IV. I turn'd-the modern Rome there lay, V. Still, 'mid these pageants of old time, My father-land, to thee my thoughts still turn'd, VI. I've travers'd England's gladsome isle, O Naples! felt thy charms, and Stamboul! thine; VII. I've stood upon the Danube's shore, But all, all, deepen'd still my fealty,- VIII. My father-land, my father-land, On Asia's plains, on Afric's sand, I've thought of thee;-who could forget? "The slander'd home of freedom-tell, O tell, IX. Far, far, among the snowy hills Of the rough Swiss; among the rills And sink in graceful curves to meet the Rhine, X. Could I forget thee, father-land? XI. My Country! choicest gifts are thine, Than crowned heads from prince to czar; "WHAT IS LOVE?" J. SONNET, BY WASHINGTON ALLSTON. On the Statue of an Angel, by Bienaimé, of Rome, in the Oh, who can look on that celestial face, OUR YOUNGER POETS. BY G. LIVINGSTON TALLMADGE. There is no species of reading more interesting or useful than correct and impartial biographical notices of persons who have rendered themselves eminent in the political, moral, or literary world. Our thoughts naturally turn from the work to its author; and when the former has won our admiration, nothing is more common than for us to inquire into the history of the latter. Leaving others more learned in ethics and politics to note the career of their respective champions, it is our present purpose to turn the public eye to some of the rising stars of literature. With this view, therefore, it is our design to present from time to time brief sketches of such of our younger poets as may be known to us personally or by reputation, and whose writings we believe to have given evidence of more than ordinary promise. In doing this, we shall not attempt to present a critical analysis of their productions, nor to give more than an outline of their personal history. Indeed, our information in regard to most of those of whom we shall speak, does not enable us to detail the incidents of their lives, were such a course desirable or proper. 1. CHARLES W. EVEREST. The Rev. C. W. Everest, whose writings, both in prose and verse, have, for the last few years, attracted the attention of the reading public, is a A friend of ours asked a young lady this question, a few son of the late Sherman Everest, Esq. of Simsdays since. Read her prompt, yet beautiful reply: "To bury, Connecticut-an influential member of the mc," she said, "it seems the visible presence of all that is bar in Hartford county. Before the subject of this holiest in human dreams, the one blessing no earthly sketch had passed the years of childhood, his father honors can replace or atone for. To a woman, it is "practical religion, compensating for the unnumbered trials died, and the family removed to Whitesboro', in the State of New-York. On arriving at a suitable "which surround and shadow her common lot." 11. poetry, both on account of its moral beauty and the exactness and melody of its numbers. Nor is he wanting in the finer susceptibilities of our nature. Many of his poems bear the best evidence of a cultivated heart as well as intellect, and may be read, not only with interest, but with profit; and, so far as our observation extends, it may, with truth, be said of him, that he has written age, he was apprenticed to the printing-business in | Utica; it was while in the performance of his daily PAYNE KENYON KILBOURNE. duties in the printing-office that he first gave wings To the attentive readers of the periodical literato his fancy, and learned the "art and mystery" of ture of our country, this is not an unfamiliar name. holding communion with the stars, and gathering For the last six or eight years, the productions of lessons of wisdom from the running brook, the Mr. Kilbourne have appeared in the pages of the fading flower, and the falling leaf. While in Utica, Southern Literary Messenger, the Lady's Book, and we believe before he attained his majority, he Graham's Magazine, the Dollar Magazine, Philaedited and published a literary periodical entitled delphia Saturday Courier, and others of our most "The Records of Genius." Having gone through popular magazines and newspapers. Without aswith his preparatory studies, he, in 1834, entered piring to the character of a poet, he has written Washington College in Hartford, Conn., at which much which deservedly ranks in the first order of institution he was graduated with distinguished honor at the Annual Commencement, August 2d, 1838. On this occasion, he delivered one of his best poems-"Belshazzar"—which was afterwards published; it received the warmest tributes of praise from the periodical press. After he was graduated, he spent one or two seasons in North Carolina, during which time the periodicals, both of the South and North, were not unfrequently enriched by the "No line which, dying, he could wish to blot." productions of his pen. Soon after his return to Mr. Kilbourne is a native of Litchfield, Connecthe North, he was ordained as a preacher of the ticut. Like Montgomery, Morris, Woodworth, Episcopal order, and is now engaged in the labors Clarke, and many other master-spirits of the lyre, of his holy calling at Meriden, Conn. On the 31st he, too, commenced his poetical career in a printof May last, Mr. Everest was married at Fayette-ing-office, and like them was early compelled to ville, North Carolina, to Miss Sarah Louisa Mallett. struggle with adverse circumstances. If we are His poem entitled "Babylon" has been justly ad- rightly informed, he commenced his apprenticemired; but the "Vision of Death," we regard as ship with Mr. Nathan Whiting, of New-Haven, the most imaginative and spirited of his writings. about the year 1831, and remained with him until The latter was delivered at the "Junior Exhibi- he became of age. In 1837-'38, we knew