestation of original intellectual power bursting from obscurity is instantly recognised, fostered, and applauded. The ever-open periodical press is ready to welcome and proclaim the new-comer, and there is no lack of critics animated by a tolerant and generous spirit. In 1853 appeared Poems by ALEXANDER SMITH, the thirteen dramatic scenes, entitled A Life-Drama. principal piece in the collection being a series of The manuscript of this volume had been submitted to the Rev. George Gilfillan, and portions of it had been laid before the public by that enthusiastic critic, accompanied with a strong recommendation And from his icy hills the frequent wolf of the young author as a genuine poet of a high Gave chivalry to slaughter. Here and there order. Mr Smith (born in Kilmarnock in 1830) Rude heaps, that had been cities, clad the ground had been employed as a designer of patterns in one With history. And far and near, where grass of the Glasgow factories, but the publication of his Was greenest, and the unconscious goat browsed free, poems marked him out for higher things, and he The teeming soil was sown with desolations, was elected to the office of secretary to the EdinAs though Time-striding o'er the field he reaped-burgh University. Thus placed in a situation Warmed with the spoil, rich droppings for the gleaners Threw round his harvest way. Frieze, pedestal, Pillars that bore through years the weight of glory, And take their rest. Tombs, arches, monuments, Vainly set up to save a name, as though The eternal served the perishable; urns, Which winds had emptied of their dust, but left Full of their immortality. In shrouds Of reverent leaves, rich works of wondrous beauty He favourable for the cultivation of his talents, Mr and a fertile fancy that can form brilliant pictures. With diligent study, simplicity, distinctness, and vigour may be added. The following descriptive passages are sweet and tender: [Autumn.] The lark is singing in the blinding sky, It joined November's troop, then marching past; [Unrest and Childhood.] Unrest! unrest! The passion-panting sea O thou bright thing, fresh from the hand of God; MR GEORGE MACDONALD (born at Huntly in 1826) is author of Within and Without (1855), a dramatic poem, somewhat too intense and melancholy in style and spirit, but abounding in tender and beautiful passages. He has since published a collection of Poems, and Phantastes, a Faerie Romance (1858). The first production of Mr Macdonald is still his best, but he appears to have scarcely as yet done justice to his powers. GERALD MASSEY, born at Tring, in Hertfordshire, in the year 1828, has fought his way to distinction in the face of severe difficulties. Up to his seventeenth or eighteenth year he was either a factory or errand boy. He then tried periodical writing, and after some obscure efforts, produced in 1854 the Ballad of Babe Christabel, and other Poems, a volume that passed through several editions. In 1856 he added another volume, Craigerook Castle, and other Poems. He is author also of a pamphlet, War Waits, and of various other pieces in prose and verse. By these publications, and with occasional labours as a journalist and lecturer, Mr Massey has honourably THOMAS RAGG-THOMAS COOPER. Two other poets, sprung from the people, and honourably distinguished for self-cultivation, merit notice. THOMAS RAGG was born in Nottingham in 1808. In 1833 he issued his first publication, The Incarnation, and other Poems, being at that time engaged in a lace factory. The Incarnation was part of a philosophical poem on The Deity, and was published for the purpose of ascertaining whether means could be obtained for the publication of the whole. In consequence of favourable critical notices, two gentlemen in the west of Englandwhose names deserve to be recorded-Mr Mann of Andover, and Mr Wyatt of Stroud, offered to become responsible for the expenses of bringing out The Deity, and the then venerable James Montgomery undertook to revise the manuscript. It was published in 1844 with considerable success, the Times leading the way with a very favourable review. Mr Ragg had the offer of a collegiate education if he would engage to take orders in the Church of England; but he preferred continuing in his native town as a bookseller's assistant to either undertaking the risks of dependence upon authorship, or pledging himself as to his future views and course. In Nottingham he afterwards published The Martyr of Verulam, and other Poems, and Lyrics from the Pentateuch, and other Poems; and in 1839 accepted an invitation to become editor of a newspaper in Birmingham, in which town he published two other volumes of poetry, Heber, and other Poems, and Scenes and Sketches from Life and Nature, &c. His connection with the newspaper press continued about ten years, when