The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834 — John Shaqi
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 4, December, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
You are not to suppose, because I do not launch out in florid
declamation about the beauty, and grandeur, and magnificence, and all
that, of this scene, that it was less striking than you would naturally
suppose it must be. You know that I have neither talent nor taste for
_fine writing_, so you must take the picture as I give it, and draw on
your own imagination for the garniture. I have said nothing of the
rivers, but to tell you they were there, and flowing through a
landscape of many hundred thousand acres of the richest land on earth,
with the most beautifully variegated surface, all spread out under my
feet. I felt that the scene was sublime; and it is well for your
patience, that I have learned that sublime things are best described in
fewest words. It is certainly the finest I ever saw. There may be
others equal to it, but the earth does not afford _room_ for _many_
such. What will it be, when it becomes "a living landscape of groves
and corn-fields, and the abodes of men?" As it is, if the warrior, on
whose tomb I stood, could raise his head, he would see it in nothing
changed from what it was when his last sun set upon it.
THOM'S GROUP OF STATUARY,
FROM BURNS'S TAM O'SHANTER.
These remarkable specimens of sculpture, have been recently exhibited
in this city, and have attracted, we believe, universal admiration. The
artist is a native of Ayrshire, Scotland,--which also gave birth to the
Immortal Bard, whose conceptions are so happily illustrated by the
genius of the sculptor. Not pretending ourselves to any of those
mysterious capabilities, which are claimed by _connoiseurs_ and
_amateurs_, to judge of the productions of art; we rely upon our simple
perceptions of what is both true and excellent, in their design and
execution. The following is the passage from Burns, which the artist
has chosen in order to give visible and tangible form to the poet's
fancy:
Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right,
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,
Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely;
And at his elbow Souter Johnny,
His ancient trusty, drouthy crony:
Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter,
And aye the ale was growin' better:
The landlady and Tam grew gracious,
Wi' favours, secret, sweet, and precious:
The Souter tauld his queerest stories,
The landlord's laugh was ready chorus:
The storm without might rair and rustle,
Tam did na mind the storm a whistle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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