Full on a giant hero's sweeping car Crush'd in his arms, to rise he strove in vain, THE LAMENTATION OF SELIMA. CANST thou forget, when, call'd from southern bowers, Love tuned the groves, and spring awaked the flowers, How, loosed from slumbers by the morning ray, "T was then thy voice, attuned to wisdom's lay, rove, And steal an hour from IRAD, and from love, And must the hours in ceaseless anguish roll? Through favourite walks thy chosen maid attend, Where well known shades for thee their branches bend; Shed the sweet poison from thy speaking eye, Again all bright shall glow the morning beam, A cold, dumb, dead repose invests thee round; At each sad turn, I view thy spirit come, PREDICTION TO JOSHUA RELATIVE TO AMERICA. FAR o'er yon azure main thy view extend, Where seas and skies in blue confusion blend: Lo, there a mighty realm, by Heaven design'd The last retreat for poor, oppress'd mankind; Form'd with that pomp which marks the hand divine, And clothes yon vault where worlds unnumber'd shine. Here spacious plains in solemn grandeur spread, Till circling years the destined period bring, To morn's far realms her trading ships shall sail, Swells, wildly murmuring, o'er the far, far main ! EVENING AFTER A BATTLE. ABOVE tall western hills, the light of day On cliffs cliffs burn; o'er mountains mountains roll: Far south the storm withdrew its troubled reign, Descending twilight dimm'd the dusky plain; Black night arose; her curtains hid the ground: Less roar'd, and less, the thunder's solemn sound; The bended lightning shot a brighter stream, Or wrapp'd all heaven in one wide, mantling flame; By turns, o'er plains, and woods, and mountains spread Faint, yellow glimmerings, and a deeper shade. From parting clouds, the moon out-breaking shone, COLUMBIA. COLUMBIA, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies; star; New bards and new sages, unrivall'd, shall soar Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall display, As the day-spring unbounded, thy splendour shall flow, And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies." DAVID HUMPHREYS. [Born 1753. Died 1818.] DAVID HUMPHREYS, LL. D., was the son of a Congregational clergyman, at Derby, in Connecticut, where he was born in 1753. He was educated at Yale College, with DWIGHT, TRUMBULL, and BARLOW, and soon after being graduated, in 1771, joined the revolutionary army, under General PARSONS, with the rank of captain. He was for several years attached to the staff of General PUTNAM, and in 1780 was appointed aid-de-camp to General WASHINGTON, with the rank of colonel. He continued in the military family of the commander-in-chief until the close of the war, enjoying his friendship and confidence, and afterward accompanied him to Mount Vernon, where he remained until 1784, when he went abroad with FRANKLIN, ADAMS, and JEFFERSON, who were appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties of commerce with foreign powers, as their secretary of legation.* Soon after his return to the United States, in 1786, he was elected by the citizens of his native town a member of the Legislature of Connecticut, and by that body was appointed to command a regiment to be raised by order of the national government. On receiving his commission, Colonel HUMPHREYS established his head-quarters and recruiting rendezvous at Hartford; and there renewed his intimacy with his old friends TRUMBULL and BARLOW, with whom, and Doctor LEMUEL HOPKINS, he engaged in writing the "Anarchiad," a political satire, in imitation of the "Rolliad," a work attributed to SHERIDAN and others, which he had seen in London. He retained his commission until the suppression of the insurrection in 1787, and in the following year accepted an invitation to visit Mount Vernon, where he continued to reside until he was appointed minister to Portugal, in 1790. He remained in Lisbon seven years, at the end of which period he was transferred to the court of Madrid, and in 1802, when Mr. PINCKNEY was made minister to Spain, returned to the United States. From 1802 to 1812, he devoted his attention to agricultural and manufacturing pursuits; and on the breaking out of the second war In a letter to Doctor FRANKLIN, written soon after the appointment of HUMPHREYS to this office, General WASHINGTON, says: "His zeal in the cause of his country, his good sense, prudence, and attachment to me, have rendered him dear to me; and I persuade myself you will find no confidence which you may think proper to repose in him, misplaced. He possesses an excellent heart, good natural and acquired abilities, and sterling integrity, as well as sobriety, and an obliging disposition. A full conviction of his possessing all these good qualities makes me less scrupulous of recommending him to your patronage and friendship.”