BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXVII. MAY, 1851. VOL. LXIX. CONTENTS. SOME AMERICAN POETS, 513 MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART IX., 531 TRANSATLANTIC TOURISTS, 545 ONWARD TENDENCIES, 564 THE PAPAL AGGRESSION BILL, 573 THE BOOK OF THE FARM, 588 AN EVENING WALK. BY THOMAS AIRD, 603 MODERN STATE TRIALS. PART V., 605 THE DINNER TO LORD STANLEY, 635 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXVII. MAY, 1851. VOL. LXIX. SOME AMERICAN POETS.[1] [1] LONGFELLOW'S _Poetical Works_. BRYANT'S _Poetical Works_. WHITTIER'S _Poetical Works_. _Poems._ By JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. _Poems._ By O. W. HOLMES. It is probable that there has been written much excellent poetry on the other side of the Atlantic with which we are unacquainted, which perhaps has never crossed the water at all. We should therefore be very unwise if we professed to give here, even if such a plan could be executed within the compass of a few pages, a general review of American poetry. All that we propose is, to make some critical observations on the writers before us, accompanied by such extracts as shall not unworthily occupy the attention of our readers. Even the list of names which we have set down at the head of this paper is the result more of accident than design: the works of these authors lay upon our table. The two first names will be recognised directly as the fittest representatives of American poetry; they rise immediately to the lips of every one who speaks upon the subject. The two last will probably be new to our readers, and if so, it will be our pleasant task to introduce them. One name only, familiar to all ears, has been purposely omitted. We have elsewhere spoken, and with no stinted measure of praise, of the writings of Mr Emerson. That writer has found in prose so much better a vehicle of thought than verse has proved to him, (and that even when the thought is of a poetic cast,) that to summon him to receive judgment here amongst the poets, would be only to detract from the commendation we have bestowed upon him.