he resigned it to establish himself as a printer and bookseller in Birmingham. In this occupation he still continues, and has latterly issued an elaborate prose work, entitled Creation's Testimony to its God; or the Accordance of Science, Philosophy, and Revelation. Mr Ragg's principal poems have been in blank verse. [The Earth Full of Love.] The earth is full of love, albeit the storms Is born of love. And every song of bird THOMAS COOPER, 'the Chartist,' while confined in Stafford jail, 1842-4, wrote a poem in the Spenserian stanza, entitled The Purgatory of Suicides, which evinces poetical power and fancy, and has gone through several editions. This work was published in 1845, and the same year Mr Cooper issued a series of prose tales and sketches, Wise Saws and Modern Instances. In the following year he published The Baron's Yule Feast, a Christmas Rhyme. Though addressed, like the Corn-law Rhymes of Elliot, to the working-classes, and tinged with some jaundiced and gloomy views of society, there is true poetry in Mr Cooper's rhymes. The following is a scrap of landscape-painting-a Christmas scene: How joyously the lady bells Shout, though the bluff north breeze Loudly his boisterous bugle swells! And though the brooklets freeze, How fair the leafless hawthorn-tree Waves with its hoar-frost tracery! While sun-smiles throw o'er stalks and stems Sparkles so far transcending gems, The bard would gloze who said their sheen All brightest gauds that man hath seen MATTHEW ARNOLD-REV. J. MITFORD-ETC. MATTHEW ARNOLD, a son of the celebrated Dr Arnold of Rugby (born in 1822), and professor of poetry in the university of Oxford, is author of several volumes of poems and dramas: The Strayed Reveller, and other Poems, 1848; Empedocles on Etna, 1853; Poems, 1854; Merope, a tragedy, 1858; &c. Mr Arnold has set himself resolutely against the modern innovations in our poetic style and diction, and counsels the models of classic antiquity. 'Clearness of arrangement,' he says, 'rigour of development, simplicity of style-these may, to a certain extent, be learned, and best learned from the ancients, who, although infinitely less suggestive than Shakspeare, are thus, to the artist, more instructive.' Mr Arnold's own productions bear evidence of careful cultured taste and poetic feeling. A poet of similar tastes but less power is the REV. J. MITFORD, long known as the editor of Gray. So early as 1814, Mr Mitford published an edition of the works of Gray, and in 1851 he appeared as editor of Milton. He also edited the works of Parnell for the Aldine Poets. In 1858 the veteran scholar collected his original pieces, and published them under the title of Miscellaneous Poems. The volume is, we need hardly say, choice in sentiment and expression-the gleanings of many years' study, reflection, and observation. This was his last effort: he died in 1859. A series of poetical works, termed 'Young England' or 'Tractarian Poetry,' appeared in 1840 and 1841. England's Trust, and other Poems, by LORD JOHN MANNERS; Historic Fancies, by the HoN. MR SMYTHE (afterwards Lord Strangford); The Cherwell Water Lily, &c.,' by the REV. F. W. FABER. The chief object of these works was to revive the taste for feudal feeling and ancient sports, combined with certain theological and political opinions characteristic of a past age. The works had poetical and amiable feeling, but were youthful, immature productions; and Lord John Manners must have regretted the couplet which we here print in Italics, and which occasioned no small ridicule: No, by the names inscribed in history's page, Lord John has since applied himself to politics. Lord Strangford (1817-1857) also took a part in public affairs, and promised to become an able debater, but ill health withdrew him both from politics and literature. W. C. BENNETT D. F. M'CARTHY-WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. Two lyrical poets, simple, fresh, and natural in feeling and expression, made their first public appearance about the same time. MR BENNETT in 1850 published a volume of Poems, which was well received. Miss Mitford has characterised him as a charming and richly gifted poet,' addingwhat it is a pleasure to transcribe-Greenwich can tell how much this young, ardent mind, aided by kindred spirits, has done in the way of baths and wash-houses, and schools and lectures, and libraries and mechanics' institutes, to further the great cause of progress, mental and bodily.' In 1859 Mr Bennett published Songs by a Song-writer. The Seasons. A blue-eyed child that sits amid the noon, O'erhung with a laburnum's drooping sprays, Singing her little songs, while softly round Along the grass the chequered sunshine plays. All beauty that is throned in womanhood Pacing a summer garden's fountained walks, A happy mother with her fair-faced