him as tion" of Washington College, in 1837-and has the editor and publisher of "The New-Havener,” since been published in pamphlet form, and widely a weekly literary journal. As an evidence of the circulated. It evinces a strong and vivid imagina- repute in which this periodical was held by the tion, and is characterized by a richness of imagery-literati while under his control, it may be menof smoothness of versification, which has seldom tioned that Noah Webster, L.L.D., Professor Gibbs been surpassed by the most distinguished of our native bards. We cannot better conclude this notice than by giving an extract or two from this poem. In boasting of the supremacy of his dominion, Death exultingly exclaims: "I will speed to the soldier at rest on the plain, of Yale College, Mrs. Sigourney, and Rev. J. H. Clinch, were among the original contributors to its columns. In 1840-41, he was editor of a daily and weekly political paper in Wilmington, Delaware, devoted to the interests of General Harrison. A review of the writings of Mr. Kilbourne will not be expected here. Much which he has written has not been recognized as his by the great reading public, though extensively copied by the newspaper press of the country. Comparatively few of his articles have gone before the world with his name attached to them. They have appeared over various signatures, though generally that of "HARP OF THE VALE." Many of his poetical sa “There were heaps upon heaps' of the mangled and slain, tires have borne the quaint signature of "PERE- "Fear not,' said the spirit, 'his kingdom is o'er, GRINE PEPPERPOD, Esq." One of his longest and As a specimen of his "Political Portraits," we introduce the following, which, for biting sarcasm, mingled with affected gravity, we have seldom seen equalled : daily exhibiting more and more its true powers, and her fitness for a higher station. Despite the obstacles her sex has had to encounter in the prejudices and pride of the other sex-and in vicious systems of education,-the world, throughout its voluminous history, to this day, affords examples of women, who have exhibited, in whatever department of life they chanced to have acted—an energy, and a force of intellect, with every qualification that is necessary to make greatness and secure success, and who would honorably compare with the most illustrious of the self-styled and self-constituted "Lords of Creation." To make those instances more frequent, it is only necessary that we should cease to limit their growth, to a standard of our own fixing. We would not be thought to advocate the right of women to unsex themselves, and obliterate the line which is wisely drawn, separating the duties and privileges of the sexes. We would only show the line-not change it-much less erase it. We would have man believe-improved as the condition of woman is, that she is adapted and entitled to a condition still better-that from being the companion of his hours of relaxation and his counsellor in matters of indifference-she should be the companion of his graver moments-his counsellor in the serious and vitally important interests and pursuits of life--pursuits and interests in which her happiness is quite as deeply involved as his--that, instead of being the comfort of his home, she might be his comfort every where; instead of being his prop and solace in sickness only, she might support and sustain him in his hours of health also : in a word, that they two, should be one-one every where and at all times-one as God has pronounced them to be-that each should recline upon and sustain the other in every scene of life—that “ the rainbow of man's life" should span the arch of his world as well as of his home. The social relation of woman has been different, in different periods of the world's history. Man, competent to a more active life, and impatient of domestic restriction-endued with a larger frame, stronger thews and less tenderness-wrapt in conceit and proudly contemplating himself as the Lord of Creation, early assigned a life of inglorious drudgery to his weaker companion. Practice, in time, became precedent; and civilization sanctioned the continuance of what a barbarous age begun. These considerations as to the intellectual capaAs the world advanced to a loftier civilization, the city of females, and their title by virtue thereof, to character of woman's servitude was changed, if a more honorable position in society, were forcibly not ameliorated from being the slave of labor, suggested to our mind by a contemplation of the she became the slave of his pleasures; but, never- character of the first female sovereign-a woman theless, not his companion. Another epoch-and who sprung at a single leap from the comparative she has become the companion of his lighter hours-humble walks of life, into sovereignty; and wieldhis confidant and adviser in trifles-the comfort of ed the sceptre of empire with the ease that she his sick chamber, and the ornament of his drawing- would handle the distaff who identified her name This day is that epoch in her history. with that of the country she governed, and who Thus, woman, because she is endowed with a lighter has ineffacibly imprinted her story upon the records and more fragile form, was originally condemned of the world. to an inferior position; and, because she has been Semiramis, queen of Assyria, lived about two constrained to walk in that humbler path, she is hundred years after the deluge. She was the wife thought peculiarly adapted to it, in mind, as well as of one of the chief officers of Ninus, and accomin body. panied her husband in the expedition undertaken It is a heresy that is every day yielding to a by that monarch, against the Bactrians. He corwiser doctrine and as the shackles, which custom quered a great number of the cities