By this time our readers must be pretty well satisfied as to the meaning
of his sentences and the structure of his lines: we now present them
with some of the new words with which, in imitation of Mr. Leigh Hunt,
he adorns our language.
We are told that 'turtles _passion_ their voices,' (p. 15); that 'an
arbour was _nested_,' (p. 23); and a lady's locks '_gordian'd_ up,' (p.
32); and to supply the place of the nouns thus verbalized Mr. Keats,
with great fecundity, spawns new ones; such as 'men-slugs and human
_serpentry_,' (p. 41); the '_honey-feel_ of bliss,' (p. 45); 'wives
prepare _needments_,' (p. 13)--and so forth.
Then he has formed new verbs by the process of cutting off their natural
tails, the adverbs, and affixing them to their foreheads; thus, 'the
wine out-sparkled,' (p. 10); the 'multitude up-followed,' (p. 11); and
'night up-took,' (p. 29). 'The wind up-blows,' (p. 32); and the 'hours
are down-sunken,' (p. 36.)
But if he sinks some adverbs in the verbs, he compensates the language
with adverbs and adjectives which he separates from the parent stock.
Thus, a lady 'whispers _pantingly_ and close,' makes '_hushing_ signs,'
and steers her skiff into a '_ripply_ cove,' (p. 23); a shower falls
'_refreshfully_,' (45); and a vulture has a '_spreaded_ tail,' (p. 44.)
But enough of Mr. Leigh Hunt and his simple neophyte.--If any one should
be bold enough to purchase this 'Poetic Romance,' and so much more
patient, than ourselves, as to get beyond the first book, and so much
more fortunate as to find a meaning, we entreat him to make us
acquainted with his success; we shall then return to the task which we
now abandon in despair, and endeavour to make all due amends to Mr.
Keats and to our readers.--_The Quarterly Review_.
COCKNEY SCHOOL OF POETRY.
No[.] IV.
------------------------------OF KEATS,
THE MUSES' SON OF PROMISE, AND WHAT FEATS
HE YET MAY DO, &C.
CORNELIUS WEBB.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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