The Poems of Felicia Hemans

to a field described as shaken and resounding with the trampling of a body of horse. As respects, likewise, the epithet _quadrupedans_, we may doubt whether any modern critic can explain why _quadrupedante sonitu_ is more poetical in Virgil than its equivalent, ‘the sound of quadrupeds,’ would be in a modern poet, if used to express the sound of horses. “Let us take another example: ‘Pastor cum traheret per freta navibus Idæis Helenam perfidus hospitam.’ Why is the word _traheret_ used, which, as employed elsewhere, would imply the taking away of Helen against her will? Does it refer to one version of the story according to which Paris did bear her away by force? Were this the case, one would naturally expect, considering the reproachful and denunciatory character of the ode, to find that idea brought out more distinctly. Is it intended to express the reluctance with which, though yielding to her love for Paris, she left her husband and her home? This conception is too refined for an ancient poet to trust to its being made apparent by so light a touch, if indeed we may suppose it to have entered his mind. Was _traheret_ then intended, by its associations with an act of violence, to denote the rapidity and fear of the flight of Paris? or was it merely employed _abusively_, to use a technical term--only with reference to a part of its signification, as words are not unfrequently used in poetry, though it is always an imperfection? “Such cases are very numerous, in which no modern reader can pronounce with just confidence upon the character of the poetical language of the ancients. Instances are frequently occurring in which, if we admire at all, we must admire at second-hand, upon trust. The meaning and effect of words have undergone changes which it is often not easy, and often not possible, to ascertain with precision. Even in our own language this is the case. Shakspeare says-- ‘Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry. Hold! Hold!’ “Here Johnson understands him as presenting the ludicrous conception of ‘the ministers of vengeance peeping through a blanket;’ and Coleridge, as we see by his _Table-Talk_, conjectured that instead of ‘blanket,’ ‘blank height’ was perhaps written by Shakspeare. But by ‘Heaven’ we conceive to be meant not the ministers of vengeance, but the lights of heaven; and it is not unpoetical to speak of the moon and stars as peeping through clouds. With the word ‘blanket,’ our associations are trivial and low; but understand it merely as denoting a thick covering of darkness which closely enwraps the lights of heaven, and it suits well to its place. But our associations with the word are accidental: there is nothing intrinsically more mean in a blanket than a sheet, yet none would object to the expression of ‘a sheet of light.’ The fortunes of the words only have been different, and that, in all probability, since the time of Shakspeare, considering his use of this word, and the corresponding use of the word _rug_ by Drayton.[457] “If such be the character of poetical language, it is clear that, to judge with critical accuracy of that of a distant age or even a foreign Land, requires uncommon knowledge and discrimination, as well as an accurate taste; while unfortunately, profound scholarship and cultivated and elegant habits of mind have very rarely been united in the study of the ancient poets. The supposition of a peculiar felicity of expression in their writings is to be judged of, in most cases, rather by extrinsic probabilities, which do not favour it, than by any direct and clear evidence of it that can be produced. We are very liable in this particular to be biassed by prepossession and authority; our imaginations often deceive us; we create the beauty which we fancy that we find. “There is perhaps no poet, in whose productions the characteristics of which we have spoken as giving a superiority to the poetry of later times over that which has preceded, appear more strikingly than in those of Mrs Hemans. When, after reading such works as she has written, we turn over the volumes of a collection of English poetry, like that of Chalmers, we cannot but perceive that the greater part of it appears more worthless and distasteful than before. Much is evidently the work of barren and unformed, vulgar and vicious minds, of individuals without any conception of poetry as the glowing expression of what is most noble in our nature, and often with no title to the name of poet, but from having put into metre thoughts too mean for prose. Such writings as those of Mrs Hemans at once afford evidence of the advance of our race, and are among the most important means of its further purification and progress. The minds, which go forth from their privacy to act with strong moral power upon thousands and ten thousands of other minds, are the real agents in advancing the character of man, and improving his condition. They are instruments of the invisible operations of the Spirit of God.”