THE REV. JOHN GRAHAM'S POEMS.*

THE Rev. John Graham has given to the world a volume of what he is pleased to call Poems, which he dedicates "to the friends whom it is his joy to love on earth, and his hope to meet in heaven." Lest any of those whose destiny is thus inextricabl7 interwoven with his own should question the propriety of their reverend friend's rushing into print, he has prefaced to his work a few remarks, to explain and justify his conduct. The preface bears impressive signs that the Rev. John Graham is quite at ease in his own mind as to the reasons which have induced him to publish. He is not one of those poets who sing as the linnet sings, because they are driven by instinct to do so. Nor does he sing with any view of immediate pecuniary profit, in which, indeed, we think he shows his wisdom. The motives which animates the Rev. John Graham are purer and more unworldly. He publishes his book in hope that it may contribute its humble mite to beauty, truth, and goodness. Some of the poems were written in holiday hours, in groves and by streams; some were composed, in the moments of relaxation, in the study; some were produced when the Rev. John Graham desired to be rapt from earth and its concerns ; some in the glow consequent on the composition or delivery of sermons. The longest of them, entitled "Visions of Science and Faith," he wrote, when a convalescent, after a severe attack of fever. We are bound to say that, though we cannot detect any remarkable variety be- tween any of the verses that would lead us to infer that they were written at different epochs in the Rev. John Graham's career, any of them might certainly have been written at any of the times and seasons he mentions. All are shady enough, as flar as we can see, to have originated in Mr. John Graham's groves, and watery enough to do justice to a hundred streams. There is an absence of intel- lectual effort about each which suggests the idea that they are per- haps to be attributed to those rare moments at which the author's mental powers may not be at their full stretch. Profuse allusions to Sion, Canaan, Bochim, Bethel, and the New Jerusalem prove that the glow which pervades him after delivering or composing sermons is one that is strictly theological and unworldly. As for the "Vision of Science and Faith," it is a stupendous poem. How severe must have been the illness which led directly or indirectly to its com- position. If there is one thing which might, perhaps, have restrained the Rev. John Graham from singing the songs of Sion, as he himself is pleased to call it, or writing verses as the occupation is termed by the profaner world, it would have been the thought that poetry to some seems less pious a method of communicating thought than prose. He devotes a few words towards rebuking with fatherly tenderness this wayward and sinful notion. Poetry has a high and a noble mission. The power of extemporaneous poetical composition was one of the Spirit's gifts to the Apostolical Church. Much of the Bible is written in verse. Antiquity owed laws and proverbs to bards and bal- lads. The love of poetic rhythm is deeply implanted in the soul,

• Poems: Sacred, Didactic, and Descriptive. With a Tribute of Friendship. By the Be,. John Graham, Minister of Craven Chapel, London. Judd and Glass.

when it breaks into the beauties of the rainbow." So far, then, from

prose being the purest vehicle of communication with the world, The shore in murmurs Ltved, poetry, at all events for the highest religious natures, stands first. And brought to mind the sea of glass, " 0 that Shelley and Byron, like Watts and Wesley, had sung the And song of myriads saved." songs of Sion, and not those of doubt and misanthropy !" Shelley

and Byron having failed, the Rev. John Graham feels that there is does not look—at least, in this world; being contented to reap the John book being forgotten in the long run. If it is not heard of again on a poem. When the author is hard up for an idea, he has only to ex- ear ress a hope that the person to whom e dedicates the poem may be earth, beyond all question it will be heard of again in heaven, for, P h says the Rev. John, " If its oil, which I trust is from 'the olive-trees saved, taking care to make the proper words rhyme. The young by the altar,' refresh any holy lamp, I have no doubt I shall hear of lady to whose album some of the above philosophical reflections were it in the cloudless day of coining life in our Father's presence committed, pardoned their feebleness, perhaps, for the sake of the above." concluding sentiment :

It is difficult to use worldly weapons of criticism 'against an author " Coleridge, Arnold, planets brilliant, on his own descriptiou so thoroughly pious and well principled. Shone in this meridian free, There is always considerable difficulby m dealing with doggerel which Oh, how lofty their enjoyment,

claims immunity on the seore of its being cloaked in a religious form.

The critic is in danger of being supposed to be indifferent to religion, " ably the owner of this album, while he is engaged in recording the short-comings of those who May the writer of this lay, disgrace and burlesque its name. The literary malefactor lays claim Meet with them as with thew Saviour, to be protected on the score that his. buffooneries have been per- Where the beauties ne'er decay.". formed on holy ground, and takes refuge in the intervals between To whom " them" refers, and who are "tbe beauties" in question— each miserable performance behind the horns of the altar. If no dis- whether they arc Coleridge and Arnold, or the young lady's album credit was done to religion by such ignorant and illiterate quackeries and Mr. John Graham's lay—it is too useless to impure. We should ,as these before us, the right of refuge might perhaps be allowed, and have naturally been tempted to think that it was Coleridge and those who demand the privileges of sanctuary protection be left, as far. Arnold, who were to meet the author in a future state of happiness, as the Spectator is concerned, to enjoy their precarious security. But if it were not for indisputable evidence we possess from other parts the truth is, that men like the Rev. john Graham do great harm to of this volume that the author intends to carry his -poetical powers that religion whose votaries they represent themselves to be. They with him even beyond the grave. It is not, indeed, absolutely certain have the opportunity of imposing on many who are even more that he will not do so, as he has some thoughts of leaving his lyre as ignorant and uneducated than themselves. There are many more an heirloom to "other pilgrims of Sion," as soon as he has converted who are sufficiently intelligent to be able to see that the Rev. John Ireland, which is one of the objects he has in view in publishing Grahams around them are idols of very inferior clay, yet not suf- poems. We can only hope for the sake of Coleridge and of Arnold

