John Leyden

“ Nor nauseates lucre's scent, from fishy steam.
Why wilt thou thus, too lofty heroine!
Shrink from the clasping ocean's fond embrace;
For thee he feeds the salmon silver-scal'd,
Which you, into his watery pastures wide,
Each autumn send to graze; though slim, and gaunt, 140
They enter his domains, yet soon restored,
The whitest fat their entrails overwraps.
But they, impatient of their happiness,
Returning, such strong love of native soil
Attracts them to thy silver channelled streams ”

“ The effect of climate and soil on the spirit of patriotism; the effect of liberty on the fine arts, and on the progress of civilization, is delineated, if not with the delicate polish of Gray, yet with his poetical energy and vigour. ”

“ The life and death of Mary Queen of Scots has been rendered so familiar to every Briton by poets, historians, and even dramatists, that to give an air of novelty to the incidents of her ill-fated story, or to impart additional interest to them by poetic language, and stage effect, is a task of no easy attainment; the limitations of history become despotic restraints upon the freedom of imagination. ”

“ Nor lucious guava wave her yellow fruit,
Nor golden apples glimmer from the tree;
Land of dark heaths and mountains, thou art free
Free as his lord the peasant treads the plain,
And heaps his harvest on the groaning wain. ”

“ ALBANIA;
A POEM.
O loved Albania! hardy nurse of men!
Holding thy silver cross, I worship thee,
On this thy old and solemn festival,
Early, ere yet the wakeful cock has crowed.
Hear! goddess, hear! that on the beryl flood,
Enthroned of old, amid the waters sound,
Reign'st far and wide, o'er many a sea-girt spot,
Oh smile! ”

“ Where virtue lurks, where vice doth reign and rage;
Where faith and love, where friendship is neglected,
Contagiously, with time, have me infected.
As others are, of force so mon I be;
How can I do, but as men do to me? ”

“ And glows, a passion in the free and brave;
It gives the vile to bear a tyrant's thrall,
No wrongs can rouse them, for no chains can gall:
But to the brave, no charms a clime can boast,
Where virtue or where liberty is lost. ”

“ When slow returns the fated day,
That view'd their chieftain's long array,
Wild to the harp's deep, plaintive string,
The virgins raise the funeral strain,
From Ord's black mountain to the northern main,
And mourn the emerald hue which paints the vest of spring. [1]
Alas! that Scottish maid should sing
The combat where her lover fell! ”

“ The quality of humour can scarcely be defined; but it evidently depends so much on the nice discrimination of minute and local peculiarities of manners, and the individual forms of expression adapted to these, that its most exquisite efforts must be lost on those who are not familiar with the various shades of dialect. In the sixteenth century, while Scotland had yet a capital, and while its language had not yet dwindled into a vulgar dialect, the Scotish poets excelled particularly in humour. ”

“ Instead of improving agriculture and extending commerce, of increasing population, and introducing a taste for the elegancies of life, it has miserably depopulated the country, driven the most spirited of her sons to exile, and destroyed the energy of those that still remain like a few mulberries on the uttermost branch of the tree. ”

“ The presbyterians interdicted the perusal of romances and love poems, with almost as great anxiety as the Catholics prohibited the use of the Scriptures. "Would thou intreat," says Hume to the Scotish youth; "Would thou intreat of prodigious miracles? Look the books of Genesis and Exode, or the works of our Saviour, of the prophets and apostles. Would thou have a subject of valiant deeds of arms? Read the books of Josua and the Judges, and of the kings of Israel and Judah. Would thou have store of wise sentences? Read the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Would thou have a subject of love? ”

“ And we suffer a greater than all other losses, in not having the Holy Bible printed in the Gaelic, as it is printed in Latin, English, and many other tongues. And besides, we have never had, in print, the history of antiquity, or of our ancestors, although a certain portion of the literature of the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland exists in manuscripts, in the possession of Bards and Teachers, and their Patrons.
Great is the labour of writing by the hand, in comparison of printing, which shortens, and speedily finishes whatever is done by it, however great. ”

“ Albania is a descriptive poem of a very peculiar kind. It does not delineate the general aspect of the country, descant on its qualities capable of poetical representation, or describe the character and genius of its inhabitants: It commences with an animated address to the Genius of Scotland, expresses the most ardent sentiments of devoted patriotism, and insensibly glides into a description of some peculiar features of the country which had most forcibly impressed the mind of the author. ”

“ Sometimes, however, his verses present not the mere delineation of a scene, but the description of a person observing a scene, whose mind reflects, like a mirror, the objects with which he is surrounded, and receives the character and colouring with which they are invested. Whether we regard his versification, or facility of delineating natural objects, Wilson ranks high as a loco-descriptive poet. He cannot, indeed, aspire to the highest degree of excellence ”

“ Gathers, and throws full fast stone after stone; 110
Blind with revenge, nor mindful of her end,
Though near; for now her neck the hissing ball
Hath pierc'd, from well-aimed musket shot unseen.
In vain, alas! thou homeward hastest back;
Mad to have risked thy life with artful man,
On land, to the strange element, where now
Thou agonising liest a monument
For others not to dare their sphere beyond:
While children, from their flight returning, gaze
And wonder at the shaggy monster's form. ”

“ The general success of Hume, in the style of poetry which he adopted, will not render his example very attractive. He seems to have curbed his fancy assiduously, and to have forcibly confined his imagination to the common-place phraseology of Calvinism; a phraseology which, however proper for the simplicity of theology, is extremely unfit for the purposes of poetry. ”

“ The fine spirit of poetry which it breathes, its classic air, but above all the noble enthusiasm he discovers for his country, cannot fail to make it agreeable to such as have a taste for that simplicity of nature, and that beautiful diversification of epithets, which constitute the principal excellencies of antiquity." From the following passage of the poem itself, the author appears to have been twenty-four years of age at the time of its composition:
Shall I forget thy tenderness? ”

“ In the biography of literary men, it is a common observation, that a paucity of incidents may be naturally expected in the life of a recluse scholar, whose history is generally comprehended in the account of his productions. Though my materials are scanty, I am not inclined to use this apology for writing a plain narrative instead of a romance; and am content to have saved from oblivion a few notices concerning the only loco-descriptive poet whom Scotland has produced.
John Wilson, author of "Clyde," was born in the vicinity of Lanark June 30. ”

“ The Catholic party had encouraged the representation of plays, masques, and every other species of amusement which could attract the populace, and draw their attention from religious innovation. The presbyterians dreaded this species of seduction, as producing religious indifference and preserving a relish for the pomp of Romish worship. Plays, and every species of poetry, except religious, were proscribed; popular songs were parodied, to inculcate religious doctrines; and of all the early Scotish poets of the 16th century, Lindsay was the only one who retained his popularity. ”

“ The daftard Douglas, who surviv'd his honour,
The first of all his race who fear'd to die———
After the reign of Bruce, no Scotish clan ever attained such power as the Douglasses, or acquired such popularity on the marches. They united, in an eminent degree, feudal pomp with martial bravery, and in England and France their fame was as great as in Scotland. ”

“ They seem rather to have been carelessly selected; and sometimes, from the order in which they occur, they exhibit too violent a contrast. The topics are such as would be naturally suggested to a young, ardent, and enthusiastic mind, by the perusal of the common histories and descriptions of Scotland; and the impropriety of their selection is rather to be attributed to unformed taste, than to the defect of poetical spirit. The personification of Albania, or the Genius of Scotland, is not accurately preserved. Sometimes she is a goddess, sometimes a country ”