ITALY.

Know 'st thou the land which lovers ought to choose ?
Like blessings there descend the sparkling dews;
In gleaming streams the crystal rivers run,
The purple vintage clusters in the sun;
Odors of flowers haunt the balmy breeze,
Rich fruits hang high upon the verdant trees;
And vivid blossoms gem the shady groves
Where bright-plumed birds discourse their careless loves.
Beloved !-speed we from this sullen strand
Untilthy light feet press that green shore's yellow sand.
Look seaward thence, and nought shall meet thine eye
But fairy isles like paintings on the sky;
And, flying fast and free before the gale,
The gaudy vessel with its glancing sail ;
And waters glittering in the glare of noon,
Or flecked with broken lines of crimson light
When the far fisher's fire affronts the night.
Lovely as loved! towards that smiling shore
Bear we our household gods, to fix for ever more.

It looks a dimple on the face of earth,
The seal of beauty, and the shrine of mirth ;
Nature is delicate and graceful there,
The place of genius, feminine and fair ;
The winds are awed, nor dare to breathe aloud ;
The air seems never to have borne a cloud,
Save where volcanoes send to heaven their curled
And solemn smokes, like altars of the world.
Thrice beautiful! to that delightful spot
Carry our married hearts, and be all pain forgot.
There Art, too, shows, when Nature's beauty palls,
Her sculptured marbles, and her pictured walls;
And there are forms in which they both conspire
To whisper themes that know not how to tire:
The speaking ruins in that gentle clime
Have but been hallowed by the hand of Time,
And each can mutely prompt some thought of flame
-The meanest stone is not without a name.
Then come, beloved !-hasten o’er the sea
To build our happy hearth in blooming Italy.

A HEALTH.

I Fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that like the air, 't is less of earth than heaven.

Her every tone is music's own, like those of morning birds, And something more than melody dwells ever in her words; The coinage of her heart are they, and from her lips each

flows As one may see the burthen'd bee forth issue from the rose.

Affections are as thoughts to her, the measure of her hours; Her feelings have the fragrancy, the freshness, of young

flowers ; And lonely passions, changing oft, so fill her, she appears The image of themselves by turns,—the idol of past years ! Of her bright face one glance will trace a picture on the brain, And of her voice in echoing hearts a round must long remain, But memory such as mine of her so very much endears, When death is nigh, my latest sigh will not be life's, but

hers.

I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex the seerning paragon-
Her health! nd would on earth there stood some more of

such a frame,
That life might be all poetry, and weariness a name.

SONG.

WE break the glass, whose sacred wine

To some beloved health we drain,
Lest future pledges, less divine,

Should e'er the hallow'd toy profane;
And thus I broke a heart that poured

Its tide of feeling out for thee,
In draughts, by after-times deplored,

Yet dear to memory.

But still the old impassion'd ways

And habits of my mind remain,
And still unhappy light displays

Thine image chamber'd in my brain.
And still it looks as when the hours

Went by like flights of singing birds,
On that soft chain of spoken flowers,

And airy gems, thy words.

A PICTURE SONG.

How may this little tablet feign the features of a face,
Which o'er-informs with loveliness its proper share of space ;
Or human hands on ivory enable us to see
The charms, that all must wonder at, thou work of gods, in

thee!

But yet, methinks, that sunny smile familiar stories tells,
And 'I should know those placid eyes, two shaded crystal

wells; Nor can my soul, the limner's art attesting with a sigh, Forget the blood that deck'd thy cheek, as rosy clouds the

sky.

They could not semble what thou art, more excellent than

fair, As soft as sleep or pity is, and pure as mountain air; But here are common, earthly hues, to such an aspect wrought, That none, save thine, can seem so like the beautiful of thought.

The song I sing, thy likeness like, is painful mimicry
Of something better, which is now a memory to me,
Who have upon life's frozen sea arrived the icy spot,
Where men's magnetic feelings show their guiding task forgot.

The sportive hopes that used to chase their shifting shadows

on, Like children playing in the sun, are gone-for ever gone; And on a careless, sullen peace, my double-fronted mind, Like Janus, when his gates are shut, looks forward and behind.

8

VOL. III.

Apollo placed his harp, of old, awhile upon a stone,
Which has resounded since, when struck, a breaking harp

string's tone; And thus my heart, though wholly now from early softness

free, If touch'd, will yield the yet, it first received of thee.

JOHIN NEAL

Is a native of Portland, Maine. He received a common school education, and was put apprentice to a shop keeper at twelve years

of

age. Bebind the counter he continued till he was past twentyone. During this time he gave no indications of possessing that ability, for which he has afterwards become in some degree remarkable. At about eighteen, he tried his hand at poetry, but could make nothing of it; and the only paragraph in prose, which he ever attempted during his minority, except letters and advertisements, was a political squib, which found its way into one of the eastern newspapers. IIe removed to Baltimore in 1815. At this time, his powers began to develope themselves; he studied law, wrote poetry, novels, criticisms, and history, an after practising for a short time at the bar, left this country for England, in 1823.

During his absence, he contributed largely to several of the British periodicals. He returned in 1827, and has since that time lived in Portland. In January, 1828, he began The Yankee, a weekly journal, which he still conducts.

Mr Neal must be allowed to be among the most remarkable of our writers, whether of poetry or prose. He is gifted with an almost magical facility of literary composition. What to others is a work of careful study, and severe labor, is to him a pastime. His writings have in most cases been thrown off with a rapidity that almost surpasses belief. “ Seventy Six,'' his best novel, was the work of odd hours, and executed in less than a month. In other cases, he has rewritten a tale from ten to forty times, and in his own judgment, never failed to spoil it as a story, if he had leisure sufficient, or felt any anxiety for its success.

We here offer a catalogue of his various productions. About 500 pages octavo, of prose and poetry chiefly how

ever, criticism, published in The Portico, a monthly jour

nal, conducted by Tobias Watkins, at Baltimore. Keep Cool, a novel in two volumes. The Battle of Niagara, a poem. Goldau, a poem, with others. Otho, a tragedy, (entirely re-written in The Yankee for

1828.) Allen's History of the American Revolution, beginning with

the chapter upon the declaration of Independence, and

continuing to the end of the volume. Newspaper essays, and criticisms to the amount of three or

four volumes, octavo, chiefly in the Baltimore Telegraph,

and Allen's Journal of the Times. Logan, a novel in two large volumes, republished in England

in four. Randolph, a novel in two volumes. Seventy Six, a novel in two volumes. Errata, a novel in two volumes. Brother Jonathan, a novel in three volumes, published in

England. Criticisms on literature, and the Fine Arts, reviews, essays,

stories, biographical sketches, &c, altogether, about three good sized octavos, in the different periodicals of Great Britain, chiefly Blackwood's Magazine, the European and

Monthly. Yankee for 1828, contains from six to ten octavos of original

matter by the editor. Rachel Dyer, a novel in one volume.

It appears therefore that what Mr Neal has published, would exceed fifty volumes duodecimo, as they are usually printed in England; and this has been accomplished in about twelve years!