of life," and voices of the night, hasten the coining of a holier, happier age, and
long before that blissful hour arrives,
Would chant, in lonely peace, the spousal verse
Of this great consummation:—and, by words
Which speak of nothing more than what we are,
Would he arouse the sensual from the sleep
Of Death, and win the vacant and the vain
To noble raptures.
At the same time, he is gay and sprightly in his movements; some of his verses are almost frivolous in tone and finical in form; he plays with his theme, when so disposed, and seasons his compositions with liberal spicery of quaint phantasien and scholarly concetti. He may be said to have two publics—one which comes for strong meat, to strengthen and sustain—another, for "trifle" and confectionery, to tickle an epicurean palate.
In simile-making, Mr. Longfellow is au fait. Like Cocker, he is a "dab at figures." Figurative he loves to be, sometimes at too great an expense. His similes do not, indeed, arise with the impetuous unrest, the exhaustless creativeness of Alexander Smith and others,—nor are they so "rich" in quality, though in quantity more "rare." But they are plenteous enough to make some readers account simile-making his forte, while quaint enough occasionally to make others call it his foible. Often sweet and significant, they are not unfrequently forced and far-fetched. Take the following excerpts, metaphorical and figurative, in illustration of the poet's manner:
The day is done; and slowly from the scene
The stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts,
And puts them back into his golden quiver.[1]
—The consecrated chapel on the crag,
And the white hamlet gather'd round its base,
Like Mary sitting at her Saviour's feet,
And looking up at His beloved face.[2]
—And within the woodlands as he trod,
The twilight was like the Truce of God
With worldly woe and care.[3]
Yonder lies
The Lake of the Four Forest-Towns, apparelled
In light, and lingering, like a village maiden,
Hid in the bosom of her native mountains,
Then pouring all her life into another's,
Changing her name and being.[4]
Under the single arched Devil's Bridge, built for pilgrims to Rome,
