The poem opens finely. There are none of these idle prefatory lines which one may skip over before one comes to the subject. Verses 9th and 10th in particular,
“Where ocean’s unseen bound
Leaves a drear world of waters round,”
are truly beautiful. The simile of the hurricane is likewise fine; and, indeed, beautiful as the poem is, almost all the similes rise decidedly above it. From verse 31st to verse 50th is a pretty eulogy on Britain. Verse 36th, “That foul drama deep with wrong,” is nobly expressive. Verse 46th, I am afraid, is rather unworthy of the rest; “to dare to feel” is an idea that I do not altogether like. The contrast of valour and mercy, from the 36th verse to the 50th, is admirable.
Either my apprehension is dull, or there is something a little confused in the apostrophe to Mr. Pitt. Verse 55th is the antecedent to verses 57th and 58th, but in verse 58th the connexion seems ungrammatical:—
“Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
With no gradation mark’d their flight,
But rose at once to glory’s height.”
Ris’n should be the word instead of rose. Try it in prose. Powers,—their flight marked by no gradations, but [the same powers] risen at once to the height of glory. Likewise, verse 53d, “For this,” is evidently meant to lead on the sense of the verses 59th, 60th, 61st, and 62d: but let us try how the thread of connexion runs,—
“For this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The deeds of mercy, that embrace
A distant sphere, an alien race,
Shall virtue’s lips record and claim
The fairest honours of thy name.”
I beg pardon if I misapprehended the matter, but this appears to me the only imperfect passage in the poem. The comparison of the sunbeam is fine.
The compliment to the Duke of Richmond is, I hope, as just as it is certainly elegant The thought,
“Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sends from her unsullied source,
The gems of thought their purest force,”