do not commend and admire his slovenly, feeble and imperfect works, the fault must be in our want of good taste and good temper. This kind of petulance and inconsistency is so common that we seldom take notice of it: very few men indeed can speak of themselves and their works without becoming ridiculous, but the preface to the volume before us is so remarkably offensive, that we cannot forbear quoting a passage as an appeal to the public in favour of reviewers, from the flippancy of authors: "With respect to criticism, I am so far acquainted with the world of literature, as to feel convinced that I shall not escape its vindictive lash; my aim has not been to usher forth a studied production, for speaking of myself, I can with confidence affirm, that HORACE. Non ego paucis Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit Aut humana parum cavit natura. I will not quarrel with a slight mistake, Such as our nature's frailty may excuse And have consequently been led to hope for the same conduct from others.-Such an idea being however incompatible with the feelings of the rigid censors of literature; I must remain satisfied with explaining to them the nature of my ideas, leaving their minds to the full indulgence of those pedantic opinions, which will, in all probability, send me and my Fisher-Boy to oblivion; in despite of which : Tentanda via est. VIRGIL. For as truth is invincible, I place the most implicit reliance on her irradiating influence, which certainly emanates from every line of my little Poem." Undeterred by invective, we proceed to examine "The Fisher Boy," not by any "pedantic rules," for Aristotle holds no sway over the modern school of criticism, but by what appear to us the plain dictates of good sense, and a taste enligh tened by the study of the best models. It is not all truth that is the fit object of poetry; it is not every kind of manual occupation that can be made to afford picture or sentiment; but the employment of a fisher has many interesting circumstances belonging to it, which a man of genius would have known how to seize, and to bring forward, separated from the coarser features which would deform the delinea. tion. The subject, therefore, of this poem is not to be condemned. The scene is laid on the western coast of England, and the mackerel and pilchard fisheries, the mode of catching lobsters, shrimps, &c. with all the avocations of a fisher boy, are faithfully and fully described. A smuggling expedition is likewise introduced, but we were somewhat scandalized at the boldness with which our anonymous author defends this dark and desperate traffic, so ruinous to the inorals of all who follow it. both illegal and dishonest, ought An occupation, not to find a single advocate among the lettered and thinking part of the community. Of the general execution of this piece we do not fear to say, that it is miserable. Its author boasts of the simplicity of his style, yet he says the clouds Besiege the moon with black artillery," a line which we might suspect to be borrowed from Blackmore. He attempts to elevate the character of his work in one page, by making the Redeemer of the world interfere to save his hero from drowning, (that hero a smuggler) and in another, shows him actually gutting fish, and going to visit and bait with garbage," Bob Jones's lobster pots. He also tells nab good tars." The grammatical us that press gangs lie in wait " to blunders are numerous, and. the translations of Latin in the notes are ludicrously bad and wrong. Not a single vivid picture or energetic passage atones for this want of judgement and of skill. subjoin a short specimen,the best we can find. We "In sain-boat station'd distant from the Mullets and thornbacks too, with Ten thousand mackrel, labour's produce sweet, Which glare at once on the enchanted sight, Blue, green, and roseat, mingling with pure white. Full oft the seine with varied colours glows, Its coat of pink the high-back'd piper † shows; The flat and dark brown plaise, with soals esteem'd, The brill, with turbot, best of fishes deem'd ; prickly skin; Nor should unheeded pass the fam'd By Quin renown'd in Epicurian story, Th' impression of St. Peter's thumb, 'tis thought. This fish, while struggling, with cameli- By changing oft its colour, as it dies. The emmer, pollick, salmon, salmon- Dabs, flounders, whitings, and the slipp❜ry eel : Such is the varied produce summer shows, Which from his toil the fisherman oft throws, Bringing new comforts to the lab'ring boy, Whose days of toiling bring on nights of joy ; Whose trust is heav'n, and whose unceasing care Is to make her he loves his comforts share : Who, void of art himself, is truly blest, Red freckled gurnet, and the paly blint, Does all he can, and leaves to God the rest." *The scole of Mackerel is a term used by the fishermen when they perceive a quantity of these fish from the shore, rippling on the surface of the sea; on which occasion they are instantly visible to the inhabitants of these villages, who forthwith put the boat off, and shoot the seine, when they frequently draw fifteen and sixteen thousand at one haul. + The Piper is a small beautiful fish, which varies in its shades of pink; when dressed, its favour is by many much admired; but, for myself, I think it insipid in the extreme. This fish is of the size and much resembles the colour of the Whiting, but is by no means equal to it in flavour. Mullets, or Sea-Woodcocks, as they are denominated on the coast, on account of their excellence, are both of a red and grey complexion; the former, however, are the most estimable, and are cooked Woodcock fashion, the entrails being dressed in the fish. The Squib is not unlike a bladder distended and lengthened; it has a long snout, and throws forth a black liquor, offensive to the smell. The fishermen have an idea that the Squib poisons the Mackerel, with the hauls of which fish it is constantly taken. The Bull-fish is very extraordinary, possessing no external