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    NEW POEMS.*

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    the instruction and development of the infant mind is especially intrusted , to follow some of the excellent advice which the author of this little volume has so liberally administered . " Leonore and the Little Countess " is one of those delicate and refined stories , ' which convey the impression of perfect simplicity and purity to the niindof the reader , begetting : for itself a calm and steady interest , which ' , perhaps , the most elaborate and high-jtoned romance would fail in eliciting 1 . One of the chief charms of the present volume is the tone of deep feeling- dnd genuine religious sentiment with which the author has invested it . There is , however , no tendency to sermonizing , no long" dissertations on the force and value of the true spirit of Christianity , embracing- arguments which have ever and anon been brought forward and descanted on ,

    till they have become " familiar in our mouths as household words . " The authoress wisely endeavours to instil her precepts into the minds of others by the force of example rather than of protest , and in order to accomplish this she has created out of her fertile imagination two of the most delightful and fascinating heroines that ever graced the pages of fiction . Leonore , an orphan of low extraction , and who , at the commencement of the story , is dependent © n the charity of two somewhat cross-grained " relatives , is sent for to the castle of Liclit ' enthaf , that s ' re may help to lighten the weary hours of the little ailing Countess Nadine . Thereupon springs up between the two girls , notwithstanding their difference of rank , a sincere and lasting attachment . The guardians of Nadine , who is also an orphan , resolve to try the effect of change of climate upon the

    person of their suffering ward , and she is consequentlysent upon a long visit to a doting grandmother resident in Paris , her little companion of course fbllovying in her Wake . After a lapse of many years the two return to Germany , and the generous little Countess , » ot content with having bestowed upon her protegee a liberal education , determines to raise her to her own level in society , and presently introduces her into the most aristocratic circles as her iriend and equal . In the accomplishment of this loving resolve , she encounters only too effectual opposition , the prejudices of caste being too deeply rooted for her unaided ellbrts to overcome . She then fosters an attachment existing between Leonore and her cousin . Adalbert , thinking that by -allying her adopted-sister to the younger branch of her own noblei family , to throw a permanent covering over the meanness of her parentage . In the forwarding of this project , however , she meets a formidable ' opponent in the person of the Countess-Justine . Adalbert ' s mother . Through- her

    machinations , and the treachery of one of the young Count ' s friends , Leonore is ultimately induced tq _ brealt-her engagement , and take jrefuge for herself and bitter sorrows in one of the religious houses of Germanjv Both these characters are' beautifully conceived , especially that of the high-born damsel , whose generous sacrifice in behalf of her friend is not fully appreciated till the conclusion of the narrative , when we discover tliat at the same time the Countess is negotiating a marriage between Leonore and her kinsman , she herself is heroically combating a secret attachment for the latter , and with true nobility of soul , worthy her exalted station , resolving Mot to advance the golden temptations of her own brilliant possessions against the solitary chance of her more humble companion . "HOTtlimately , however , she ' is rewardeTTTor her exeTTfpTaTy ^ ful'bBiiTmTcet and five years after Leonore ' s assumption of the veil the afflicted Adalbert receives some compensation for his first inconsolable loss in . the person of his gentle and loving-hearted cousin .

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    metrical venture , entitled " A Man ' s Heart , " This eminent singer to the popular apprehension has conspicuously paid attention to the form of verse , and has ever been careful to write with accuracy and eleo-ance . Daring violations of poetical diction are not in his way , and aberrations from the recognised standard are his aversion . On the licenses of a Milton , a Shakspeare , or a Dante , he looks with no favourable eye , and is content with a monotony of effect , so that it can be proved to be within rule and compass . His ambition is to achieve the reputation of a correct writer in forms generally acknowledged . If the form be poetic he is satisfied ; he is less regardful ot the essence . He cares little whether this be poetic ; indeed , we think he plumes himself upon treating themes not poetical m

    themselves in a poetical manner . He takes politics and social science , and , adopting from them a topic , commences spinning stanzas that shall point the moral in musical cadence ? , with more or less of passionate utterance , and a conventional metaphor or two , and thus produces a result which has the advantage of being generally intelligible , and may be as easily read as a newspaper leader or a prize essav . He does not look into the obscure places of the soul , and catch what gleam of light he there can , and then suffer it to expand and enlarge itself according to its own inherent laws , until it becomes a revelation to himself and others . And yet we might expect something of this from the title of his new poem , which has great merit , but not exactly the merit implied in its appellation . t

