REVIEW OF COLONIAL POETRY.

THE Poetry of the New England Colonists is scarcely worthy of preservation except for the satisfaction of an historical curiosity. Though most industrious Kettell indeed tells us that "the early settlers were no less distinguished for their attachment to letters than for their religious character," yet his own collection contradicts him. With the exception of Philip Freneau, his volumes do not contain the name of a single writer of poetic merit born earlier than 1770. Of course there was verse-writing. Even the dullest period of the Georgian era permitted that. But the young Colonial Muse was mostly addicted to religious contemplation, and employed its nascent abilities in twisting versions of the Psalms and in the manufacture of occasional epitaphs and anagrams. At these last every person of education tried his or her hand; and all seem to have been about equally successful, differing in quantity, not much in quality. During the war for independence there was a change of humour, producing a mass of political poesy, sufficiently pungent, mixed with some smart personal, not very poetical satire. Trumbull's M Fingal, a long burlesque poem of patriotic intention, strikes the keynote of such productions; and Joel Barlow's ponderous Columbiad is the concluding orchestral crash. But even the war produced no Tyrtæus; and the change from polemical to political added little to the poetical character of the current "poetry." Griswold sums up his

account of "our ante-revolutionary period" in these words:"Very little verse worthy of preservation was produced in America. The Poetry of the Colonies was without originality, energy, feeling, or correctness of diction." Some specimens however, culled from Kettell and from Griswold's Curiosities of American Literature, may be interesting even as curiosities.

First growth on American soil was the Rev. William Morrell's Description of New England, in Latin Hexameters, in 1623, "hardly three years from the arrival of the Pilgrims." This was published in England, with a Translation; and has been reprinted in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. First English verse produced here was probably that of Mr. George Sandys, who while Treasurer for the Colony of Virginia, about 1625, completed his Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and is thought to have written all or part of his Paraphrase on the Psalms and Songs selected out of the Old and New Testaments, praised by both Pope and Dryden. First original colonial composition in rhyme is a poem believed to have been written about 1630, the author's name not known. It is headed

NEW ENGLAND'S ANNOYANCES.

NEW England's annoyances, you that would know them,
Pray ponder these verses which briefly do show them.

The place where we live is a wilderness wood,
Where grass is much wanting that's fruitful and good;
Our mountains and hills and our valleys below
Being commonly cover'd with ice and with snow:
And when the north-west wind with violence blows,
Then every man pulls his cap over his nose:
But, if any's so hardy and will it withstand,
He forfeits a finger, a foot, or a hand.

But, when the spring opens, we then take the hoe,
And make the ground ready to plant and to sow.
Our corn being planted and seed being sown,
The worms destroy much before it is grown;
And when it is growing some spoil there is made
By birds and by squirrels that pluck up the blade;
And, when it is come to full corn in the ear,
It is often destroy'd by racoon and by deer.

And now do our garments begin to grow thin,
And wool is much wanted to card and to spin.
If we get a garment to cover without,

Our other in-garments are clout upon clout.
Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn;
They need to be clouted soon after they're worn;
But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing,-
Clouts double are warmer than single whole clothing.

If fresh meat be wanting, to fill up our dish
We have carrots and pumpkins and turnips and fish:
And, is there a mind for a delicate dish,

We repair to the clam-banks, and there we catch fish.
'Stead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies:
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon;
If it was not for pumpkins we should be undone.
If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be contented and think it no fault;
For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips

Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips.

Now while some are going let others be coming,
For while liquor's boiling it must have a scumming;
But I will not blame them, for birds of a feather
By seeking their fellows are flocking together.
But you whom the Lord intends hither to bring,
Forsake not the honey for fear of the sting;
But bring both a quiet and contented mind,
And all needful blessings you surely will find.

We come next to the Bay Psalm Book" the Psalms in Metre, faithfully translated for the Use, Edification and Comfort of the Saints, in Public and Private, especially in New Englande," printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640. This was the first book printed in English America. Not the first printing: an Almanack and The Freeman's Oath had gone through the press in the year before. The Bay Psalm Book was the work of Thomas Welde of Roxbury, Richard Mather of Dorchester, and John Eliot"the Apostle of the Indians." "If" say the translators in their preface-"the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire and expect, let them con

sider that God's altar needs not our polishings; for we have respected rather a plain translation than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase, and so have attended to conscience rather than elegance, and fidelity rather than poetry, in translating Hebrew words into English language, and David's poetry into English metre." A few lines from the first Psalm may be sufficient to prove the correctness of the translators' judgment of their own performance.

O blessed man, that in th' advice

of wicked doeth not walk:
nor stand in sinner's way, nor sit
in chayre of scornful folk.
But in the law of Iehovah
is his longing delight:
and in his law doth meditate,
by day and eke by night.
And he shall be like to a tree
planted by water-rivers:

that in his season yields his fruit,

and his leaf never withers.

After two editions had been printed, it was deemed necessary to improve the diction, and the revision was undertaken by the Rev. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College, and Mr. Richard Lyon, “with a special eye both to the gravity of the phrase of Sacred Writ, and sweetness of the verse." They also added versifications of other portions of Scripture, under the title of Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament. This improved version had at the date of Kettell's writing (1829) gone through more than thirty editions in America, besides frequent reprints in England and Scotland. A sample of the improvement may be worth giving, taking again the first Psalm for comparison.

Corrected by Dunster and Lyon.
O blessed man that walks not in
th' advice of wicked men
Nor standeth in the sinners way
nor scorners seat sits in.

But he upon Jehovah's law
doth set his whole delight: