The Strange Lady is of the fourteen syllable metre, answering to two
lines, one of eight syllables, the other six. This rhythm is
unmanageable, and requires great care in the rejection of harsh
consonants. Little, however, has been taken, apparently, in the
construction of the verses
As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool
clear sky.
And thou shoudst chase the nobler game, and I bring
down the bird.
Or that strange dame so gay and fair were some mysterious foe, which
are not to be pronounced without labor. The story is old- of a young
gentleman who going out to hunt, is inveigled into the woods and
destroyed by a fiend in the guise of a fair lady. The ballad character
is nevertheless well preserved, and this, we presume, is nearly
every thing intended.
The Hunter's Vision is skilfully and sweetly told. It is a tale of a
young hunter who, overcome with toil, dozes on the brink of a
precipice. In this state between waking and sleeping, he fancies a
spirit-land in the fogs of the valley beneath him, and sees
approaching him the deceased lady of his love. Arising to meet her, he
falls, with the effort, from the crag, and perishes. The state of
reverie is admirably pictured in the following stanzas. The poem
consists of nine such.
All dim in haze the mountains lay
With dimmer vales between;
And rivers glimmered on their way
By forests faintly seen;
While ever rose a murmuring sound
From brooks below and bees around.
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