—SPARKS'S Life of Washington, volix. p. 46. with Great Britain, was appointed commander of the militia of Connecticut, with the rank of brigadier-general. His public services terminated with the limitation of that appointment. He died at New Haven, on the twenty-first day of February, 1818, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. 66 The principal poems of Colonel HUMPHREYS are an," Address to the Armies of the United States," written in 1772, while he was in the army; "A Poem on the Happiness of America," written during his residence in London and Paris, as secretary of legation; "The Widow of Malabar, or The Tyranny of Custom, a Tragedy, imitated from the French of M. LE MIERRE," written at Mount Vernon; and a " Poem on Agriculture," written while he was minister at the court of Lisbon. The "Address to the Armies of the United States" passed through many editions in this country and in Europe, and was translated into the French language by the Marquis de CHATELLUX, and favourably noticed in the Parisian gazettes. The "Poem on the Happiness of America" was reprinted nine times in three years; and the "Widow of Malabar" is said, in the dedication of it to the author of McFingal," to have met with "extraordinary success" on the stage. The "Miscellaneous Works of Colonel HUMPHREYS" were published in an octavo volume, in New York, in 1790, and again in 1804. The Works contain, besides the author's poems, an interesting biography of his early friend and commander, General PUTNAM, and several orations and other prose compositions. They are dedicated to the Duke de ROCHEFOUCAULT, who had been his intimate friend in France. In the dedication he says: "In presenting for your amusement the trifles which have been composed during my leisure hours, I assume nothing beyond the negative merit of not having ever written any thing unfavourable to the interests of religion, humanity, and virtue." He seems to have aimed only at an elegant mediocrity, and his pieces are generally simple and correct, in thought and language. He was one of the "four bards with Scripture names," satirized in some verses published in London, commencing "David and Jonathan, Joel and Timothy, Over the water, set up the hymn of the"-etc., and is generally classed among the "poets of the Revolution." The popularity he enjoyed while he lived, and his connection with TRUMBULL, BARLOW, and DWIGHT, justify the introduction of a sketch of his history and writings into this volume. The following extracts exhibit his style. The first alludes to the departure of the British fleet from New York. ON THE PROSPECT OF PEACE. E'EN now, from half the threaten'd horrors freed, Hail, heaven-born peace! thy grateful blessings pour Then, O blest land! with genius unconfined, WESTERN EMIGRATION. WITH all that's ours, together let us rise, Seek brighter plains, and more indulgent skies; Where fair Ohio rolls his amber tide, And nature blossoms in her virgin pride; Where all that Beauty's hand can form to please Shall crown the toils of war with rural ease. The shady coverts and the sunny hills, The gentle lapse of ever-murmuring rills, The soft repose amid the noontide bowers, The evening walk among the blushing flowers, The fragrant groves, that yield a sweet perfume, And vernal glories in perpetual bloom Await you there; and heaven shall bless the toil: Your own the produce, and your own the soil. There, free from envy, cankering care and strife, Flow the calm pleasures of domestic life; There mutual friendship soothes each placid breast: Blest in themselves, and in each other blest. From house to house the social glee extends, For friends in war in peace are doubly friends. There cities rise, and spiry towns increase, With gilded domes and every art of peace. There Cultivation shall extend his power, Rear the green blade, and nurse the tender flower; Make the fair villa in full splendours smile, And robe with verdure all the genial soil. There shallrich Commerce court the favouring gales, And wondering wilds admire the passing sails, Where the bold ships the stormy Huron brave, Where wild Ontario rolls the whitening wave, Where fair Ohio his pure current pours, And Mississippi laves the extended shores. And thou Supreme! whose hand sustains this ball, Before whose nod the nations rise and fall, Propitious smile, and shed diviner charms On this blest land, the queen of arts and arms; Make the great empire rise on wisdom's plan, The seat of bliss, and last retreat of man. AMERICAN WINTER. THEN doubling clouds the wintry skies deform, And, wrapt in vapour, comes the roaring storm; With snows surcharged, from tops of mountains sails, Loads leafless trees, and fills the whiten'd vales. REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. O, WHAT avails to trace the fate of war Through fields of blood, and paint each glorious scar! Why should the strain your former