Thee will I wed--lift up thy head--
All I have I give to thee--
Yes--all that is mine is also thine--
My lands and my ancestry."
The little birds sang and the orchard rang
With a heavenly melody,
On a Whit-sunday morn in the month of May.
Modern Giants
Yes! there are Giants on the earth in these days; but it is their
great bulk, and the nearness of our view, which prevents us from
perceiving their grandeur. This is how it is that the glory of the
present is lost upon the contemporaries of the greatest men; and,
perhaps this was Swift's meaning, when he said that Gulliver could
not discover exactly what it was that strode among the corn-ridges in
the Brobdignagian field: thus, we lose the brightness of things of
our own time in consequence of their proximity.
It is of the development of our individual perceptions, and the
application thereof to a good use, that the writer humbly endeavours
to treat. We will for this purpose take as an example, that which may
be held to indicate the civilization of a period more than any thing
else; namely, the popular perception of the essentials of Poetry; and
endeavour to show that while the beauties of old writers are
acknowledged, (tho' not in proportion to the attention of each
individual in his works to nature alone) the modern school is
contemned and unconsidered; and also that much of the active poetry
of modern life is neglected by the majority of the writers
themselves.
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