tively beautiful! the curse of him "who knoweth where the lightnings hide," the lofty sublimity of Oriska in scorning death, and the abrupt grandeur of the conclusion, unite in constituting it a most lovely poem. How gently falls upon the ear, and enters the very heart, this beautiful description!

Their sweet bower

Rose like a gem amid the rural scene,
O'er-canopied with trees, where countless
birds

Carol'd unwearied, the gay squirrel leaped,
And the wild bee went singing to his work,
Satiate with luxury. Through matted grass,

With silver foot, a frolic fountain stole,
Still track'd by deep'ning greenness, while

afar

The mighty prairie met the bending skies, A sea at rest, whose sleeping waves were flowers.

The note which precedes the poem, proves the Bell of the Wreck to have been founded on fact: it is written, as the reader will now observe, with much feeling and beauty.

BELL OF THE WRECK.

Toll, toll, toll,

Thou bell by billows swung,

And night and day thy warning words
Repeat with mournful tongue!
Toll for the queenly boat,

Wreck d on yon rocky shore;
Sea weed is in her palace halls,
She rides the surge no more!
Toll for the master bold,

The high-soul'd and the brave,
Who ruled her like a thing of life
Amid the crested wave!
Toll for the hardy crew,

Sons of the storm and blast,
Who long the tyrant ocean dared,
But it vanquished them at last!
Toll for the man of God,

Whose hallowed voice of prayer
Rose calm above the stifled groan
Of that intense despair!
How precious were those tones

On that sad verge of life,
Amid the fierce and freezing storm,
And the mountain-billow's strife!

Toll for the lover lost

To the summon'd bridal train!
Bright glows a picture on his breast,
Beneath the unfathom'd main.
One from her casement gazeth
Long o'er the misty sea;
He cometh not, pale maiden,
His heart is cold to thee!

Toll for the absent sire,

Who to his home drew near,
To bless a glad expecting group,
Fond wife, and children dear!
They heap the blazing hearth

The festal board is spread,
But a fearful guest is at the gate,
Room for the sheeted dead!

Toll for the loved and fair,

The whelm'd beneath the tide,
The broken harps around whose strings
The dull sea monsters glide!
Mother and nursling sweet,

Reft from the household throng;
There's hitter weeping in the nest
Where breath'd their soul of song.

Toll for the hearts that bleed

'Neath misery's furrowing trace!
Toll for the hapless orphan left
The last of all his race!
Yea, with thy heaviest knell
From surge to rocky shore,
Toll for the living, not the dead,
Whose mortal woes are o'er!

Toll, toll, toll,

O'er breeze and billow free,
And with thy startling lore instruct
Each rover of the sea;

Tell how o'er proudest joys

May swift destruction sweep,
And bid him build his hopes on high,
Lone Teacher of the deep!

The Advertisement of a Lost Day, is written in a moral, contemplative, and eminently religious vein, and so as to attract the attention of the most giddy; they must be truly abandoned, and incapable of reflection, who can read the following lines without deriving benefit from their suggestions.

ADVERTISEMENT OF A LOST DAY

Lost! lost! lost!

A gem of countless price, Cut fom the living rock,

And graved in Paradise;

Set round with three times eight
Large diamonds, clear and bright,
And each with sixty smaller ones,
All changeful as the light.

Lost-where the thoughtless throng
In Fashion's mazes wind,
Where trilleth Folly's song,
Leaving a sting behind;
Yet to my hand twas given
A golden harp to buy,

Such as the white-robed choir attune
To deathless minstrelsy.

Lost

lost! lost!

I feel all search is vain; That gem of countless cost

Can ne'er be mine again;

Mrs. Sigourney has given

I offer no reward,

For till these heart-strings sever,
I know that Heaven-entrusted gift
Is reft away for ever.

But when the sea and land
Like burning scroll have fled,
I'll see it in His hand

Who judgeth quick and dead;
And when of scath and loss

That man can ne'er repair,
The dread inquiry meets my soul,
What shall it answer there?

evidence in Niagara, as well as

in many other of her poems, of the possession of masculine power, and grasp of thought. How full of vigor, and lofty imagination, this line!

God hath set his rainbow on thy forehead."

As an evidence of the power of genius in investing any subject with interest, and also as an example of a well organized mind drawing sublime inferences from apparently the most trivial objects, The Shred of Linen deserves perusal. The Mourning Daughter is another instance of the forcible imagination, original conception, and exalted mind of the authoress. The tale is told with a matchless dignity, and calm simplicity, which bears us along like a majestic stream, mirroring its truth in its transparent beauty.

Napoleon at Helena, is written in a nervous strain of lyric grandeur, evidencing great classic taste, sound judgment, and the same depth of thought, and masculine vigor, which have been already adverted to. As an exhibition of great spirit and national pride, which render it highly interesting, we shall instance Columbia's Ships-a narrative of much interest, and wearing a romantic dress. The Trial of the Dead, can hardly be read without communicating to the reader a portion of the weird and mysterious feeling, which influences its incident and language. For its length, perhaps the prettiest thing that ever was written is, The Death of an Infant; the ideas are beautiful in the extreme, and follow each other in a most natural way, which leaves an impression on the mind, of excellence not to be surpassed: it is enough to convert an Infidel, and to bring tears into the eyes of the veriest misanthrope that exer lived.

The Rainbow pours forth a fresh flood of her thoughtful, yet energetic, and glowing poetry: how beautifully the poet insinuates that the junction of the smile and the tear-drop, have resulted in the creation of the rainbow. It is an idea

worthy of Homer, and heathen mythology has not produced any thing to surpass it. Another talisman, with power to "Ope the sympathetic source of tears," is The Infant's Prayer. Harold and Tosti, shew the authoress to be in no wise deficient in that simple grace, dramatic power, and spirited method, so essential for the perfection of the ballad. If any other instance of the psychological beauties of Mrs. Sigourney were required, we should find one in her beautiful poem, called Dreams. is full of superb images, woven in the light of the brightest fancy, yet formed of the essence of the soundest truth: there is a most charming moral conclusion evolved from the consideration of the subject.

