Yet if his poems, as a whole, will not warrant us in assigning
him this grade, one such poem as the last upon which we have
commented, is enough to assure us that he may attain it.
The writings of our author, as we find them here, are
characterized by an air of calm and elevated contemplation more than
by any other individual feature. In their mere didactics, however,
they err essentially and primitively, inasmuch as such things are
the province rather of Minerva than of the Camenae. Of imagination, we
discover much- but more of its rich and certain evidences, than of its
ripened fruit. In all the minor merits Mr. Bryant is pre-eminent.
His ars celare artem is most efficient. Of his "completeness,"
unity, and finish of style we have already spoken. As a versifier,
we know of no writer, living or dead, who can be said greatly to
surpass him. A Frenchman would assuredly call him "un poete des plus
correctes."
Between Cowper and Young, perhaps, (with both of whom he has many
points of analogy,) would be the post assigned him by an examination
at once general and superficial. Even in this view, however, he has
a juster appreciation of the beautiful than the one, of the sublime
than the other- a finer taste than Cowper- an equally vigorous, and
far more delicate imagination than Young. In regard to his proper rank
among American poets there should be no question whatever.
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