The Field of the Grounded Arms contains twenty-four quatrains,
without rhyme, and, we think, of a disagreeable versification. In this
poem are to be observed some of the finest passages of Halleck. For
example-
Strangers! your eyes are on that valley fixed
Intently, as we gaze on vacancy,
When the mind's wings o'erspread
The spirit world of dreams.
and again-
O'er sleepless seas of grass whose waves are flowers.
Red-jacket has much power of expression with little evidence of
poetical ability. Its humor is very fine, and does not interfere, in
any great degree, with the general tone of the poem.
A Sketch should have been omitted from the edition as altogether
unworthy of its author.
The remaining pieces in the volume are Twilight, Psalm cxxxvii;
To...; Love; Domestic Happiness; Magdalen, From the Italian; Woman;
Connecticut; Music; On the Death of Lieut. William Howard Allen; A
Poet's Daughter; and On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake. Of the
majority of these we deem it unnecessary to say more than that they
partake, in a more or less degree, of the general character observable
in the poems of Halleck. The Poet's Daughter appears to us a
particularly happy specimen of that general character, and we doubt
whether it be not the favorite of its author.
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