Beside the poems already mentioned, Montgomery has written a version of the Psalms, published under the title of "Songs of Zion," and a large number of short poetical pieces with some prose works. Among the former, "The Grave," "Night" "Prayer," "A good man's Monument," and many others are deservedly celebrated and popular. Montgomery is peculiarly the poet of feeling and imagination, the energies of his mind are suffered to flow in their natural channels; he obeys the best impulses of his warmest affections, and most ennobling passions, and embodies in his verse the eloquence of a tenderly susceptible heart. Affliction has often broken the chords of the lyre, yet its tones though plaintive are not desponding; their melancholy sweetness, soothes the irritation of his troubled bosom, and although it may not charm the woes of memory to forgetfulness, it gives them a less agonizing character, and imparts a sentiment of confidence in the great Arbiter of our destinies, which must ever prove a consolation in the most poignant affliction.] EXTRACTS FROM MONTGOMERY. THE GRAVE. There is a calm for those who weep, Low in the ground. The storm that wrecks the winter sky That shuts the rose. I long to lay this painful head From all my toil. For misery stole me at my birth, Take home thy child! On thy dear lap these limbs reclined, Nor leave one wretched trace behind Resembling me. Hark! a strange sound affrights mine ear; "I AM THE GRAVE! EE "Lash'd by the furies of the mind, From wrath and vengeance would'st thou flee? Ah! think not, hope not, fool, to find A friend in me: "By all the terrors of the tomb,- "I charge thee LIVE! repent and pray, And sin no more. "Art thou a WANDERER ?-hast thou seen O'erwhelming tempests drown thy bark? A shipwreck'd sufferer, hast thou been Misfortune's mark? "Art thou a MOURNER ?-hast thou known The joy of innocent delights; Endearing days for ever flown, And tranquil nights? "Though long of winds and waves the sport, LIVE! thou shalt reach a sheltering port,- "TO FRIENDSHIP didst thou trust thy fame, And was thy friend a deadly foe,Who stole into thy breast, to aim A surer blow? "LIVE!—and repine not o'er his loss, A loss unworthy to be told: Thou hast mistaken sordid dross For friendship's gold. "Seek the true treasure, seldom found, "Did WOMAN's charms thy youth beguile,- And sold thy love? "LIVE! 'Twas a false bewildering fire; Thrills the fond soul with wild desire,- "Thou yet shalt know how sweet, how dear, "A nobler flame shall warm thy breast,- "Now, traveller in the vale of tears, Through Time's dark wilderness of years "There is a calm for those who weep, "The Soul, of origin divine, God's glorious image, freed from clay, "The SUN is but a spark of fire,— SHALL NEVER DIE!" FRIENDS. Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? Beyond the flight of time, Beyond this vale of death,- There is a world above, Where parting is unknown,- Form'd for the good alone; Thus star by star declines, As morning high and higher shines Nor sink those stars in empty night, They hide themselves in heaven's own light. COLERIDGE. THE POET AND HIS POETRY. [SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, was born in the year 1772, and was the youngest son of the Reverend John Coleridge, Vicar of Ottery St. Mary, in the county of Devon. He received the earlier part of his education at Christ's Hospital, and at the age of eighteen, was removed to Jesus College, Cambridge. He left the university full of generous enthusiasm, and, carried away by the feeling which possessed a great portion of Europe, in the period immediately preceding the French Revolution of 1789; he conceived, in conjunction with Mr. Southey and some of his other friends, a remarkable scheme for regenerating human society. Their design was to form a community in some of the uninhabited parts of America, in the management of which, every voice should be equally listened to, and of course all distinctions of rank should be excluded. They went to Bristol with the intention of embarking, but from some cause or other altered their minds. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Coleridge married, and took up his abode in a retired cottage, near Nether Stowey in Somersetshire. As he had very slender finances and no settled occupation, he would have become speedily embarrassed by the charges of an increasing family, if it had not been for the kind assistance of Mr. Thomas Wedgwood, by which he was enabled to take a trip to Germany, for the purpose of studying the German language and literature, in company with Mr. Wordsworth. On his return to his native land, he was for a while editor of the Morning Post newspaper, and subsequently went to Malta, in the capacity of secretary to the governor, Sir Alexander Ball. When he finally returned to England, he resided at Keswick, a near neighbour to his old friends, Wordsworth and Southey; and subsequently removed to Highgate, where he died in 1832. The poetry of Coleridge is marked by great vigour of genius and intellect, an intense earnestness of feeling and of thought, such as resulted, and could alone result, from the conviction that true poetry was not a mere amusement but a most effective mode of teaching the grandest and most comprehensive truths. This distinguishes all he ever wrote; but in those particulars which depend on imagery and forms of expression, there is a great difference between his earlier and later productions. The first collection of poems he published, appeared about the time of his leaving the university; his language then was burdened with an excess of epithets and compound epithets, so as to convey a thick crowd of images, which, not having room to expand, cramped each others beauties. While he resided at Nether Stowey, his close intimacy with Wordsworth, without doubt, had a great influence over his mind, and served to teach him the value of that simple and reverential regard to nature and natural modes of expression which so remarkably distinguished his illustrious friend. In the poems which he wrote at that place and immediately after leaving it, the operation of that influence may be distinctly seen, though still associated with some of his youthful faults. |