woes recall, JOEL BARLOW. [Born 1755. Died 1812.] THE author of the "Columbiad" was born in the village of Reading, in Connecticut, in 1755. He was the youngest in a family of ten, and his father died while he was yet a child, leaving to him property sufficient only to defray the costs of his education. On the completion of his preparatory studies he was placed by his guardians at Dartmouth College, but was soon induced to remove to New Haven, where he was graduated, in 1778. Among his friends here were DWIGHT, then a college tutor, Colonel HUMPHREYS, a revolutionary bard of some reputation, and TRUMBULL, the author of "McFingal." BARLOW recited an original poem, on taking his bachelor's degree, which is preserved in the "American Poems," printed at Litchfield in 1793. It was his first attempt of so ambitious a character, and possesses little merit. During the vacations of the college he had on several occasions joined the army, in which four of his brothers were serving; and he participated in the conflict at White Plains, and a number of minor engagements, in which he | is said to have displayed much intrepidity. For a short time after completing his academic course, BARLOW devoted his attention chiefly to the law; but being urged by his friends to qualify himself for the office of chaplain, he undertook the study of theology, and in six weeks became a licensed minister. He joined the army immediately, and remained with it until the establishment of peace, cultivating the while his taste for poetry, by writing patriotic songs and ballads, and composing, in part, his "Vision of Columbus," afterward expanded into the "Columbiad." When the army was disbanded, in 1783, he removed to Hartford, to resume his legal studies; and to add to his revenue established "The Mercury," a weekly gazette, to which his writings gave reputation and an immediate circulation. He had previously married at New Haven a daughter of the Honourable ABRAHAM BALDWIN, and had lost his early patron and friend, the Honourable TITUS HOSMER, on whom he wrote an elegant elegy. In 1785 he was admitted to the bar, and in the same year, in compliance with the request of an association of Congregational ministers, he prepared and published an enlarged and improved edition of WATTS'S version of the Psalms, to which were appended a Of the psalms omitted by WATTS and included in this edition, only the eighty-eighth and one hundred and thirty-seventh were paraphrased by BARLOW. His version of the latter added much to his reputation, and has been considered the finest translation of the words of DAVID that has been written, though they have received a metrical dress from some of the best poets of England and America. Recently the origin of this paraphrase has been a subject of controversy, but a memorandum found among the papers of the late Judge TRUMBULL, 24 collection of hymns, several of which were written by himself. "The Vision of Columbus" was published in 1787. It was dedicated to Louis XVI., with strong expressions of admiration and gratitude, and in the poem were corresponding passages of applause; but BARLOW's feelings toward the amiable and unfortunate monarch appear to have changed in after time, for in the "Columbiad" he is coldly alluded to, and the adulatory lines are suppressed. The Vision of Columbus" was reprinted in London and Paris, and was generally noticed favourably in the reviews. After its publication the author relinquished his newspaper and established a bookstore, principally to sell the poem and his edition of the Psalms, and as soon as this end was attained, resumed the practice of the law. In this he was, however, unfortunate, for his forensic abilities were not of the most popular description, and his mind was too much devoted to political and literary subjects to admit of the application to study and attention to business necessary to secure success. He was engaged with Colonel HUMPHREYS, JOHN TRUMBULL, and Dr. LEMUEL HOPKINS, a man of some wit, of the coarser kind, in the " Anarchiad," a satirical poem published at Hartford, which had considerable political influence, and in some other works of a similar description; but, obtaining slight pecuniary advantage from his literary labours, he was induced to accept a foreign agency from the "Sciota Land Company," and sailed for Europe, with his family, in 1788. In France he sold some of the lands held by this association, but deriving little or no personal benefit from the transactions, and becoming aware of the fraudulent character of the company, he relinquished his agency and determined to rely on his pen for support. who aided in the preparation of the Connecticut edition of WATTS, settles the question in favour of Barlow. The following is the version to which we have alluded: THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. |