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    ii § W > inetairoeri-of trhat we mean , we < w © ujdl « ml y Yefer in thisr volume io t . The Warning / p . 256 ; 'St . Bees / p . 271 , and the qanaets ^ ajb > ppj 188 , 189 , 228 ^ 264 , &e . in ; politics aad religion , Wordsworth is the poet of the past , blending sophistical apologies for its outward forms with those aspirations for futurity which are native to him because he is a poet and a philosopher ; which he cannot repress if he would ; which it

    is his delight to indulge when he forgets the present condition of church and state ; but which are often sorely trammelled in their fli ht by his veneration for the things which are vanishing away . vVe will proceed no further in this business . It is an ungrateful notice that we are writing of one of the most beautiful volumes of poetry that has been published for many a year , or will be for many a year to come . We only thought to have exchanged a word

    of gratulation with our readers on its appearance , knowing the impossibility of sitting down just now to write out our whole notion of Wordsworth . The superficial and unmeaning praise , from pens that a few years ago would have censured as mechanically , have provoked these few remarks ; the volume itself need not else have called for them . There is scarcely a trace in it of what used to be regarded as characteristics of Wordsworth . Nobody could

    ever imagine from it , why he was ever laughed at . But every one gifted with any portion of the faculty of appreciation , may note in its contents those attributes of the great reflective poet which have established for him not only a school of disciples whose admiration approaches to fanaticism , but a silent , mighty , pervading , and enduring influence over the mind and heart .

    The first Doem . although bv no means the most invnortant . which The first poem , although by no means the most important , which gives its name to the volume , is a beautiful completion and building up into an entire unity of the author ' s two former poems on that stream whose very name is poetry . It is the memorial of a day passed with Sir W . Scott in 1831 , immediately before his de ^

    parture from Abbotsford to Naples . While , as in all Wordsworth ' s compositions , the power of the scenery is over , every verse , the effect is much enhanced by the view afforded us , of the mode in which one great poet thought and felt of another . It is with strong interest that we gaze upon the reflection , in Wordsworth ' s profound soul , of the image of the Great Minstrel of the Border .

    The sonnets and other poems connected with Scotch scenery we must fairly confess disappointed us . With much beauty and truth , they want peculiarity and appropriateness . The poet seems to have travelled as one ' breathing thoughtful breath / rather than as one who was receiving inspiration . . ' Tlio Power of Sound' is a gorgeous metaphysical ode , a lyric to be studied . But the charm of the volume is in the ballad and narrative poetry : ' The Egyptian Maid , ' ' The Armenian Lady ' s Love , ' ' The Russian Fugitive / &c . The first two of these are equal to any thing of the kind which the author has ever written , and , therefore , by implication , any one else .

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    4 M W < mUwortk r Foemtr

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/68/