- A.
- Apostrophe to an Old Hat. By J. G. Saxe, [69]
- A Lady on the Rights of Women, [79]
- A Second Ralph Ringwood, [81]
- Ascent of Mount Ætna. By Thomas Cole, 103
- A Night on the Prairie. By a Buffalo Hunter, 114
- A Winter Trip to Trenton Falls, 133
- A Veritable Sea-Story. By Harry Franco, 151
- A Few Hints on the Philosophy of Size, 156
- American Manners and American Literature, 180
- An Apostrophe to Health, 217
- Anacreontic. By ‘G. H. H.’, 275
- A Christmas Carol in Prose, 276
- American Ptyalism: ‘Quid Rides?’ 288
- A Pilgrimage to Penshurst. By C. Alexander, Esq., 307
- A First Night of Racine. By Flaneur, 345
- Apostrophe to Time. By Miss Mary Gardiner, 353
- An Alligatorical Sketch, 361
- Address and Poem at Boston, 387
- A Brace of ‘Pellets’ from Julian, 391
- A Dream. By John Waters, 432
- A Piscatorial Eclogue, [46]
- A Picture by Murillo, 503
- A Song. By John Waters, 516
- Autobiography of the Prairie Hermit, 557
- A Dream of Youth, 561
- A New Spirit of the Age, 583
- A Day With the great Seatsfield, 584
- A Thrust with a Two-edged Weapon, 590
- Another ‘Pellet’ from Julian, 595
- B.
- Benthamiana, 282
- Belizarius: A Historical Sketch, 337
- Birth-Day Meditations, 527
- C.
- Coronation of George the Fourth, 138
- Curiosities of Foreign and Domestic Literature, 490
- Clark’s Literary Remains, 495, 578
- D.
- Descriptive Poetry, [1]
- Drawings and Tintings. By Alfred B. Street, 387
- Disguised Derivative Words in English, 570
- E.
- Editor’s Table, [78], 180, 283, 389, 499, 584
- Essay on a Passage in Macbeth. By John Waters, 153
- Elementary Treatise on Human Physiology, 178
- Early Spring at the Homestead, 438
- English State Trials under the Popish Plot, 447
- Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, 595
- F.
- Freedom’s Beacon at Bunker-Hill, 132
- Fragments from the Greek. By ‘G. H. H.’ 361
- G.
- I.
- I Follow: from the French, 145
- Isabel: the Death of the Young, 218
- Idyll: in imitation of Theocritus, 323
- Inscription for a Sarcophagus, 367
- Italy and the Italians. By J. T. Headley, Esq., 498
- Impudence of the French, 499
- J.
- Joseph C. Neale’s ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ 184
- K.
- Kendall’s Narrative of the Santa Fe Expedition, 382
- L.
- Lines to a Fringed Gentian. By William Cullen Bryant, Esq., [Footnote 3]
- Lines to Death, the Great Conqueror, [44]
- Letter to the Editor from Mr. James Jessamine, [58]
- Love’s Elysium: from the German, [61]
- Lines to an Evening Cloud, [73]
- Literary Notices, [74], 170, 276, 382, 490, 578
- Lines to Time. By Mrs. J. Webb, 113
- Life’s Young Dream, 119
- Life: a Sonnet, 159
- Lines to J. T. of Ireland. By C. W. Day, Esq., 169
- Life and Times of the late William Abbott, 187
- Lines sent with a Bouquet. By Park Benjamin, Esq., 211
- Legend of Don Roderick. By Washington Irving, 262, 324, 418
- Literary Record, 305
- Lines with a ‘Floral Messenger,’ 534
- Lines written under a portrait of Jupiter and Danäe, 430
- Lines to my Sister. By R. S. Chilton, 472
- Legend of the Subjugation of Spain. By Washington Irving, 572
- Lines by Prof. Plutarch Shaw, of Tinnecum, 577
- Life in the New World. By Seatsfield, 581
- M.
- N.
- Night and Morning. By ‘Polygon’, 257
- Night-Thoughts: to Blumine, 436
- North-American Review for the April quarter, 492
- O.
- Old reflections on the New Year, [78]
- One Reading from Two Poets. By John Waters, 218
- On Rivers and Other Things. By do., 349
- P.
- Poems of James Russell Lowell, 170
- Professor Shaw, of Tinnecum, 549
- Poetry and History of Wyoming. By William L. Stone, Esq., 382
- R.
- Reminiscenses of a Dartmoor Prisoner, 146, 356, 517
- Rêves et Souvenirs, 343
- Religious Controversy. By ‘Flaccus,’ 445
- S.
