is very good sense, and much more Byronic than the cacophonous inversion T. W. proposes.
Blackwood's criticism of this hymn (probably by the Professor) is not at all too severe. Noble as are some parts of it, it is full of cockneyisms and platitudes. What can be worse than
"There let him lay."
Again:
"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!"
is most magnificent in its sonorous march: but the next line is equally absurd:
"Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain!"
In vain! Why, did not Columbus discover a world? Did not Nelson make England's fame eternal? Do not our tea, coffee, wine, and cotton cross the surging seas?
As to the "Gladiator" stanza, nobody can doubt that rushed is the right and most poetic reading. Rush is a strong word: gush a weak one, much hackneyed by neoteric poetasters. Byron never used gush in such a sense. Thoughts do not gush, though blood and water may. I therefore venture to differ from T. W. and his two illustrious friends.
MORTIMER COLLINS.