--_Christian Examiner_, Jan. 1836. [446] “It is related that Jove chanced, being exhilarated by nectar, to lay aside his weighty cares, and interchange pleasant jokes with idle Juno.” [447] See “De Republica,” lib. ii., pp. 373-383. [448] See “De Republica,” lib. iii. p. 391. [449] “The love of horses which they had alive, And care of chariots, after death survive. In bands reclining on the grassy plain, They feasted and pour’d forth a joyful strain.” See Dryden’s “Virgil.” [450] Be wise, pour out your wine, and contract your hopes within life’s narrow compass. [451] Why, in so short a life, do we, in our bravery, aim at so much? [452] Joyous during the present hour, the mind should reject all care for what is beyond, and temper what is bitter with a gentle smile. [453] ‘The wife of a Vaudois leader, in one of the attacks made on the Protestant hamlets, received a mortal wound, and died in her husband’s arms, exhorting him to courage and endurance.’ [454] “What Aristotle says,” observes his able translator, Mr Twining, “is, I fear, but too conformable to the manner in which the ancients usually speak of the sex in general. At least he is certainly consistent with himself; witness the following very curious character of women in his ‘History of Animals,’ which I give the reader by no means for his assent, but for his wonder or his diversion.” Mr Twining’s remarks sufficiently imply of what nature this character, and we forbear to quote it. [455] I am a man; whatever concerns other men, I think my concern. [456] “De Republica,” lib. x. p. 598, seq. [457] See examples, in the notes to Shakspeare. INDEX Aaron’s Rod, 495 Abbotsford, farewell to, 508 Abencerrage, the, 67 Aber church, sonnet on, 603 Address to the Deity, 1 Adopted child, the, 423 Affection, prayer of, 596 Aged friend, to an, 620 Aged Indian, the, 56 “Ah cease!” from Metastasio, 49 Alaric in Italy, 95 Album at Rosanna, lines written for the, 510 -- of Miss F. A. L., lines written in the, 295 Alcestis, death-song of, 502 -- of Alfieri, the, 121 Alfieri, the Alcestis of, 121 Alhambra, the, 79 notes Alp-horn song, 294 Alpine horn, the, 545 Alps, league of the, 234 -- the shepherd-poet of the, 512 American forest girl, the, 406 “Amidst the bitter tears,” from Camoens, 46 Ancestral song, the, 467 Ancient battle-song, 539 -- Greek chant of victory, 536 -- -- song of exile, 349 And I too in Arcadia, 541 Anemone, the blue, to, 610 Angel visits, 354 Angel’s greeting, the, 499 Angler, the, 489 Annunciation, the, 598 Anthony and Cleopatra, last banquet of, 93 Antique Greek lament, 627 -- sepulchre, the, 493 Arabella Stuart, 385 Arnold de Brescia, 86 note Ascending a hill leading to a convent, on, 49 Asdrubal, the wife of, 97 Assas, the fall of, 537 Attendant, to his, from Horace, 298 Autumn of 1834, records of the, 622 Baillie, Joanna, 187 Bandusia, to the fountain of, from Horace, 299 Barb, jeu-d’esprit on the word, 139 Bards, chant of the, 151 -- meeting of the, 246 Barton, Bernard, to the daughter of, 485 Basvigliana of Monti, the, 118 Battle, the call to, 547 Battle of Maclodio, the, an ode, 128 Battlefield, the, 605 Bed of heath, the, 562 Beings of the mind, the, 477 Bell at sea, the, 492 Belshazzar’s feast, 219 Bembo, translation from, 51 Bended bow, the, 345 Bentivoglio, sonnet from, 50 Bernardo del Carpio, 456 Bethany, the sisters of, 599 Better land, the, 479 “Bird that art singing,” 540 -- at sea, the, 556 Bird’s release, the, 338 Birds, the, 531 -- of passage, 434 -- of the air, the, 602 Blackwood’s Magazine, 42, 66 Blondel the Troubadour, 101 Blue Anemone, to the, 610 Books and flowers, 504 Boon of memory, the, 382 Bowl of liberty, the, 242 Brandenburg harvest-song, from La Motte Fouqué, 348 Breathings of spring, 432 Breeze from shore, the, 378 Bridal-day, the, 466 Bride of the Greek isle, the, 388 Brigand leader and his wife, the, 506 “Brightly hast thou fled,” 562 “Bring flowers,” 362 Broken chain, the, 491 -- flower, the, 505 -- lute, the, 515 Brother and sister in the country, to my, 2 Brother’s dirge, the, 545 Bruce at the source of the Nile, 368 Burial in the desert, the, 516 -- of an emigrant’s child in the forest, the, 579 -- of William the Conqueror, the, 537 Butler, William Archer, 293 note Butterfly resting on a skull, lines to a, 491 “By a mountain-stream at rest,” 566 Caius Gracchus of Monti, translations from the, 133 Call to battle, the, 547 Cambrian in America, the, 148 Camoens, translations from, 43 Camoens’ Lusiad, translation from, 297 Captivity, songs of, 545 Caravan in the desert, the, 210 Carolan’s prophecy, 414 Caroline, to, 524 Carpio, Bernardo del, 456 Carthage, Marius among the ruins of, 212 Casabianca, 369 Castri, the view from, 251 Caswallon’s triumph, 150 Cathedral hymn, 574 Cavern of the three Tells, the, 341 Chamois hunter’s love, the, 450 Chant of the bards before their massacre, 151 Charlotte, the princess, stanzas on the death of, 59 Charmed picture, the, 458 Chatillon, de, a tragedy, 300 Chaulieu, translation from, 52 Chieftain’s son, the, 245 Child and dove, the, 357 -- dirge of a, 54 -- of the forests, the, 359 -- reading the Bible, the, 583 -- to a, on his birthday, 355 Child’s first grief, the, 502 -- last sleep, the, 431 -- morning and evening hymns, 532 -- return from the woodlands, the, 506 Children whom Jesus blessed, the, 601 Chorley, Mr, criticisms by, 292, 337, 445, 466, 517, 632 Christ, on a remembered picture of, 601 -- bearing his cross, on a picture of, 607 -- Infant, with flowers, picture of the, 601 -- stilling the tempest, 355 Christian Examiner, the, 336 Christmas carol, 14, 437 Church, old, in an English park, 603 -- in North Wales, a, 603 Cicero, death of, 89 note Cid, songs of the, 238 Cid’s deathbed, the, 238 -- departure into exile, the, 238 -- funeral procession, the, 239 -- rising, the, 241 Clanronald, death of, 58 Cleopatra and Anthony, last banquet of, 93 Cliffs of Dover, the, 376 Clwyd river, the, 618 Cœur-de-Lion at the bier of his father, 346