The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 2, October, 1834Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 2, October, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
We did not intend by the foregoing observations, to bespeak any
extraordinary share of public favor towards the poems of Miss Davidson.
What we have said in relation to the neglect of American talent, was
designed to have a general and not particular application.
Notwithstanding we hear that the poems before us have been
extravagantly praised beyond the Atlantic, we are not so intoxicated by
a little foreign flattery as to believe that they are destined to
immortality. Some may console themselves, if they please, for the whole
ocean of obloquy and contempt cast upon us from the British press, by
regarding with favorable eyes this little rivulet of praise bestowed
upon the juvenile efforts of a lovely and interesting girl. We are not
of that number; we shall endeavor to decide upon the work before us,
unbiassed by trans-atlantic opinion--and we shall render precisely that
judgment which we would have done if that opinion had been pronounced
in the usual tone of British arrogance and contumely.
Regarding the volume before us as a literary production merely, and
supposing it to have been the offspring of a matured mind, we do not
think that it possesses any considerable merit. Estimating its
contents, however, as the first lispings of a child of genius,--as
furnishing proofs of the existence of that ethereal spark which, under
favorable circumstances, might have been kindled into a brilliant
flame, we do consider it as altogether extraordinary. We do not say
that these poems are equal to the early productions of Chatterton,
Henry Kirke White, or Dermody, those prodigies of precocious
talent,--but we entertain not a shadow of doubt if Miss Davidson had
lived, that she would have ranked among the highest of her own sex in
poetical excellence. In forming a correct judgment upon the offspring
of her muse, her youth is not alone to be considered. She had also to
contend with those remorseless enemies of mental effort,--poverty,
sorrow, and ill health; and it is, perhaps, a circumstance in her
history not unworthy of notice, that possessing a high degree of
personal beauty, and being on that account the object of much
admiration and attention, she did not suffer herself to be withdrawn
from the purer sources of intellectual enjoyment. Love indeed, seems to
have found no permanent lodgment in her heart. It might have stolen to
the threshold and infused some of its gentle influences, but she seems
to have been resolved to cast off the silken cord before it was too
firmly bound around her. Thus in the piece which bears the title of
_Cupid's Bower_, written in her fifteenth year.
"Am I in fairy land?--or tell me, pray,
To what love-lighted bower I've found my way?
Sure luckless wight was never more beguiled
In woodland maze, or closely-tangled wild.
And is this Cupid's realm?--if so, good by!
Cupid, and Cupid's votaries, I fly;
No offering to his altar do I bring,
No bleeding heart--or hymeneal ring."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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