of Bactriana, has established as the proper burdens for the op- and finally beleaguered Bactria, its capital. His pression of her mind, are stricken from it, she is army consisted of one million seven hundred thou room. sand foot; two hundred thousand horse, and six- Ninus; and history does not record that she ever teen thousand chariots, armed with scythes. gave him reason to believe, that the sun went down on her wrath against the man who widowed her. It was a forgiveness that would have reflected little credit on her in any age; but least of all in an age when the forgiveness of one's enemies was regarded a crime. All his efforts to make himself master of this city-apparently impregnable, were abortive. It was reserved for the genius of Semiramis to accomplish what this immense host, commanded by an able and experienced king, had failed to do. She directed the attack upon the citadel; and Bac- Having become a partner of Assyria's throne, tria was taken. Springing up in a moment, with-by her blandishments and beauty, she continued out experience, an able general, she realizes the her power over the heart of the king. At her refable of Minerva cleft from the brain of Jupiter-a quest, he ordered her to be proclaimed sole monarch full-grown, mailed warrior. of the empire for five days. In the meantime, she attached many of the chief officers of the government to her and then employed those five days in securing to herself the crown for life. She either had Ninus put to death forthwith or else he was imprisoned for several years. and then executed. Thus Semiramis became sole monarch of one of the most powerful realms of that day. Some discredit the story of her murdering the king, and assert that shortly after his return to Nineveh from his expedition into Bactriana, he died, and that in his last moments he voluntarily bequeathed to her, the government of Assyria: and that she, in honor of his memory, erected magnificent monument, which survived, by reason of its durability, the destruction of the splendid Metropolis which took its name from him. So indistinctly are events seen through the long distance that intervenes between the present hour and the early ages of the world, that there can be but little confidence placed in the best authenticated facts. When too, it is considered that with some few exceptions, their histories are merely the transcripts of traditions-the pilgrim-scholar, in his researches in antiquity, at every step, feels he is wandering in a land of shadows and illusions; and that the misty forms which he takes for substances, when more nearly approached, are airy nothings; or else realities, whose vapor-garments had given them a delusive size and fictitious appearance. We will not therefore pretend to avouch the truth of what is here told; but will faithfully say of Semiramis, what her several historians have written, and leave to the discriminating reader to winnow the truth from the chaff. Be this as it may; whether she obtained a throne by treason against, and the murder of her husband-king, or not-whether she instigated the harshness that drove Menones to self-destruction or not-however the sceptre was obtained, it was wielded to the glory of her subjects in war; and in peace, to the happiness and prosperity of her country, and to her own imperishable renown. Her reign is the brightest page in Assyria's history. She was born at Ascalon, a city of Syria, and was the daughter of the Goddess Derceto, and a young Assyrian priest. Her mother, ashamed of her amour, destroyed the father, exposed the child in a desert, and threw herself into a lake, where she was transformed into a fish. Semiramis was curtured by doves for the space of one year; at the end of which time, a shepherd discovering her, No one ever entertained a more insatiate ambicarried her to his home and educated her as one of tion. Glory was the great incentive to, and end his own children. She grew up a woman of the of, all her actions: and happily for her subjects, the most exquisite charms. The only inheritance pursuit of it was not altogether incompatible with which she received from her parents was uncom- their best interests. Unrestricted in her powers, mon beauty, which they both possessed in a most (as were all the monarchs of that early age,) there eminent degree. As events afterwards turned up- was no temptation to increase what there was no it was the richest legacy ever bequeathed to an room to enlarge. As therefore she could not agorphan. grandize the power of the throne, and as the people knew of no right to curtail it, her reign was exempt from contests with her subjects for disputed privileges. But one rupture between them is recorded, and that was the famous rebellion of Baby Having attracted the notice of Ninus, king of Assyria, by her signal services before the walls of Bactria, he became passionately enamored of her, asked her of her husband Menones, and offered him in her place, his own daughter. Tenderly attached lon. While arranging her toilette in the morning, to his wife, he refused the exchange and when news was brought her that that city had rebelled. Ninus added threats to his persuasions, in despair She promptly repaired to the scene of disorder, he slew himself, preferring death to life without and never left it, till the sedition was quelled. As Semiramis. Whether she conspired with the king a compliment to her vigor and energy, a statue was against her husband or not, is not known whether erected commemorative of this scene, which repshe approved, or condemned, or even regretted his resented her with her hair in an undress state as violence, is not known-but this much is certain, she appeared in public on the morning of the revolt. that she speedily consoled herself for the loss of In this instance, she not only