pirate, and has passages of vivid, dark painting resembling the style of Crabbe. He NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS (1806-1867) was a prolific and popular American writer, who excelled in light descriptive sketches. commenced author m 1827 with a volume of fugitive pieces, which was well received, and was followed in 1831 and 1835 by two volumes of similar character. In 1835 he published two volumes of prose, Pencillings by the Way,' which formed agreeable reading, though censurable on the score of personal disclosures invading the sanctity of private life. On this account, Willis was sharply criticised and condemned by Lockhart in the Quarterly Review.' Numerous other works of the same kind-Inklings of Adventure' (1836), Dashes of Life' (1845), Letters from Watering-places' (1849), People I have Met' (1850), &c., were thrown off from time to time, amounting altogether to thirty or forty separate publications; and besides this constant stream of authorship, Mr. Willis was editor of the New York Mirror' and other periodicals. Though marred by occasional affectation, the sketches of Willis are light, graceful compositions. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1809) contributed various pieces to American periodicals, and in 1836 published a collected edition of his 'Poems,' In 1843 he published Terpsichore,' a poem; in 1-46, Urania;' in 1850, Astræa, the Balance of Allusions,' a poem; and in 1858, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Fable,' a series of light and genial essays, full of fancy and humour, which has been successful both in the Old and the New World. Mr. Holmes is distinguished as a physician. He practised in Boston; in 1836 took his degree of M.D. at Cambridge; in 1838 was elected Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College; and in 1847 succeeded to the chair of Anatomy in Harvard University. In 1819 he retired from general practice. Some of the quaint sayings of Holmes have a flavour of fine American humour: Give me the luxuries of life, and I will dispense with it necessaries. Talk about conceit as much as you like, it is to human character what salt is to the ocean; it keeps it sweet, and renders it endurable. Say, rather, it is like the natural unguent of the sea-fowl's plumage, which enables him to sued the rain that falls on him, and the wave in which he dips. Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind over-tasked. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself. Stupidity often saves a man from going mad. Any decent person ought to go mad, if he really holds such and such opinions. It is very much to his discredit in every point of view, if h does not. I am very much ashamed of some people for retaining their reason, when they know perfectly well that if they were not the most stupid or the most selfish of human beings, they would become non-compotes at once. What a comfort a dull but kindly person is, to be sure, at times! A ground-glass sbade over a gas-lamp does not bring more solace to our dazzled eye than such a one to our minds. There are men of esprit who are excessively exhausting to some people. They are the talkers that have what may be called the jerky minds. They say br ght things on all possible subjects, but their zigzags rack you to death. After a jolting half-hour with these jerky companions, talking with a dull friend affords great relief. It is like taking a car in your lap after holding a squirrel. Don't you know how hard it is for some people to get out of a room after their 18 is over? We rather think we do They want to be off, but they don't know how to manage it. One would think they had been built in your room, and were waiting to be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial inclined plane for such visitors, which, being lubricated with certain smooth phrases, I back them down, metaphorically speaking, stern foremost, into their native element of out-of-doors. The Buccaneer's Island.-By DANA. The island lies nine leagues away. Of craggy rock and sandy bay, No sound but ocean's roar, Save where the bold, wild sea-bird makes her home, But when the light winds lie at rest, The black duck, with her glossy breast, How beautiful! no ripples break the reach, And inland rests the green warm dell; Mingling its sound with bleatings of the flocks, Nor holy bell, nor pastoral blat, Rich goods lay on the sand, and murdered men; Thirty-five.-By WILLIS. O weary heart! thou 'rt half-way home! Who goes with Hope and Passion back? Farewell, without a sigh or tear! To think that Love may leave us here! Yet stay!-as 'twere a twilight star I see a brightening light, from far. Steal down a path beyond the grave! Comes o'er-and lights my shadowy way- And, by its chastening light, All love from life's midway is driven. Save her whose clasped hand will bring thee on to heaven!' The American Spring.-By HOLMES. The southern slopes are fringed with tender green;. The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the mould In tears and blushes sighs herself away, And hides her cheek beneath the flowers of May. Her clustering curls the byacinth displays, With yellower flames the lengthened sunshine glows, Her snowy shoulders ghstening as she strips, Till morn is sultan of her parted lips. Then bursts the song from every leafy glade, The thrush, poor wanderer, dropping meekly down, The oriole, drifting like a flake of fire, Rent by the whirlwind from a blazing spire. Tue crack-brained bobolink courts his crazy mate Feels the soft air, and spreads his idle wings. Why dream I here within these caging walls, Deaf to her voice while blooming Nature calls, While from heaven's face the long-drawn shadows roll, H. W. LONGFELLOW. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, a distinguished American author both in prose and verse, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1807. Having studied at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, the poet, after three years' travelling and residence in Europe, became Professor of Modern Languages in his native college. This appointment he held from 1829 to 1835, when he removed to the chair of Modern Languages and Literature in Harvard University, Cambridge. While a youth at college, Mr. Longfellow contributed poems and criticisms to American periodicals. In 1833 he published a translation of the Spanish verses called 'Coplas de Manrique,' accompanying the poem with an essay on Spanish poetry. In 1835 appeared his 'Outre-Mer, or Sketches from beyond Sea,' a series of prose_descriptions and reflections somewhat in the style of Washington Irving. His next work was also in prose, Hyperion, a Romance' (1839), which instantly became popular in America. In the same year he issued his first collection of poems, entitled 'Voices of the Night.' In 1841 appeared Ballads, and other Poems;' in 1842, Poems on Slavery;' in 1843, The Spanish Student,' a tragedy; in 1845, The Poets and Poetry of Europe;' in 1846, The Belfry of Bruges;' in 1847, 'Evangeline,' a poetical tale in hexameter verse; in 1849, Kavanagh,' a prose tale; and The Seaside and the Fireside,' a series of short poems; in 1851, The Golden Legend,' a medieval story in irregular rhyme; and in 1855, The Song of Hiawatha,' an American-Indian tale, in a still more singular style of versification, yet attractive from its novelty and wild melody Thus: Ye who love the haunts of Nature, Through their palisades of pine-trees, In 1858 appeared 'Miles Standish;' in 1863, Tales of a Wayside Inn;' in 1866. Flower de Luce;' in 1867, a translation of Dante; in 1872, The Divine Tragedy,' a sacred but not successful drama, embodying incidents in the lives of John the Baptist and Christ; and the same year, Three Books of Song;' in 1875, The Masque of Pandora. Other poems and translations have appeared from the fertile pen of Mr. Longfellow; and several collected editions of his Poems, some of them finely illustrated and carefully edited, have been published. He is now beyond all question the most popular of the American poets, and has also a wide circle of admirers in Europe. If none of his larger poems can be considered great, his smaller pieces are finished with taste, and all breathe a healthy moral feeling and fine tone of humanity. An American critic (Griswold) has said justly that of all their native poets he best deserves the title of artist. |