E440822A. Poems (1844).
The Globe and Traveller, 22 August 1844, p. 1.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 320.
Poetry, to be read and approved, must in this fastidious age be of no ordinary excellence. It is therefore to be regretted that so many reams of fair paper should be spoiled, and so many fond hopes of rising to distinction be dashed to earth, by the failure which attends the essays of poetic genius—respectable, but not of extraordinary powers. We therefore generally hesitate when a work of poetry finds its way to our table, and solicits a notice at our hands. To flatter would be, in many cases, to injure; while to condemn is regarded as uncharitable, if not unjust. We are not, however, placed in any such dilemma by the volumes before us. Their excellence is indisputable. The subjects are chiefly taken from sacred history; or embody those high devotional feelings which ardent imaginations, influenced by piety, delight in pouring forth in poetic strains. The longest piece is entitled “A Drama of Exile;” and is a somewhat bold attempt to exhibit, in a dramatic dress, the Scriptural account of the pristine innocence and subsequent fall of Adam and Eve. We have not space to describe the plot, nor to criticise its arrangement. So far as we have traced the design, and dipped into the dialogue, it seems free from objection in its arrangement, and deserves praise for the beauty of illustration which distinguishes the execution. The sonnets, which are numerous, are rich in poetic beauty.
Reviewed:
Poems (EBB), London: Edward Moxon, 1844.
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