    Charles Mackay has sought in his new poem to depicin heroic blank verse , with lyrical interpositions , the outline of our modern manners . He shows in opposition our aristocratical and manufacturing interests , with an undercurrent of that artistic and mechanical intelligence which it is the present instinct of the age to encourage . He shows how little regarded by these are the first affections of man and woman , and how easily they are sacrificed to convenience or ambition . But though sacrificed , they are not always extinguished ; and the immediate turn served , they are found to survive , and sometimes make a way of their own to happiness and peace . But the spectacle is not then in accordance with the worldly environment , and the mysterious powers appear to be in haste to dissolve it . Death meets the party on a pleasure-trip , and the heroine perishes by an accident while exploring the beauties and sublimities of-mountain scenery . The hero , who lias artistic instincts , lives to complete the portrait of the loved and 4 sst , which

    being- finished , — _ ¦ " Breathing the one name , — He laid his head upon his , father ' s breast , And clasped the sympathizing hand , and died / - We note in the composition ^ of this poem many cuwptis felicities of diction , and much tenderness of thought and feeling . . The delineation of Scottish scenery , with its mists and tempests , is also exceedingly graphic , and will add deservedly to Mr . Mackay ' s reputation as a descriptive poet . It is seldom that among the new volumes of verse with which the press is daily teeming , we have to report of any either likely or deserving to secure the smallest degree of popularity . The greater is our pleasure in giving prominence to a poem by Miss

    Power , which possesses elegance and grace , and a musical cadence . —T-he-tlMjme- ^ f-the-story-is-attistic The hero is a sculptor , whose early tastes are thwarted by the vulgar family , whose aversion to the nude is extreme , among whom he is educated . The heroine is a little girl brought up with him , whose mind sympathizes with his aspirations , and who remembers him long after he leaves the roof of her father , with all the constancy of a first affection ; and , though she does not hear from him for years , seeks and finds him in a critical hour and becomes his wife . The poet describes the inner life of the lovers , and the aesthetic refinement associated with natural sensibilitv . in a sDirit that demonstrates the possession of like feelings in

    herself . But she is not careful to provide the external circumstances which should servo as links of connexion between the earlier and later parts of her narrative . She neglects to tell us how the heroine became acquainted with the condition of her lover , and leaves it to the imagination of her reader to guess the means by which she discovered his retreat . She gives us the stago-situation of their meeting , but makes no effort to account for it ; satisfying herself with an effective denouement , and at once bringing down tlio curtain . This certainly evinces a lack of invention , and deteriorates so far the value of the work ; but the author has descriptive powers which richly embellish the progress of the narrative , and a meditative vein that will reward the pensive reader who surrenders

    himself to its guidance . Mr . Norman ' s verses are less simple in their character ; and , though not without merit , less intelligible in their aim . The 14 Echoes from Dreamland" ore disposed to the noi « y and vehement . Mr . Norman , oven iu his lyrics , is declamatory , and bus not yet learned "in the torrent of his passion , " to " beget a smoothness . His metrical construction is sometimes exceedingly violent . Who does lie think can tolemto four such lines as the following P" But now no longer ouri "withstood the power of Bwect repostv Be , twen by those lore-lit orl > s ( which see in but made to shed Their light to gladden man on earth ); and now Sir Kichard rose Up from the table , loaded still , and , ' midst the Bilonoo , said—" There is , however , force and vigour in the writer ; n , nd , hereafter , ho may bo more successful .

    "P OETRT is distinguishable into form and essence . With the JL first poet , the essence must have preceded the form , and tlfe form been absolutely the normal expression of the essence . The spiritual impulse must have been felt , tond the naturnl manifestation followed . But the order may be revetSedV-when the example has been once set ; as a matter of fact , we know that it is reversed . Homer sings the wars of Greece , and sets the fashion of epic narrative ; his successors adopt that fashion , nnd regard the excellence of their work as . consisting in its likeness to the imitated original . The laws of epic composition are deduced from the Homeric practice , and Virgil even can do little more than combine the formulae of the IhVl and the Odyssey in his Latin epopee . Modern poets are apt to be overridden by the form , nnd to limit arbitrarily the manifestation of the inner life by a preconception of its laws , so that an ctcrmtl sameness in the vehicle is presented at each new effort to sing * , the spontaneous being * precluded by the prevalence of the me chnnicnl . Some writers , Biich ns Owen Meredith in his " Lucille , " therefore , seek for a free media , and leave the mechanism of verse dependent < n the inspiration and even the development of the story on the poetic mood . In this way a largeness nnd breadth are obtained , and n possibility of expansion to any extent . But there is danger in un ( i-ied experiments ; and there ore unexpected difficulties also which only genius can surmount , «» the development of operations which nro at liberty to spread themselves in every direction , without go « l or guidance , save what nro involved in their own . exhaustion . No such danger or difficulties beset Dr . Mnckny in his new

    Hei * e , too , wo have a volume of Moorish verses by a writer who calls himself "Idea "—why wo know not ; his "" Lyrics and Legends" aiming ; rather nt the actual than the ideal . Ho writes like a man of the world rather than a poet , nnd not always with the elegance and accuracy required by " the stylo of thing' which ho has attempted . Nor ' can . we give a much more favourable opinion

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    ' * A Man ' s Heart . A flPoom . By CHARLES Ma okat . Smith , Elder , ai . d Co . Virginia ' s Hand . A Poem . By IMahoueuitk A . Power . Longir . ane . JSchoos front Dreamland . By Frank Norman . Ward and Lock . X . yr / ra and Le < jend « of Home , With a Prologue and Kpiloguo . By Jdb ' a . Chapman and Mall , War donga . By Captain Noakh . Myles Maopliall .

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    428 ' The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ May 5 , 1860 .

    New Poems.*

    NEW POEMS . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 428, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2346/page/16/