ficiently intelligent to refrain from visiting on the head of Religion their indignation at the impostures of her professors. For the sake of and of seraphim, who (as Mr. Graham informs us) " burn while they these it is well that silence should now and then be broken; and sing," may not be increased by _hearing Mr. Graham sing too. though the poems of the reverend gentleman before us are sufficiently As the way he treats one subject is, after all, not very different obscure, and sufficiently worthless in themselves to deserve immunity, from the way in which he treats another, the Rev. John Graham yet he is a type of a large body, and must be content to suffer vica- does not limit himself to a few, but enters boldly into the considera- There is something extremely irreverent in the way that the pro- of a Sea-fight." This latter poem, indeed, affords an admirable il. fessedly: religious of a certain class parade their religious experiences, lustration of his method. There is no particular reason, that we which in general are extremely meagre, and their religious feelings, are aware of, why an angel should be more connected with a sea- which are often extremely coarse, before men and angels. Powerful fight than with a sea-serpent. The Rev. John Grahain does not .sentiment may readily lead to exaggerated expressions or an uncon- for a moment pretend that there is. But having accidentally hit trolled display of internal emotion. But no man of ordinary sensi- bility would write even of a mere worldly theme about which he felt suggests to him the idea that he had better combine them. Two strongly, in the abandoned and unchecked manner in which an author

such as this gives to the world every single spiritual phenomenon the occasion, as two only, indeed, seem to occur to the angel The which belongs to his very limited nature. The relations subsisting first is, that the angel would be very much astonished—and we confess between man and what is more than man, are in general considered that it is very possible he might; the second is, that lie would be too sacred to be trailed through page after page of wretched rhymes, very much shocked. This also might conceivably be the case, though and still more wretched thought. If writers like the Rev. John we should have thought a land-fight might have struck him as being Graham have no respect for the subject—with which irreverent farni- quite as painful. Having soared to this height of fancy, Mr. Graham liarity has, perhaps, accustomed them to deal presumptuously—they pauses; and the angel, who has exhausted his stock of meditation, by might at least have some reverence for their fellow men. The ms and a convenient fiction is supposed to feel anxious to retire, and appears, outs of the Rev. John Graham's inner life—supposing, of course, that like Mr Graham, to be glad to escape from the necessity of going on they are what he describes them to be—are neither interesting nor thinking edifying. The very act of printing them is a deplorable impertinence. "Enough be sees, nor does he longer pry Common-place ideas are not made more palatable by being dressed Into the depths of man's iniquity. up in a verbiage borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures, nor does it lie plumes his pensive wing for heavenward flight ; much aid bad poetry that all the proper names in it'should be taken Abhorring earth, he hails the worlds of light."

exclusively from the geography of the Holy Land. But the Rev. The Rev. John Graham has done a very foolish thing in ever John Graham is of a different opinion. Sharons, Sions, Jerusalems,

-Belie's, and Edens, dance in the most lawless manner through his

verse. Everything that he sees reminds him of some Jewish name or sacred remembrance. The following lines are an apt instance of his method. We quote them in indignation not in irreverence, below ordinary poetasters. Yet with some difficulty we have disco- The Rev. John Graham is explainins; wily he des trees, rivers, hills, .and valleys :

Speak of love that spread their charms, Feeding many a lovely lake, By their beauty and their blessing

Thoughts of mercy's stream awake, deep thinker: "Skies that bend in azure softness, T' enquire why Christ must die? Ah, not

Floods of sunlight glancing round, She at His feet must tell Speak of all embracing goodness, Is stricken Paul for healing calm ? Ever daring, spurning bound." Come, Ananias, bring Christ's balm-

What "ever daring spurning bound" may mean, we confess we are

"The ocean's waves, like liquid light,

The steps of the intellectual ladder lead safely from one to another.

Jon Graham alludes to the text, and tells us how happy it makes

In the light they strained to see !

that the latter resolution may prevail, and that the torments of saints reflections, and two only, occur to the Reverend John as worthy of exclusively from the geography of the Holy Land. But the Rev. The Rev. John Graham has done a very foolish thing in ever devoting an hour of his time to writing verses. He has done an in- finitely more foolish thing in venturing to print them. He ought never to write without burning all he writes as soon as it is written. He is as much below Mr. Martin Tupper, as Mr. Martin Tupper is vered a merit in the volume, for which the author shall have full credit. There is nothing that is refined about his piety, but on the

"Valleys rich in vivid verdure other hand there is nothing ferocious. Men of his description often Rooted hills, their mighty wardens, unite ferocity to conceit. This is not the ease with Mr. John Graham. Speak of everlasting arms. His verses are extremely silly, feeble, and egotistical, but they are,

on the whole, good-tempered. In conclusion, we will present our

"Mountain streams, that seek the valleys, readers with a stanza, which will prove that if unintelligibility be a

sign of power of mind, the Rev. Mr. Graham may, after all, be a

"To Caiapbas shall seekers go Avaunt, Gamaliel!"