ORIGINAL POETRY. GENTLEMEN, To the Editors of the Anthology. I enclose to you for publication NATHANIEL GARDNER'S Latin translation of Dr. Watts' ode on the Nativity of Christ. It is faithfully copied from the manuscript of that eccentrick genius. He graduated at Harvard College in 1739, and was many years usher in the Latin school in Boston, under the celebrated LOVELL. He died in the year 1760. He was distinguished for his classical taste and acquirements, of which the lines, now communicated, are no unfavourable specimen. The letters S. W. probably indicate the person to whom the performance was addressed, but it is not known to whom they refer, The sentence in the introduction, which he left incomplete, Tua carmina, &c. cannot be fully explained. Perhaps it has reference to Virgil's Tale tuum carmen nobis, divine poeta, Quale sopor for it appears that this elegant performance was a nocturnal exercise, in a time of invincible watchfulness. Yours, PHILO-MUSE. December 25, 1806. N. G. S. W. S. D. 1750. Hæc ego, paucis abhinc noctibus, fugiente oculos Morphæo, in lectulo condidi. Pignus istud, exiguum utcunque, amoris et observantiæ, excipias, quæso. Tua carmina, &c. Vale. CARMEN WATSIANUM, LATINIS NUMERIS DONATUM. Shepherds, rejoice, &c. Gabriel. DEJECTA, 0, tandem sustollite lumina læti, Quem numen, Seraphûm flammea turba colunt. Vile Deo præsepe dedit cunabula blando, Hæc regum Regem sordida claustra tenent. Ite, O pastores! puerumque videte jacentem, Et majora canunt psallunt ac altius ; et sic Chorus Angelorum. Gloria summa Deo, nutu qui temperat orbes ! Ter genus humanum felix! venit ecce ! Redemptor. LINES, ADDRESSED TO A MOTHER, ON THE DEATH OF TWO INFANTS, 19th September, 1803, and 19th December, 1806. SURE, to the mansions of the blest, On wings of ecstacy they rise Beyond where worlds material roll : There, at th' Almighty Father's hand, And dazzling shine, where all are bright. That inextinguishable beam, Clos'd in this dark abode of clay To its own native fount returns. But when the Lord of mortal breath And points the silent shaft of death, Which speeds an infant to the tomb Originally written "psalluntque sonoricus," but those words crossed with the pen in the manuscript, and the following note is subjoined: " nusquam, apud probos saliem authores, occurrit vox ista, sonoricus; sic corrige...psallunt ac altius.” No passion fierce, no low desire Has quench'd the radiance of the flame, Back to its God, the living fire Reverts, unclouded as it came. Oh, Anna! be that solace thine: Let Hope her healing charm impart ; The anguish of a mother's heart. Oh! think the darlings of thy love Bask in the bosom of their God. Of their short pilgrimage on earth The days of pain, the nights of care, The pangs which thou for them didst bear, Scarce could their germing thought oonceive Scarce their fond sympathy relieve The suff'rance thou for them hast felt. But there the soul's perennial flower No weak, unform'd idea, there Toils, the mere promise of a mind; Strong, full, unchanging and refin'd. Each anxious care, each rending sigh, That wrung for them the parent's breast, Dwells on remembrance in the sky, Amid the raptures of the blest. O'er thee, with looks of love they bend, And oft from sainted bliss descend, Oft in the stillness of the night Hark! in such strains as saints employ, Calm the perturbed heart to joy, And bid the streaming sorrow cease. Then dry henceforth the bitter tear, January 12, 1807. THE BOSTON REVIEW FOR JANUARY, 1807. Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, quæ eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere vero assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur. PLIN. ARTICLE 1. Epistles, odes, and other poems, by Thomas Moore, Esq.-Tanti non es, ais: sapis, Luperce. Philadelphia, John Watts. 1806. 8vo. pp. 306. THE lighter poetry of Mr. Moore, for which alone he is distinguished, is elegant, voluptuous, and profligate. It is not always well finished; the ideas are often indistinct, and the images obscure; but it is commonly highly polished,the versification is smooth, and the language brilliant. He may claim precedence to most of the minor poets of the present day; for though he has discovered no felicity of invention, and none of those other powers which constitute a bard of the higher rank, yet there is in his verses much of that fancy, which busies itself in properly adorning little things, much elegance of description, and much delicacy of expression, and sometimes of sentiment. To obtain this precedence, however, he has made a very dear sacrifice, for he has built his fame, as a poet, on the ruins of his reputation as a man, and written with no common disregard of decency and morality. In the volume before us, there is a singular mixture of what none Vol. IV. No. 1. F few can disapprove, with what very will commend; of purity and foulness; of verses to seduce and verses to warn, of that lighter poetry, whose character we have given, 'together with odes, shewy without elegance, and cumbrous without sentiment; and satires, in the form of epistles,in which feeble thoughts are hardly supported by strong expression. If we view its different pieces in connection with each other, and with the character of the author, we find in it repentance without amendment, love without friendship, contempt without superiority, and pedantry without learning. Mr. Moore, in the preface, with a modesty, which every one knows how to estimate, says that he regrets having had leisure to write such trifles, and that he is induced to publish them by the liberal offers of his bookseller. As he is a young man, perhaps it would have been as well to have left us to believe that his vanity, and not his avarice, overcame his virtue. Most of the poems, in this col. lection, were written during Mr. Moore's absence from Europe, on a visit to America. The first which it contains is an epistle to lord Strangford, which is fanciful and fond, and much superiour to It is to be regretted, that the author of these stanzas should have employed his talents so ill as to write much of what follows in this collection. A few pages distant from the poem just mentioned, is "The Wedding Ring," which we forbear to publish. Is it not strange, that the author, who could sit down and cooly compose, and afterward deliberately publish such a poem; that he, who could thus endeavour (we do not say with what success) to seduce away taste and feeling from their natural alliance with virtue; is it not strange, that he should have confidence to make, in another part of the same volume, the follo ing observations? The Abbé Raynal, in his prophetick admonitions to Americans, directing their attention very strongly to learned establishments, says, "When the youth of a country are seen depraved, the nation is on the decline." I know not of this nation now, were he alive to what the Abbé Raynal would pronounce know the morals of the young students at Williamsburg! But when he wrote, his countrymen had not yet introduced the "doctrinam deos spernentem" into America. P. 141, note. Mr. Moore ranks himself among the disciples of the old school of morality and politicks. We admit no such associates : .“ procul hinc, procul inde puella Lenonum, et cantus pernoctantis parasiti." Passing over several poems, we come to a collection entitled “ Odes to Nea," in one of which, describing Nea sleeping, there is the folIowing passage of oriental luxury of description, and obscurity of similitude: The broad banana's green embrace Hung shadowy round each tranquil grace; One little beam alone could win Her eyelid's black and silken fringe Like the first ebon cloud, that closes It may be excused, perhaps, in a poet, to talk of a sun-beam trembling with bliss, but it conveys no image of beauty to describe the eye-lashes of his mistress, as laying on her cheek; it is much more extravagant than fanciful, to tell of the dew of her lip reflecting |