It

Man's Three Guests, is an exquisite ballad, remarkable for its beauty, and appropriateness; it is written in an interesting, yet easily comprehended strain, which might effect more good by leading the mind to the contemplation of its more essential objects, than a thousand homilies, and all the tracts which ever yet issued from Exeter Hall.

An excellent instance of the deep reflection, analytical power, and graphic mode of treatment of the writer, is afforded us, in The Unrifled Cabinet-We present the reader with its

Our stewardship of thought. When shall

it be

That we may hoard for intellect, nor find
The work-day World, or stealthy Time, a
thief?

Leases of tenements amid the sands
And on the cloud, papers and bonds we had,
In Earth's handwriting, well endorsed and
seal'd

By smooth-tongued Hope.

They're lost! The lock is forced!
The casket rifled! All our treasures gone!
And only a brown cobweb in their place,
Spun by some mocking spider.

Still, ye say
We may obtain a cabinet, whose hoard
Robber, nor faithless friend, nor rust of
years,
Shall e'er invade.

When shall that time be? When? When Heaven's pure gate unfoldeth, and thy soul

Glides like a sunbeam through.
Then shall it be.

With the following poem, entitled Alice, in Пleaven, to her Family, left on Earth, and but little known in this country, we close our notice of the American Hemans. It is necessary to mention that this poem was composed on

the occasion of the death of a highly interesting deaf and dumb young lady; she is here represented as having arrived at the mansions of bliss, and, meeting her father, thus apostrophises those fond objects of her affection, whom she had left on earth :

I.

SISTERS! there's music here!

From countless harps it flows,
Throughout this bright celestial sphere,

Nor pause nor discord knows:
The seal is melted from my ear

By love divine,

And what thro' life I pin'd to hear,

Is mine! is mine!

The warbling of an ever-tuneful choir,

And the full deep response of David's sacred lyre.
Did kind earth hide from mo

Her broken harmony,

That thus the melodies of Heaven might roll,

And whelin in deeper tides of bliss, my rapt, my wondering soul 2

II.

Joy! I am mute no more;

My sad and silent years,

With all their loneliness, are o`er;

Sweet Sisters! dry your tears.

Listen, at hush of eve-listen at dawn of day-
List at the hour of prayer, Can you not hear my lay?
Untaught, uncheck'd it came,

As light from chaos beamed,
Praising his everlasting name,

Whose blood from Calvary stream'd,

And still it swells that highest strain, the song of the redeem'd.

III.

Brother!-my only one!

Belov'd from childhood's hours,
With whom, beneath the vernal sun,
I wander'd, when our task was done,
To gather early flow'rs,-

I cannot come to thee,
Though 'twas so sweet to rest
Upon thy gently guiding arm,
Thy sympathising breast,-
'Tis better here to be.

IV.

No disappointments shroud
The angel bow'rs of joy;
Our knowledge hath no cloud,
Our pleasures no alloy;

The fearful words-to purt,

Are never breath'd above;

Heaven hath no broken heart-
Call me not hence-my love.

V.

Oh Mother! He is here,

To whom my soul so grew,
That when Death's fatal spear,
Stretched him upon his bier,
I fain must follow too.

His smile my infant griefs restrain'd;
His image in my childish dreun,
And o'er my young affections reign'd,

With gratitude unutter'd and supreme;

But yet, till these refulgent skies burst forth in radiant glow,

I knew not half th' unmeasured debt a daughter's heart doth owe.

VI.

Ask ye, if still his heart returns its ardent glow?
Ask ye, if filial love
Embodied spirits prove?

Look! 'tis a little space, ere thou shalt rise to know:
I bend to soothe thy woes,

"How near," thou canst not see;

I watch thy lone repose

ALICE doth comfort thee;

To welcome thee I wait-blest Mother, come to me!

The greatest humorist among his poetical brethren is Oliver Wendell Holmes. His humor is of the most quaint and peculiar order, and like all humorous poets of a high rank, he is capable of affecting the most melting pathos. Satire is another vein into which his humor frequently runs, and even in didactic themes he pours forth a rich ingredient of this acceptable spirit. In all his humorous compositions, the most excellent sense and worthy purpose are clearly manifest. Holmes is not merely a humorist, he has given more than sufficient evidence of his capability in treating contemplative subjects, and when his muse aspires to that species of composition, his language is always the most elegant, and his ideas the most elevated of their kind. He is also, it must be considered, a poet of greater promise than performance, and it would be exceedingly hazardous to venture an opinion as to the degree of fame which he may hereafter reach. That humor is his most congenial theme, and the one whose cultivation will obtain for him the greatest amount of success, there is no reason to doubt. He is perhaps the only humorist his country has produced, and this in itself might be sufficient to magnify his celebrity; but the great depth of his humorous talent, its variety, and its happy co-existence with the most thrilling pathos, the "Seria mista Iocis" are the solid title-deeds which establish the author's fame. To these it is true one more might be added, which is simply this; that having principally made use of this distinguished talent for the laudable purpose of instructing the poor, and of elevating their tastes, eradicating their vices, and improving their general condition, both moral and physical, as well as for the benefit of deserted youth, in inculcating generous and honorable principles, and in developing their growing tastes, the motive which sanctifies such compositions, independent of their inimitable adaptation to the task, by reason of their attractive nature, must necessarily insure no inconsiderable amount of respect and admiration to the benefit of him who has given