OTWITHSTANDING the spirit of many of his lyrics, and the exquisite sweetness and simplicity of others, we cannot but regret that so much of his time and talents was frittered away in compiling and composing for musical collections. SIR WALTER SCOTT. Of him who walked in glory and in joy, He had a very manly face, and a very melancholy look; but on the coming of those he esteemed, his looks brightened up, and his whole face beamed with affection and genius. I saw him years afterwards as he lay in his coffin: his broad open brow was pale and serene, and around it in masses, touched with grey, lay his sable hair. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. Independently of his writings, the character of Burns was one of great massiveness and power. There was a cast of true tragic greatness about it. There was a largeness in his heart, and a force in his passions, that corresponded with the mass of his intellect and the vigour of his genius. We receive just such an impression from reading his life as we do from perusing one of the greater tragedies of Shakespere. HUGH MILLER. Burns, with pungent passionings Set in his eyes. E. B. BROWNING. DRYDEN. NE portion of informing fire was given To brutes, the inferior family of heaven: The smith Divine, as with a careless Struck out the mute creation at a heat: UT to be just, 'twill to his praise be found, He wielded a power over the public mind approaching the absolute, and which he could have turned to virtuous, instead of vicious accountat first, it might have been amidst considerable resistance and obloquy, but ultimately with triumphant success. This he never attempted, and must therefore be classed, in this respect, with such writers as Byron, whose powers gilded their pollutions, less than their pollutions degraded and defiled their powers. G. GILFILLAN. His life was long, and when his head was grey, He was destined, if not to give laws to the stage of England, at least to defend its liberties, to improve burlesque into satire, and to leave to English literature a name second only to those of Milton and Shakespere. SIR WALTER SCOTT. THOMAS CHATTERTΟΝ. SPRING. HE budding floweret blushes at the light, The meads be sprinkled with the yellow hue, In daisied mantles is the mountain dight, The fresh young cowslip bendeth with the dew; When gentle winds do blow, to whistling din is brought, The evening comes, and brings the dews along, Around the ale-stake, minstrels sing the song, AUTUMN. When autumn bleak and sunburnt doth appear, When all the hills with woddie sede is white; When lightning and meteors do meet from far the sight; When the fair apples, red as evening sky, OOR Chatterton! He sorrows for thy fate, Who would have praised and loved thee, ere too late. Poor Chatterton, farewell! of darkest hues, This chaplet cast I on thy unshaped tomb. But dare no longer on the sad theme muse, Lest kindred woes persuade a kindred doom. S. T. COLERIDGE. The marvellous boy,— The sleepless soul that perished in his pride. His genius was universal, he excelled in every species of composition; so remarkable an instance of precocious talent being quite unexampled. His prose was excellent, and his power of picturesque description and satire great. WORDSWORTH. It may be affirmed of him that, with the evidences of a rare poetic power, such as is without parallel at his age, his works prove a capacity for further development to which it is impossible to fix a limit. DANIEL WILSON. Chatterton was a prodigy of genius, and would have proved the first of English poets, had he reached a mature age. WARTON. |