'If earth must change as on we go, 'Alas, alas, as we move on, If thus the heart from bliss must sever, It The only thing like Wordsworth here, is that it is poetry. would be well for some of the writer's critics, if they were tinctured' with a little of the same folly. We give Mr. Bacon great credit, likewise, for the vividness and power of his imagination. We would select the last half of Thanatos,' a poem of much power and beauty, and the 'Vision of War,' as undeniable proofs of his claims, in this regard, to general admiration. We give Mr. Bacon credit, also, for that which is the best test of poetic genius; power of description. Here he must speak for himself. The following is from A Forest Noon Scene :' 'This is indeed a sacred solitude, And beautiful as sacred. Here no sound, Meets nought but hath a moral. These deep shades, Or beech, or nut, whose branches interlaced A twilight make- they press upon the heart These trunks enormous, from the mountain side Transversely cast; these monarchs of the wood, From yonder cliff, their bed for centuries, Here crushed and wedged; all by their massiveness, Of Deity. And here are wanted not More delicate forms of beauty. Numerous tribes Meet for the scene alone. At ev'ry step, Such as the city boasts - of paler hue, Yet fragrant more. The simple forest flower, Displays its long and tufted flower, and swings And all its aspirations to the source Of life and light. Nor woodland sounds are wanting, The poet feels, lull soothingly. The winds And music make. Sweet rivulets Slip here and there from out the crevices Of rifted rocks, and, welling 'mid the roots That the enthusiast heart forgets the world, The following passage from A Fragment of an Epistle,' we offer with unaffected pleasure. There is painting by words in it, which will win all suffrages : 'I sat me where the window threw And, as the flashing sun rose bright, Or lily fair or water-cress, One extract more, and we have done. The public have received this book as the work of a young man. We suppose it is such; and yet we may err here. There is a maturity of thought in some of these poems, not common with young men. Take, for example, the following from Thoughts in Solitude: 'But there's a half way virtue in the world As chance directs. The rich man fosters it, Or bids him dole out with a miserly hand, A farthing, where a thousand should be thrown, The heart accepts, nor pleasure is forgone, A feeble virtue is a vice, adorn'd So equal, that the sum is neutralized; No sterner truth, than when she writes- a blank. Why linger then betwixt the two extremes Can stand upon the stars, and see to Heaven?' The reader will agree with us when we say, that if this is the work of a boy, he is a promising child. ་ We cannot extract farther; although Other Days,'' Life,' the 'Lines to a Little Boy,' 'Morning,' 'Fanny Willoughby,' and 'Lines in Dejection,' are well worthy to be transplanted. But we leave the rest to the reader. To sum up our notions of Mr. Bacon, we are deceived if his talents do not secure for him a prominent place among our future poets; and we cannot forbear thinking, that the specimens we have given, take from this remark every appearance of extravagance. We do not think there has been a first work presented by any of our young poets, of fairer promise than this; and though we do not assert that this volume raises the writer at once to the front rank, yet we do assert, and will maintain, that there are poems in it worthy to place him in a station of honor, among his contemporaries. His language has strength and simplicity; his style clearness and force. His thoughts are elevated; his habits are those of serious contemplation; and for these we award him praise. In a day when we have so many vicious models, it seems to us a proof that a man must have something superior in himself, who steers clear of them. Of his susceptibility to beauty, and of the correctness of his taste, we have not heard a dissenting voice; and, moreover, Mr. Bacon is a Christian. Before we close, we have a word to say, lest our notice lose its authority. We do not think the volume without faults. There are inequalities in it. The metre is sometimes faulty; the author does not, in some instances, refine and polish enough; and his own judgment will no doubt suggest these things in a future collection, should he make one. But faults were to be expected in a first work; and nothing surely can be more unbecoming a judicious critic, than to seize on an initial effort, and attempt, by exaggerating its faults, to throw contempt upon the whole. This we think has been done, in some instances, with Mr. Bacon; and this is the reason we have stepped forward to do him justice, and cordially offer him the hand of encouragement, O. P. Q SONNET. WRITTEN UPON SEEING THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, PAINTED BY C. G. THOMPSON. THERE is a sweetness in those up-turned eyes, A tearful lustre such as fancy lends Say, didst thou strive, young artist, to beguile His every sense in meshes of delight? When thou, unconscious, made this phantom bright? New-York, December, 1837. NAVAL SKETCHES. BY THE AUTHOR OF SHIP AND SHORE,' 'CONSTANTINOPLE AND ATHENS,' ETC. P. B. THE winter had passed -the time of the singing of birds had come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in the land. - when we, as if obeying these awakening instincts of nature, weighed our anchors from the safe bed in which they had long been planted, and in company with the flag-ship which had first caught the moving infection, floated quietly from the harbor of Mahon, with recollections that endeared the past, and anticipations that brightened the future. The last voice I heard was that of a bird singing from a tree that shades an extreme cliff, and where it would seem as if the little warbler had come to give us his parting cheer. I admired that bird for several reasons; for its plumage it was gay as hope; for its voice — it was full of sweetest melody; for its courage—it was one of the few that had escaped the shot and snares of our wicked pastimes; for its spirit of forgiveness we had been all winter picking the bones of its fellows, and perhaps had deprived it of its vernal mate; yet it came forth to breathe its farewell, with the forgiving, clinging affection of the female heart for the one no longer worthy of her love and confidence. If the doctrine of the Samian sage be true, I would ask that at death my spirit may pass into the form of such a beautiful bird as this not that I would, in that event, sing to those who had plotted my death; but I would fly to the convent of Santa Clara, and perching close to the grated window of the imprisoned Maria, relieve with my notes the solitude of her cell; and so sweet and impassioned should be the strain I would sing, that the wondering nun should every night murmur in her very dreams : 'A lovely bird with azure wings, |