THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE. NEW SERIES-No. 26. March and April, 1823. SELECTIONS FROM THE POETRY OF CRASHAW. Ir seems to me that, in their selections from the ancient English poets, neither Ellis nor Campbell have done justice to Crashaw, Campbell was fully capable of estimating his merits; and says, that there are many touches of beauty and solemnity' in his verses. He has not taken the trouble, however, of separating these from the mass of grosser matter; and I cannot help thinking, that he had not read Crashaw with much attention; for solemnity' is not altogether the right word to be used in his praise. The estimate, which was formed of him by his contemporaries, may be inferred from the poem of Cowley on his death, which commences with the splendid apostrophe : Poet and saint! to thee alone are given The two most sacred names of earth and heaven. He has been imitated by Pope; and some traces of his expressions are to be found even in the poetry of Milton. The date of his birth is uncertain. He took his bachelor's degree in 1634; and the same year published a volume of Latin poems, mostly devotional. In one of these, is contained the well known line, which has sometimes been ascribed to Dryden and others, on the miracle of turning water into wine: Nympha pudica Deum vidit et erubuit. The modest water saw its God and blushed. He took orders; and was distinguished as a preacher for his energy of expression and strength of feeling. Having for some New Series-vol. V. 11 time lived a life of enthusiastic piety, and of even austere and ascetic morality, he at last became a Roman Catholic. He died in Italy, as a canon of Loretto, about the year 1650. Cowley alludes to his conversion in the following lines: Pardon, my mother Church, if I consent That angels led him, when from thee he went: Ah Mighty God! with shame I speak it and grief, Much of the poetry of Crashaw abounds in the faults of his age. It is full of extravagances, forced thoughts, and harshness of expression; showing, however, not so much a want of talents in the writer, as of a just and discriminating taste in the great body of readers. His religious poems written after his conversion to the Catholic Church, are overrun with that revolting imagery, which results from transferring to God the accidents and sufferings of the human nature of Christ; and with those shocking conceits, that a perverted ingenuity may draw from this source. But with all these faults, Crashaw has no common beauties. The charm of his finer poems consists partly in the fresh and bright colours of their language, and in the happy turns of expression which now and then occur, and still more in the purity and holiness of feeling which they discover, sometimes calm and deep, and sometimes exalted to enthusiasm. I will give some specimens. 4 DESCRIPTION OF A RELIGIOUS HOUSE AND CONDITION OF LIFE. Out of Barclay. No roofs of gold o'er riotous tables shining, Those coarse and negligent, as the natural locks Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep, And sing, and sigh; and work, and sleep again, A respiration of reviving deaths: But neither are there those ignoble stings, No cruel guard of diligent cares, that keep The self remembering soul sweetly recovers Home to the original source of life and intellectual day. Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep: Every one will recollect this line in a later poem, which has none of the purity of that from which it is taken. There are some pleasing passages in his verses on the death of Mr. Herrys. |