CONTENTS. REVIEWS, ESSAYS, ETC., ETC. Eschylus' Prometheus Fettered, Address of American Copyright Club, American Antiquities, by A. W. Bradford, American Notes, by Charles Dickens, Anabasis of Xenophon, Owen's edition, Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, Claims of Art in Popular Education, Christmas Bells, and other Poems, Copyright question, by C. Mathews, 509 201, 336 80 192 98 91, 185 97 THE AMERICAN REVIEW. No. I. JANUARY, MDCCCXLIII. POETS AND POETRY OF AMERICA.. MR. GRISWOLD'S "Poets and Poetry of America," has been long enough before the public to call forth a very general verdict upon its merits, and that verdict is a favorable one. He has executed a, somewhat laborious and delicate task, with a degree of skill and critical dis crimination unequalled by any of his predecessors in the same field. A few feeble murmurs of complaint have indeed arisen in various quarters; for the vanity of some has been wounded by exclusion, and literary realousy, has not scrupled to insinuate that favoritism has admitted the names of many whose merits entitle them to no such distinction. But these murmurs have now subsided, and Mr. Griswold's book has taken rank in our libraries as the best collection of the kind ever offered to the reader. For ourselves, we think it but strict justice to say, that the candid spirit of the work, its just appreciation of *THE POETS AND POETRY OF AMERICA; with an Historical Introduction. By Rurus W. GRISWOLD. Second Edition, revised. Carey and IIart, Philadelphia: 1842. pp. 476. Royal octavo. poetical merit, and sound critical tone, are worthy of all praise. The fact that it has passed so speedily into a second edition, in times not at all favorable to literary enterprise, is a sufficient evidence of its favorable reception by the public. And yet, valuable as the work is as a collection of our Anthology, and numerous and beautiful as are the gems. of thought and diction scattered over its pages, we close the volume with a feeling of disappointment. The compiler has executed his task worthily-the critic has done ample justice to the materials in his hands, but after all, how scanty are those materials, and, as a whole, how deficient in merit of a high order! We do not mean to say that the impress of true genius is not here. Clearness of poetic vision, grandeur and strength of conception, variety, sweetness, majesty, and living power of expression are not wanting, and with these before us, we agree in the judgment of Mr. Griswold, that the volume speaks well for the past and present, and cheeringly for the future. We are not about to repeat the threadbare criticisms upon Bryant, Halleck, and Longfellow, when we say that some whose names appear in this collection are POETS in the strictest and highest sense of the term. Considering the youth of the country, and the many circumstances which have had a tendency to retard the advancement of letters, the volume affords sufficient refutation of the taunt, that our young and vigorous democracy has been prolific in every thing but intellectual power. But while we see that precious gifs have descended among us in no stinted measute, that many souls born for worthy atchievement in the realms of thought, have been nursed into poetic fire and strength in the prosaic but intensely active scenes of American life, we see also that these gifts have been wasted or perverted through neglect, or for want of due means of culture or opportunity of expansion. The efforts of native genius (if we may be allowed to employ that rather doubtful term) have been altogether brief, feeble, and fitful. There is evidence of power, but the results are inadequate and unsatisfactory. The brightest names in the collection before us, are now more familiar in the walks of commercial and political life, than in the world of letters. Our poets have quietly glided off into secular pursuits, and their places, for the most part, |