Frederic Rowton

“ When every worldly thought is utterly forsaken,
⁠Comes the starry midnight, felt by life's gifted few;
Then will the spirit from its earthly sleep awaken
⁠To a being more intense, more spiritual and true.
⁠So doth the soul awaken,
⁠Like that youth to night's fair queen!
WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN!
We might have been!—these are but common words,
⁠And yet they make the sum of life's bewailing;
They are the echo of those finer chords,
⁠Whose music life deplores when unavailing. ”

“ And this, this is life!
No! with all due respect to our fair poetess, this is not life. Doubtless there have been, and are, and long will be instances of brethren who have loved each other in childhood becoming strangers, almost haters, in manhood: but to assert that life is composed of such cases is to libel Providence and to dishearten man. Let the melancholy say what they will, enduring affection is not a fable, not a poet's dream: it is a high and a holy reality, one of the least deniable truths existing in the world: and only an erring or bewildered soul can doubt it. ”

“ The bending and dark blue Violet—
when we read such passages as this, it is our duty to speak in terms of rebuke and repudiation. There is an evil spirit in such sentiments which should be bidden behind us. Why should we reject the blooming and beautiful, and cling after this poor fashion to the sad and sorrowful? ”

“ Life!—No! Doubt and distrust, change and coldness, these are not Life—they form but the merest fraction of life. Life!—a never-ending rush of varied, new-created, unsoiled moments, every one of which bears its freight of happiness, every one of which may be turned to our enjoyment if we please; countless bright fountains around us, from which pleasure never ceases to flow ”

“ Maclean has herself given us a just portraiture of her peculiar powers. In the concluding lines of her fine poem entitled The Golden Violet, she says
“If that I know myself what keys
Yield to my hand their sympathies,
I should say 't is those whose tone
Is Woman's Love and Sorrow's own."
No writer certainly has written more of Love and Sorrow than Mrs. Maclean. She touches scarcely any other strings. I called her the female Byron: in this respect she is particularly so. Passion and Sadness are the idols of her pen. ”

“ Maclean's genius there can be but one opinion. It is distinguished by very great intellectutal power, a highly sensitive and ardent imagination, an intense fervour of passionate emotion, and almost unequalled eloquence and fluency. ”

“ And nothing seems able to "make a sunshine in this shady place." No burst of cheerfulness ever displays relief. Amidst every kind of scenery and circumstance the darkness is the same. Her pensiveness is her familiar spirit. ”

“ It is false philosophy, we may be sure. Violets, indeed! Why, what were roses made for? To be slighted and contemned and despised, as it were, like this? Oh, no, no! Roses were made to gladden and delight us, and give us ideas of beauty and hope: nay, more than this, to make us grateful to the Giver of all good besides.
Here is another instance of our fair author's tendency to look upon the dark side of life. In a little poem entitled Change she thus writes:
And this is what is left of youth! ”

“ Maclean's breast more than in most people's. How otherwise are we to understand her poetry? We cannot believe her sadness to have been put on like a player's garb: to have been an affectation, an unreality: it is too earnest for that. We must suppose that she felt what she wrote: and if so, her written sadness was real sadness. Take the following lines from The Golden Violet: no one can believe that the sentiment they contain is unreal. ”

“ Maclean could paint Sorrow as well as she could delineate Love we have plenty of proof. Sorrow seems indeed an essential part of her nature. Persons who knew her intimately say that she was not naturally sad: that she was all gaiety and cheerfulness: but there is a mournfulness of soul which is never to be seen on the cheek or in the eye: and this I believe to have dwelt in Mrs. ”