[150] Same
The less said about the poetry in Blackwood’s Magazine the better. Most of it is pretty poor stuff. It is strange, with men like Wordsworth and Coleridge and Byron living, that “Maga” should print such feeble verse—all the more strange when those responsible for the periodical were such venerators of intellectual power and so ably appreciative. The Wordsworthian influence is largely reflected in much of the Blackwood verse, in fact the Wordsworthian love for the simple and the commonplace is reflected to such an extent that it assumes the aspect of the commonplace run to seed. Of course, opposition to the Cockney School was pure principle on the part of the magazine; and no matter what fine poetry “the Shelley’s and the Keatses” produced, “Maga” must per necessity say nay! With the exception of some of the verse of James Hogg, and occasional bits like the anonymous “To My Dog”[151] in the issue for January 1818, there is practically nothing to hold one spellbound. There is a good deal of satiric verse on the order of that by “Ensign Odoherty”, already sampled. The first twelve volumes of the magazine contain much lengthy and serious verse bearing the signature Δ, whom we know to have been David M. Moir, “The amiable Delta” of the Blackwood group. His poetry takes no hold upon us of the present hour, but strangely enough, men like Tennyson, Jeffrey, Lockhart, found it praiseworthy, and even Wordsworth. It must be of some value if Wordsworth praised it who was not often known to show interest in any poetry but his own.
[151] Ibid., V. ii, p. 378
The number for March 1822 began the “Noctes Ambrosianae”[152], which continued till February 1835[153]. These papers are too well known to demand much mention here. Suffice it to say that during their career, they were the most popular and eagerly read feature of all periodical literature of the time.
[152] Ibid., V. xi, p. 369
[153] Ibid., V. xi-xxxvii
In July 1820, Lockhart reviewed Washington Irving’s “Knickerbocker’s History of New York”[154]. All mention of such papers as “Extracts from Mr. Wastle’s Diary”, which made its first appearance in March 1820[155], can scarcely be omitted. It is the Mr. Wastle of Peter’s Letters whom Lockhart makes responsible for this series, which, like the compositions of Timothy Tickler, is but another device for merry making over local events and persons.
[154] Ibid., V. vii, p. 360
[155] Ibid., V. vi, p. 688
Interesting reviews of now famous books, wholesale massacre of now worshipped men, sweeping conclusions historical and political, among them at times such momentous verdicts as appeared in May 1819, that “no great man can have a small nose”[156]—such marked the progress and reputation of the magazine. Whether we feel we can exalt wholly and unreservedly Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, we can at least heartily agree with Lockhart when he says: “I think the valuable part of The Materials is so great as to furnish no inconsiderable apology for the mixture of baser things.”[157] Moreover, it did more to counteract the influence of the Edinburgh Review than any other periodical living or dead.[158]