- Song of the New Year. By Mrs. R. S. Nichols, [25]
- Stanzas suggested by Gliddon’s Lectures, [29]
- Sketches of East Florida: St. Augustine, [45]
- Sonnet to the Old Year, [53]
- Some Thoughts on the Country, [70]
- Scenes and Scenery in the Sandwich Islands, [77]
- Sicilian Scenery and Antiquities. By Thomas Cole, 103, 236
- Some Sentiments on Sonnets, with Sundry Specimens, 283
- Stanzas to Mary. By Mrs. M. E. Hewitt, 348
- Stanzas on the Burial of an Infant, 460
- Stanzas to Niagara. By Claude Halcro, 489
- Stanzas to my Three Departed Sisters, 556
- Stanzas Written in Indisposition. By the late Willis Gaylord Clark, 569
- T.
- The Idleberg Papers: a Christmas Yarn, [11]
- Thoughts on Color. By John Waters, [26]
- The Quod Correspondence, [30], 120, 245, 368, 473, 529
- Thoughts from Bulwer. By Mrs. M. T. W. Chandler, [52]
- The Mail Robber, [53]
- The Æneid of Virgil: with Notes by Chas. Anthon, [76]
- The Sacrifice, 127
- The Death-Bed. By the ‘Country Doctor,’ 128
- The Ruins of Burnside. By James Lawson, Esq., 137
- The Smithy. By Alfred B. Street, Esq., 155
- Two Pictures: Love Celestial and Love Terrestrial, 160
- The Hermit of the Prairie, 161
- Translation from Catullus. By Rev. Geo. W. Bethune, 166
- The Painted Rock, 167
- Thirty Years among the Players of England and America, 175
- The Study of Woman’s Life, 179
- The American Review, 179
- The North American Review, for January, 183
- The Alms-House: a New-England Sketch, 212
- The Tyranny of Affection, 222
- The Fratricide’s Death, 232
- The Spectre Imp. By Mr. George Harvey, 338
- The Church Bell, 368
- The Inner Life of Man. By Mr. Charles Hoover, 389, 599
- The Floral Resurrection, 417
- The Dog-Star Spirit: or, Tray’s Reflections, 431
- The Poet Halleck: Epistle to the Editor, 437
- The Plague at Constantinople in 1837, 511
- The Song of Death. By Miss Mary Gardiner, 523
- The Householder. by John Waters, 528
- The Hearth of Home, 548
- V.
- Vicissitudes, [10]
- Voices of Affection, 336
- W.
- Winter Evening: an Extract. By J. G. Percival, Esq., [24]
- What is Transcendentalism? 205
- Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor, 281
- What is It? A Lover’s Query, 489
Transcriber’s Note: The page numbers in the index convert to issues in the following way:
| Month | Pages |
|---|---|
| January, 1844 | 1-102 |
| February | 103-204 |
| March | 205-306 |
| April | 307-408 |
| May | 409-510 |
| June | 511-608 |
THE KNICKERBOCKER.
| Vol. XXIII. | January, 1844. | No. 1. |
DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.
BY A NEW CONTRIBUTOR.
Whatever the poets may say, it is incontrovertible that the great majority of men look upon the beauties and glories of Nature that surround them with almost entire indifference. We shall not inquire whether this is the result of a natural incapacity to perceive and admire the beautiful and sublime, or whether it is that their impressions are so deadened by familiarity as to be passed by unnoticed. Probably the former is the case with the greater number; although we cannot believe with some writers, that all our ideas of beauty are but the results of association, or of our perceptions of the proportion, or fitness, or utility of things. When we say that some things are naturally agreeable, and others naturally disagreeable, we have said all that we know about the matter; and this amounts to nothing more than a confession of our ignorance. Yet, if we admit in all men the existence of a natural sense of beauty, daily observation shows us that the pleasure arising from it is in most cases very feeble and evanescent. How many live in the midst of the most magnificent natural scenery, and never perceive its beauties until they are pointed out to them by some intelligent traveller! And often if admiration be professed, it is of that vague, undistinguishing kind, which indicates little knowledge of the causes why they admire. Even among men of cultivated tastes, there is much more of affected than real enthusiasm.
If what we have said be true, it is a curious subject of inquiry why descriptive poetry has been so popular. How happens it that so many who have looked upon Nature herself with great indifference, have been so much delighted with the reflection of her image in the pages of the poets? We suspect, indeed, that a part of the popularity of this class of writers is factitious. Thomson, the most popular, is we suspect oftener purchased than read; and his ‘Seasons’ are not unfrequently spoken of with admiration by those who know little of them but the episodes. The chief interest of the ‘Task’ is to be sought for in other sources than its descriptions, notwithstanding the curiosa felicitas of Cowper’s diction.