| MRS HEMANS. | 321 |
“Mrs. Hemans presents her best compliments to the Editor of the ‘Literary Gazette,’ with many acknowledgments for his very polite attention in sending her the number of his Journal which has announced her success to the public in so gratifying a manner. She has also to express her sense of his kindness in procuring the insertion of the paragraph containing this intelligence in the principal newspapers—an attention which cannot fail to be serviceable to her publications.
“With regard to the remarks on Mrs. Hemans’ works, which have occasionally appeared in the ‘Literary Gazette,’ she begs to assure the Editor of that highly respectable Journal, that she can never feel otherwise than satisfied by any expression of fair and impartial criticism, and trusts she may always have sufficient candour to derive advantage from all observations dictated by such a spirit.
“Mrs. Hemans waits to be decided by the opinion of her literary friends on the subject of publishing the poem which has been so highly honoured by the Royal Society of Literature. Should those friends not recommend its separate publication, it will give her much pleasure to avail herself of the privilege offered by the Editor of the ‘Literary Gazette.’ If, in the mean time, the accompanying unpublished little pieces, to which her name may be affixed, should be considered worthy of insertion in that Journal, Mrs. H. begs the Editor will do her the favour of accepting them.
“Mrs. Hemans cannot conclude without a renewal of her sincere thanks for that gentleman’s liberal assurances of his disposition to serve her, and kind congratulations on her present very unexpected success.”
| 322 | APPENDIX. |
“Sir,
“With the thanks I beg to offer for those numbers of the ‘Literary Gazette’ with which you have favoured me, I have also to express the gratification afforded me by the praises so liberally bestowed in them on one of my little compositions. If you are acquainted with the authors of the two beautiful pieces occasioned by my lines to the Ivy, I shall be much obliged by your presenting my acknowledgments to them.
“Praise so beautifully imagined, and so delicately expressed, as in the lines by Mr. Barton, cannot but be gratifying to deeper and purer feelings than those of mere vanity.
“I have the pleasure of sending another unpublished little piece, which is at your service, if you think it worthy of insertion. I hope the letter in which I took the liberty of consulting you, respecting my views of writing for a periodical work, has been received.
“I have the honour to be, Sir,
“Your obliged servant,
B. Barton’s note, with the poem alluded to, is also characteristic enough for insertion here:—
“My dear Friend,
“Above are my verses to Mrs. H., a copy of which,
addressed to her, I also enclose. I have not put my name to them, nor
avowed them as mine in their commencement, because, where my object is to
do honour to another, I would not, of myself, appear to be covertly seeking
it. But as my name, owing to thy early notice of it, and the subsequent
comments of the ‘Edinburgh
Review,’ as well as other Journals, is now known as that
of a Quaker Poet, I leave it entirely to thy discretion to introduce the
above trifle in such way as may appear to thee most likely to attract
attention to the article, if it seem to thee at all worthy of it. For the
sake of Mrs. Heman’s poetry,
which
| B. BARTON. | 323 |
“Thine ever most truly,
The tributes alluded to by Mrs. Hemans were not undeserving of the feeling she expresses.—Ex. gr. by Fitzadam.
|
Sad Ivy! pall of glory past!
To desolation vow’d so long,
Thou art call’d to lovelier life at last
By the soft spell of Hemans’ song.
|
|
Such life as inspiration’s fire
Kindles through Nature unconfined—
Creative breathings of the lyre—
The immortality of mind.
|
|
What, though of old the chosen screen
Of Bacchus’ temples
twined to be;
Yet all unloved such wassail scene,
Ill suited, lonely plant, to thee.
|
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Still true to grief and solitude,
Thy faith has won the guerdon high,
Which Genius, in her holy mood,
Now pours around thee, ne’er to die.
|
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Nor may that leaf old honours rue,
Transplanted e’en from brows divine,
When thus, sweet Poetess! anew
It blooms, for ever fresh, on thine.
|
The second by Bernard Barton; but I only copy two Stanzas of the ten of which it consists.
|
It is not that it long hath been
Combined with thoughts of festal rite;
The cup which thou has drunk, I ween,
Not always sparkles bright!
|
| 324 | APPENDIX. |
|
Nor is it that it hath been twined
Round Victory’s brow in days gone by;
Such glory hath no power to blind
Thy intellectual eye.
|
|
For thou canst look beyond the hour,
Elated by the wine-cup’s thrall—
Beyond the victor’s proudest power,
Unto the end of all.
And, therefore, would I round thy brow
The deathless wreath of Ivy place;
For well thy song has proved—that thou
Art worthy of its grace.
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