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PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR
the South are not wanting in any of these essential elements of the art. Our religion is uncorrupted- our patriotism fervid and our love for the beautiful and good is excessive and romantic. And yet with all these high and exalted qualities and faculties for the enjoyment of the tuneful art, it is a matter of deep regret that Poetry has.found so little favor amongst us. Having made these remarks we frankly confess we are now rejoiced to see a new contribution to Southern literature, and hail it as the harbinger of that lustre which genius is destined to shed over our land of beauty, enterprise and valor. And we rejoice the more because he whose sword was the certainty of victory, whose counsels were our Egis in peace and whose patriotism and purity of character have ever been our boast and pride, should have been the first to twine with living bays the solid column of Liberty which he contributed so essencially to erect. Gen Lamar who is universally known, not only as a statesman, orator and fine political writer, but as the brave soldier of San Jacinto and Monterey, is the author of the volume now before us. Having proved to be daring and valiant· on the field, he like a Knight of old has laid aside his trenchant sword and comes now-after the smoke of battle has cleared away, to sing melodious songs of hope and love, and prove him- self as worthy of the myrtle, as of the laurel crown. His poems are like the violets that bloom on the way side and regale the traveller with their delicate perfume. They display the soft and tender man- ner of Campbell and the absolute truth of Crabb. . To delicate and beautiful thought they unite facility and elegance of expression. The poet has thrown the soul of harmony into his verses; and we shall no- where find a sweeter tone of sentiment than in this collection of poems. Gen. Lamar has evidently a good notion of what constitutes excel- lency in writing. There is no patchwork in his productions-no step- ping aside for I extraneous ornament and uncalled for comparisons and other figures• of speech. His purpose is obvious and he marches directly to it. His stanzas are like a set of pearls-not at random strung-but wrought into a shining necklace for the adornment of Beauty. He is a poet of compliment, and writes the name of his lady love upon col- umns of porphyre, in capitals of agate. He sometimes weeps but his tears are the morning dews that brighten the rose and double its fragrance. . Jeffrey one of the first critics and the best reviewer of the age said, that "the poets who possess the greatest power of fascination are not those who present us with the greatest number of lively images or lofty sentiments, but who must successfully impart their own impulse to the current of our thoughts and feelings, and give the color of their brighter conceptions to those which they excite in their readers." He thought it was more difficult to express natural feelings than to nar- rate battles or describe prodigies. And such is precisely the character of Lamar's poetry. It is the melodious expression of natural feelings- a faithful transcript of the heart, in which the reader finds a perfect delineation of his own experience. From the martial proclivities of Gen Lamar as well as from the fiery eloquence of his prose productions, one would naturally suppose that his poetry would partake very largely of these qualities. Not so, how-
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