One moment sparkled in the beam—
Then saw their native banks no more.
Of the second Part or Canto, the following is a brief analysis. The poet first addresses the Spirit of Ruin; then displays various forms of destruction—a shipwreck: the descent of an avalanche. The topics next treated are intellectual decay; the fatal effects of an ill-regulated and warm Imagination; the power of Love in youth; the influence of Imagination in our choice of life; the love of Fame; an active life necessary to a person of vivid Imagination; the thirst of some overcoming the love of life. Next occurs an apostrophe to the noble and patriotic and sainted spirits of the heroes of Switzerland and America—Arnold de Winkelried and George Washington. It is then shown that Imagination represents them as still living; the power of Imagination in old age is portrayed, and the poem concludes.
From this part, we regret that we have room but for two extracts; for these are of so excellent a character that the reader, like Oliver Twist, will be certain to ask for more.
Our first extract is a description of the life of an Alpine shepherd. The lines are eminently good.
Track thou my path where Alpine winters shed
Their lingering snows o’er bare St. Gothard’s head,
Ghastly his savage aspect; there recline
Rocks piled on rocks, and shagg’d with stunted pine;
Yet touched with beauty, when the purple haze