Then come songs for national airs,
formed on the rhythm of the music, including Norwegian, German,
Russian, Bohemian, Gaelic, and Welsh, -- Teutonian and Slavonian.
But unhappily this diligence is not without its dangers. It has
prejudiced the creative power,
"And made that art, which was a rage."
Neatness, terseness, objectivity, or at any rate the absence of
subjectivity, characterize these poems. Our bard has not quite so
much fire as we had looked for, grows warm but does not ignite; those
sixteen years of "adverse" studies have had their effect on Pegasus,
who now trots soundly and resolutely on, but forbears rash motions,
and never runs away with us. The old critics of England were hardly
steadier to their triad of "Gower, Lydgate, and Chaucer," than our
American magazines to the trinity of "Bryant, Dana, and Percival." A
gentle constellation truly, all of the established religion, having
the good of their country and their species at heart. Percival has
not written anything quite as good on the whole as his two fast
associates, but surpasses them both in labor, in his mimetic skill,
and in his objectiveness.
Pages:
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282