girls, In whose sweet Spring again her youth she sees, With shout and dance and laugh and bound and song, Stripping in Autumn orchard's laden trees. An aged woman in a wintry room Frost on the pane, without the whirling snowReading old letters of her far-off youth, Of sorrows past and joys of long ago. Summer Rain. O gentle, gentle summer rain, To feel that dewy touch of thine, In heat, the landscape quivering lies; Come thou, and brim the meadow streams, O falling dew from burning dreams, By thee shall herb and flower be kissed: D. F. M'CARTHY, amidst other literary labours, chiefly devoted to his native country of Ireland, has produced a volume of Songs, Ballads, and Lyrics, &c., 1850. In his serious and passionate poems, Mr M'Carthy is often eminently striking both in language and imagery. We subjoin a few stanzas from the picce entitled The Voyage of St Brendan. [A Young Female Taking the Veil.] Oh! bitterest sacrifice the heart can makeThat of a mother of her darling childThat of a child, who, for her Saviour's sake, Leaves the fond face that o'er her cradle smiled. They who may think that God doth never need So great, so sad a sacrifice as this, While they take glory in their easier creed, Will feel and own the sacrifice it is. All is prepared-the sisters in the choir The mitred abbot on his crimson throneThe waxen tapers, with their pallid fire Poured o'er the sacred cup and altar stoneThe upturned eyes, glistening with pious tearsThe censer's fragrant vapour floating o'er. Now all is hushed, for, lo! the maid appears, Entering with solemn step the sacred door. She moved as moves the moon, radiant and pale, Through the calm night, wrapped in a silvery cloud; The jewels of her dress shone through her veil, As shine the stars through their thin vaporous shroud; The brighter jewels of her eyes were hid Seemed conscious of the treasures that they bore. She reached the narrow porch and the tall door, Her cold hands chilled the bosom they embraced. Who is this youth, whose forehead, like a book, Bears many a deep-traced character of pain? Who looks for pardon as the damned may lookThat ever pray, and know they pray in vain. Mr M'Carthy has devoted a volume to the Poets and Dramatists of Ireland, and a collection of the Ballad Poetry of Ireland has been made by C. G. DUFFY. Various collections of the early Celtic poetry of Ireland have been published within the last ten years, and its history and antiquities have been copiously illustrated. WILLIAM ALLINGHAM is author of Poems, 1850; Day and Night Songs, 1854; and The Music-master, &c., comprising many of the former poems revised, 1855. Since then, verses from Mr Allingham's pen have appeared from time to time in the Athenæum and other periodicals. Born and educated in Ireland, this poet is resident at Ballyshannon, his native town, where his family have long been established. Some of Mr Allingham's songs are very popular in Ireland. All his pieces are marked by a clear and graceful diction and careful rhythmical structure. Lady Alice. I. Now what doth Lady Alice so late on the turret stair, Without a lamp to light her, but the diamond in her hair; When every arching passage overflows with shallow gloom, And dreams float through the castle, into every silent room? She trembles at her footsteps, although they fall so light; Through the turret loopholes she sees the wild midnight; Broken vapours streaming across the stormy sky; Down the empty corridors the blast doth moan and cry. With silence, in her own old room, the fainting form they lay, And O, 'Will Watch, the smuggler bold,' * * Old songs! old songs!-my brain has lost Of Murray's books and Trimmer's schools; The mere remembrance of a slate! And the blithe boy that praised her song Old songs old songs!-I should not sigh; Is closely mingled with 'Old Songs.' Where all things stand unaltered since the night she COVENTRY PATMORE-EDWARD ROBERT BULWER fled away: But who-but who shall bring to life her father from the clay? But who shall give her back again her heart of a former day? LYTTON. The delineation of love and the domestic affections has been attempted by MR COVENTRY PATMORE. His Tamerton Church Tower, and other Poems, 1853, and The Angel in the House, Books I. and II., 1855-6, amidst some mannerism and conceits, contain passages of great beauty, both in sentiment and description. The second and larger work is incomplete and defective in design, yet impresses the reader with the idea that its author is capable, if he could forget Tennyson and metaphysics, of producing some really great work. His occasional felicities of expression are seen in verses like these: A maid of fullest heart she was; And in this passage of sound philosophy: Would Wisdom for herself be wooed, And must not only be, but seem. And, knowing this, I wonder less |