suppressed a dangerMenones by marrying, in a most unbecoming haste, 'ous revolution, but inspired the Assyrians with a deeper respect for her authority, and a higher vene- | thickest of the fight-arrested the retreat-urged ration for her genius, which forever prevented a them to a fresh and desperate charge. But skill repetition of mutiny. She here displayed those and courage could not avail. The disguised camels qualities which are the guaranties of success in were beaten to the earth by the elephants, and the every undertaking-energy and promptness-the rout was complete. She never deserted the field attributes of great minds,—without which, genius till she was twice severely wounded. When comcan accomplish nothing. Genius and experience pelled to retire, before superior force, she displayed point the road to success: energy and promptness the same magnanimity in defeat that she had done are the agents that conduct to it. Hannibal, by in victory. When retreat became inevitable, and supineness, lost the opportunity of destroying Rome; the hopes of Indian conquest were abandoned, she and Marc Antony, that of conquering the world. applied all the powers of her mind, to alleviate the Energy and promptness are characteristics which horrors of a route through a hostile and victorious eminently distinguish women. Their feelings being territory. The shores of the Indus were reached: intense, they pursue, with resolution, every object and out of an army of three hundred thousand of interest. Heroines of the camp have ever foot, fifty thousand horse, and a number of camels shown it in their struggles for conquest--heroines and chariots with their riders and drivers armed of the court in their political intrigues, and heroines for war, only about one hundred thousand soldiers of the drawing-room in their struggles for hearts. crossed the river. The bridge of boats which was Having permanently established herself on the built to cross into India, she prudently reserved for throne, and secured the affections and respect of her return. Immense numbers of those who had her subjects, she determined upon an expedition escaped the carnage of battle, were destroyed as into Ethiopia, and resolved to conduct it herself. they crowded to the bridge. She did so and enlarged the immense dominions left her by her husband, by her successful war upon that country. Thus terminated this celebrated expedition. Had it been successful, she would have gained greater power-but scarcely would have earned greater fame. Accident may, and sometimes does, decide the issue of a war-but nothing but preeminent skill could have enabled her to effect the retreat she made. Her last military achievement was the crossing of the Indus. This she accomplished only after a severe and bloody engagement, which resulted in her putting the Indian army to flight, in the destruction of upwards of a thousand of their boats, and But it is not in the camp or the battle-field, that in the capture of an hundred thousand of the enemy. we must look for the most splendid and enduring It was by resorting to a stratagem that this artful exhibitions of her greatness. Fired by the lust of general effected the rout of her enemies. The conquest and military glory, she could nevertheking of India brought into the field a great number less sheathe the sword-smooth the rugged frown of elephants, whose strength and sagacity made it of war, and turn a face smiling with peace and beimpossible, if they came to a close engagement, for nevolence upon the world. any army that did not use them, to oppose him-- If to enlarge the Assyrian territory, she made Semiramis, aware of the superiority of her foes in her country bleed at every pore: if she played the this respect, disguised her camels, of which she game of war, whose stakes were human lives, and had a great many, and imposed them upon the bartered millions for the breath of fame, by increasIndians as elephants. To find themselves outnum- ing the comforts and security of her subjects, and bered in their peculiar instruments of warfare, adorning her cities with useful and splendid edifices, struck terror through their ranks, and the Indus she set an example worthy to be followed by all was crossed—an achievement which no general of future monarchs; and demonstrated in her own antiquity accomplished, before or afterwards, until person, that the truest glory of a prince is the hapAlexander of Macedon followed her example. piness of his people. Alexander was the second and last of the ancients She determined to make Babylon a lasting and that had the skill and intrepidity to carry the war splendid monument of her greatness. It was beyond the banks of the Indus; Semiramis was founded by Belus, better known by the name of the first. When she was approaching the terri- Nimrod, who was the father of her king-husband, tory that she vainly hoped to subdue, its king sent Ninus. The son greatly adorned and improved embassadors to inquire who she was, that dared to what the father began: but it was Semiramis who make war on one who never offended her? "I will made Babylon the miracle of cities. Of course be the bearer of my answer," she replied with additions and improvements were made by sucpromptness, and then hastened to carry her message. ceeding monarchs-and therefore it is impossible Having penetrated into the interior of the em- to define (as the history of those times is so impire, the Indian king drew up his forces to give perfect) the line that separates the works of this her battle. An engagement ensued, which was princess, from those of her successors: but all hislong and bravely fought. Semiramis in person torians agree, that it was she who planned, and cheered her soldiers to the conflict-mingled in the chiefly executed, its greatness-as may well be |