The technical word chronic should have been avoided in the fifth
line of Stanza VI-
No chronic tortures racked his aged limb.
The Rivulet has about ninety octo-syllabic verses. They contrast the
changing and perishable nature of our human frame, with the greater
durability of the Rivulet. The chief merit is simplicity. We should
imagine the poem to be one of the earliest pieces of Mr. Bryant, and
to have undergone much correction. In the first paragraph are,
however, some awkward constructions. In the verses, for example
This little rill that from the springs
Of yonder grove its current brings,
Plays on the slope awhile, and then
Goes prattling into groves again.
the reader is apt to suppose that rill is the nominative to plays,
whereas it is the nominative only to drew in the subsequent lines,
Oft to its warbling waters drew
My little feet when life was new.
The proper verb is, of course, immediately seen upon reading these
latter lines- but the ambiguity has occurred.
The Praries. This is a poem, in blank Pentameter, of about one
hundred and twenty-five lines, and possesses features which do not
appear in any of the pieces above mentioned. Its descriptive beauty is
of a high order. The peculiar points of interest in the Prairie are
vividly shown forth, and as a local painting, the work is, altogether,
excellent.
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