"I WATCHED THE HEAVENS": TRENCH'S POEMS FROM EASTERN SOURCES.

THE two poetical publications placed at the head of this article though not ranking high as efforts of original genius, possess sufficient merit to entitle them to fuller notice than a mere chronicle note of their quality.

1. The title of "I Watched the Heavens," like that of many songs, is taken from the first words of the poem. The story amounts to this. After "watching the heavens," the author is taken there, and landed upon a solitary star, which turns out to be a place of punishment for the departed ; mental afflictions being substituted for the physical torments of the monkish Tartarus; and a variety of particular individuals—a tyrant, an immoral poet, a suicide, and others—passing before the ken of the intruding mortal.

This is a conception which, like most other plans, depends upon the execution; and that of I Watched the Heavens is somewhat de- ficient in the strength requisite for so lofty a flight. The misery of the condemned is rather described than impressed ; we are told of it rather than made to feel it. Neither are the characters of the ghosts sufficiently comprehensive, or, with one or two exceptions, sufficiently individual. The dead, moreover, are not always crimi- nal enough to deserve their punishment. A misanthrope, and a mother who dies for the love of her child, may be an example of unamiableness or of weakness ; but no such machinery as a new Hades is needed for their deserts. For though the moral which the author endeavours to point is, that man comes into the world to struggle, a theme of that nature could be better illustrated and more deeply impressed by a story of the earth.

With these drawbacks, I Watched the Heavens may be praised as a poem of power. The versification is sonorous ; and, though not rising to the credit of originality, is unborrowed in style. The images are appropriate to the scene ; the rejection of the vulgar notion of devils and blue flames as an accompaniment to the place of future punishment is rational, and exhibits independence of mind ; whilst the plan, we think, is novel, excepting so far as DANTE'S poem suggested the idea.

Of the various ghosts or shades which are passed in review, the best, no doubt, are two guilty lovers, and the poet, whose punish- ment is an intellect eclipsed. These are distinct persons with cha- racters that inspire an interest, and with a punishment tangible in itself, and bearing some relation to their deeds on earth ; whereas many are vague in character, crime, and punishment, or the punish- ment is disproportioned to the offence. We quote the two lovers, as an example of the writer's style.

" One was their fate ; one world, one ceaseless life; United, earth-like, save with closer doom : Yet worn they look'd, as with the spirit's strife, And chose, as emblem of their wish, a tomb.

Silent they sat upon the vaulted den Which other hands in other days bad rear'd; And which the first indwellers quitted, when The hope for which they built it disappear'd. Their hands were join'd, it seem'd, because, of old,

It RAS their wont each other's bands to fold:

Their eyes no more were evrard each other raised, Or conscious that fond looks upon them gazed; But various and apart, as though the thought Of either heart no common centre sought : The woman's wander'd o'er the land serene, Restless and seeking, and yet hopeless now ; The man's were all unconscious of the scene, Fix'd on one point beneath his gather'd brow.

I stood and gazed at distance, and it seem'd As though their deathlessness on them too weigh'd; And love, which bright enough for earth had beam'd, Here a faint iesufficient twilight made.

The heart, enlarged by immortality, Seem'd void of half that it had room to hold; An empty palace, bare to wind and sky, Prepared for king-like pomp, but desert, worn, and cold."

It is probable I Watched the Heavens may be continued ; for

the present part closes with the first canto. If so, we strongly recommend the author to struggle to supply his defects, (for they

are not so much faults as deficiencies,) want of individuality, and

vagueness in the higher characters.

2. Poems from Eastern Sources; the Steadfast Prince; and other Poems.

Mr. TRENCH has marred the full effects of a poetical fancy and a melodious versification, by the school in which he has studied. Without being an absolute imitator of what were called the Lake and Cockney poets, he has been led astray by their fondness for conceits, their love of the lackadaisical, (which they termed nature,) and their mechanical experiments in versification ; whilst to these may be added a fault so common as to belong to all schools—that of rendering his structure too extensive for his foundation, and expanding his subject beyond what it would bear.

The productions before us are of three kinds. The first is called "Poems from Eastern Sources " ; and consists of legends, para- bles apophthegms, &c. ; many of which have an Oriental air, and all of Which may have been derived from the East, though the features of some of them have been changed in their transmigrations. The "Steadfast Prince" is the story of Ferdinand of Portugal, who, invading Africa on a religious war, was taken prisoner : the ransom demanded was the town of Ceuta ; which his brother, the reigning King, was willing to grant, but Ferdinand, as presumptive heir, refused to ratify the treaty ; and the Moorish Monarch in revenge condemned him and his companions to labour by day and imprisonment by night, clothing him in rags, and feeding him on the coarsest fare' in the hope of' bending his resolution ; but the Prince remained steadfast, and died in captivity. The remainder of the volume consists of occasional poems, most of them trans- lations or imitations from various languages ; a remark more or less applicable to many of the preceding pieces, which in part or in whole are derived from some preexisting prototype. Of the different productions in the volume, we think " Orpheus and the Sirens" the best : there is a fine old melody with some- thing of an antique spirit running through it, especially in the earlier parts ; the weakest passage is towards the close, where the song of Orpheus overpowers that of the Sirens, and leads Jason and his hero-companions homewards —for Orpheus, as represented by the muse of Mr. TRENCH, scarcely sings well enough. "The Steadfast Prince," the most elaborated, is too long-drawn-out nor are the episodical parts—as the useless resistance, and difficult re- treat of the army through the desert, the scene with the Moorish Monarch when Ferdinand refuses to accept his liberty on the offered terms, and the sufferings of the Prince and his comrade—. painted with either happiness or strength. The Oriental poems have raciness, but not always reason in their morals • which per- haps shine out more in their reproduction than in ;heir original state. The moral, for instance, in some of them, is justification by faith, pushed to an extreme ; a dangerous doctrine for popular in- culcation. To hold forth that a strict and self-denying life is to be condemned on account of some inward pride, whilst a reprobate may expiate a long career of crime by a sudden repentance, is to stimulate the weak and vulgar into all kinds of profligacy in the hopes of balancing accounts on their deathbed. Among the minor poems, the four seasons are about the most characteristic of their writer. They exhibit a perception of nature, a quaintness of conceit, and a neatness of expression ; but, though placed among the Eastern Poems, it is only Summer that smacks of the Orient. The versification, too, exhibits an endeavour to be original by mechanical means; for we see no intellectual object at- tained by numbering the couplets. Here is

WINTER.

White ermine now the mountains wear, To shield their naked shoulders bare.

IL

The dark pine wears the snow, as head Of Ethiop doth white turban wear.

IlL

The floods are armed with silver shields' Through which the sun's sword cannot fare;

For he who trod heaven's middle road In golden arms, on golden chair,

Now through small corner of the sky Creeps low, nor warms the foggy air.

To mutter 'twixt their teeth the streams, In icy fetters, scarcely dare.

Hushed is the busy hum of life ; 'Tis silence in the earth and air.

VIIL

From mountains issues the gaunt wolf, And from its forest depths the bear. Where is the garden's beauty now ? The thorn is here; the rose, oh where ?

I.

The trees, like giant skeletons, Wave high their fleshless arms and bare ; xr.

Or stand like wrestlers, stripped and bold, And wildest winds to battle dare.

an.

It seems a thing impassible That earth its glories should repair ;

XILL

That ever this bleak world again Should bright and beauteous mantle wear, xxv.

Or sounds of life again be heard In this dull earth and vacant air.