When golden Autumn, wreath'd in ripen'd corn, From purple clusters pour'd the foamy wine, Thy genius did his sallow brows adorn, And made the beauties of the season thine. With rustling sound the yellow foliage flies, And wantons with the wind in rapid whirls, The gurgling rivulet to the vallies hies, Whilst on its bank the spangled serpent curls. * * * * * Pale rugged Winter bending o'er his tread; His grizzled hair bedropt with icy dew; His eyes a dusky light congeal'd and dead, His robe a tinge of bright ethereal blue. His train a motley'd, sanguine, sable cloud, He limps along the russet dreary moor, Whilst rising whirlwinds, blasting keen and loud, Roll the white surges to the sounding shore. The lofty elm, the oak of lordly look, The willow shadowing the babbling brook, The hedges blooming with the sweets of May, With double pleasure mark'd the gladsome way. In "Resignation," from which these lines are taken, there is a fine personification of Hope, though the application of it is designedly ludicrous. See Hope array'd in robes of virgin white, Trailing an arch'd variety of light, Comes showering blessings on a ruin'd realm, And shows the crown'd director of the helm. With him poetry looks best when she is All deftly mask'd as hoar antiquity. Scarcely any of these later poems are free from grammatical incorrectness or ambiguity of expression. Some are debased by the more serious fault of ribaldry and profaneness. His irreligion, however, seems to have been rather the fluctuating of a mind that had lost its hold on truth for a time, than the scepticism of one confirmed in error. He acknowledges his dependence on a Creator, though he casts off his belief in a Redeemer. His incredulity does not appear so much the offspring of viciousness refusing the curb of moral restraint, as of pride unwilling to be trammelled by the opinions of the multitude. We cannot conceive that, with a faculty so highly imaginative, he could long have continued an unbeliever; or, perhaps, that he could ever have been so in his heart. But he is a portentous example of the dangers to which an inexperienced youth, highly gifted by nature, is exposed, when thrown into the midst of greedy speculators, intent only on availing themselves of his resources for their own advantage, and without any care for his safety or his peace. Some years ago the present laureat (Southey) undertook the office of editing his works, for the benefit of his sister, Mrs. Newton. It is to be lamented, that a project so deserving of encouragement does not appear to have been successful. FOOTNOTES [1] Illustrations of Literature, vol. i. p. 158. [2] Nichols's Literary An. vol. viii. p. 640. * * * * * HENRY KIRKE WHITE.