show whatsoever, either of limbs, or membranes; and in appearance is precisely like a round lump of jelly. The Bull, when caught in summer, with other fish, which very frequently occurs, is immediately cut into four pieces by the fisherman, in order to destroy it, as it is said to contain a deadly poison. ART. XIII. A Day in Spring, and other Poems, By RICHARD WESTALL, R. A. Svo. pp. 234. IT is highly desirable that the Votary of any one of the imitative arts should be sensible to the beauties of her sisters. The musician ought to feel and respect the charms of Poetry too much to sacrifice them to his most trifling convenience, the poet must cherish an admiration of painting and music if he would ever celebrate their praises in lines formed for immortality. But above all the painter ought enthusiastically to worship that noble art whose finest conceptions he is so often called upon to embody and adorn. In fact he ought to regard the study of poetry as equally professional to him with that of optics or anatomy. The most certain token of admiration is the attempt to imitate, and on this account we have always been in clined to listen with favour to the lyre touched, however rudely, by fingers accustomed to the brush and the pallet. Mr. Westall has here displayed a refined taste for the scenes of nature, and a feeling of the characteristic excellences of the great poets, many of whom be celebrates, which is highly creditable to him as an artist, and will increase the confidence already reposed in the efforts of his learned and enchanting pencil. It would give us pleasure to speak with commendation of his poems abstractedly considered, but in fact we cannot consider them as very happy productions. The descriptive piece wants dis tinctness and general effect : the odes are more ambitious than cor year; Lines addressed to a Friend on the Birth- We cannot conclude without censuring the wasteful manner in which this volume is printed: six of its octavo pages are devoted to a piece of four s line stanzas ! ART. XIV. The Plants a Poem. Cantos the first and second, with Notes and occasional Poems, By WILLIAM TIGHE, Esq. crown 8vo. pp. 156. THE title of this poem, besides being extremely flat, does not well express its nature. These two cantos entitled "the Rose, and the Oak" form half the projected work, only two more, "the Vine, and the Palm," being requisite to its completion. It was his object, Mr. Tighe informs us, not only to bring together the most remarkable circumstances relative to each of these four plants, and to combine many of the ideas of association which the review of each subject may naturally awaken, but also to consider them respectively as emblems of the four affections, so he is pleased to style them, of love, of liberty, of friendship, and of religion. There is something very quaint in this latter part of the scheme the day of emblems, we apprehend, is nearly ended, and though the rose has long been typical of love, or rather of beauty, and the oak of patriotism, the vine and the palm are by no means so decidedly or exclusively appropriated to friendship and to religion. In availing himself of all the associated ideas and circumstances that come within his reach, this poet has done wisely; almost all the beauty of his work is derived from its classical allusions, and this is the reason we apprehend of the great superiority of his first canto over the second. The Greeks, whose very name acts like a talisman in calling up the images of grace and beauty; the ancient Greeks, lived among roses with the rose they crowned their goblets, with the rose they adorned the door or the tomb of their mistresses, and the shrines of their gods. Se veral beautiful legends relative to this flower are here related, and some notes, equally elegant and solid, offer all the information respecting it that a scholar, a man of taste, and a naturalist, has been able to collect. The versification of this poem is not so good as might be expected from so cultivated a writer. Some of the lines consist of twelve syllables; a deviation from the ordinary structure of blank verse for which as we apprebend neither reason nor good authority can be adduced. In rhymed heroic verse, the temperate use of the alexandrine is certainly conducive to richness as well as variety of cadence, but what advantage is to be gained from it in a measure perpetually broken by irregularly recurring pauses, where the ter minations of the lines are scarcely ever perceivable ? A few verbal inaccuracies likewise, occur. The adjective origian we believe to be unprecedented, to exude is improperly used instead of to express, and we object to the "crimsoned of the velvet robe." Why form a new and awkward verb where the old adjective would answer the purpose so much better? The exordium of this poem appears to us very good. Of Labrador, and foggy shores, that skirt The gulfs of Hudson, to the warmer plains, Where rolls Potowmac his gigantic flood, Where Pensylvania breathes the sultry gale, Or Carolina wakes her tardy flowers." The account given by Pliny of the playful contention between Pausias the painter and his mistress panded into a pretty little tale Glycera the garland weaver, is exgracefully related. In writing of the oak our author has been tempted to ramble too far into the fields of history. Cowper indeed carries us from the view of Yardly oak to the history of Adam, and had he proceeded with that of his children to the present day, he would but have prolonged the delight of his readers, but let all inferior geniuses beware of imitating the desultory march of that great master, he carries along with him a spell which compells us to attend him, but his imitators have no spell; we stand still, gaze at them perhaps for a while, and then are content to lose derable poetical sight of them. are about to quote, passage we but a succession of even such passages, will fatigue unless directed to one great end, beauty in the There is consi |