Gents Mag 1851 part 1 p.588
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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.588
I should like thee, be no great mouser, And thou, like me, no great composer; For, like thy plaintive mews, my muse With villanous whine doth fate abuse, Because it hath not made me sleek As golden down on Cupid's cheek; And yet thou canst upon the rug lie, Stretched out like snail, or curled up snugly, As if thou wert not lean or ugly; And I, who in poetic flights Sometimes complain of sleepless nights, Regardless of the sun in Heaven, Am apt to dose till past eleven. The world would just the same go round, If I were hanged and thou wert drowned; There is one difference, 'tis true,- Thou dost not know it, and I do. Vol.ii p.252. Beautiful and touching as these poems are, we are by no means sure that the editor is right in supposing that it as a poet that his brother will be best remembered. He was a clear, earnest, and original thinker; and he delivered his thoughts in a manner so perspicuous and lively, with a peculiar humour of his own character so shining through, that his essays, which would be worth studying for the sense they contain, though the style were dull, are among the pleasantest things to read in the language. When all are gathered together they will fill, we suppose, several moderate-sized volumes. If so, and if we are not greatly mistaken as to the quality of the volumes which are to come, we may surely (without raising vain questions as to what he might have done if he had not been what he was,) say that the last half of his life, though spent in cloud and shadow, has not been spent in vain. He died on the 6th of January, 1849, after a short illness, the consequence of an attack of bronchitis. Wordsworth marked out a space for his grave, next to the spot destined for his own, and they now lie side by side in the quiet churchyard of Grasmere - all that was mortal of them. But The sage, the poet, lives for all mankind, So long as truth is true and beauty fair; The soul that ever sought its God to find, Has found him now - no matter how or where. Vol.ii p.58. |
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