Our own dear Shakspere! Poet of the World! Spread through all lands thy wondrous mental food, Whose power shall cease not 'till Time's wing be furled. Most comprehensive soul of any clime; Man, as we have before observed, is the poet's noblest study; though, alas! too often not the most seductive or pleasing in its commoner aspects. Man, considered as God's grandest work, is beyond compare the largest study which the human intellect can grasp, a part of the true Poet's mission being, as it is, to rouse to generous exertion, to console in distress, and to lift the soul, from the dark abyss of despair, up into the blessed light of hope! The every-day affairs of mankind, and the aspirations of nations, alike teem with matter of contemplation and interest for the poet. Through the watching of such concerns, can he use his power to guide or encourage. The study of man, therefore, his origin considered, is a sublime studyespecially his higher passions and nobler feelings. The constant endeavours and struggles of mankind ever tend, through the aid of lyrical and dramatic poetry, to an onward, upward, and anti-sensual elevation. The prophet-priest, or poet, is the most powerful enemy of tyranny and oppression, dwell they where they may. A late writer, speaking of some of our modern poets, says,* "Their words become, as soon as uttered, the property of the language, and the watch-word of the millions in their grand quest after liberty and knowledge." The Poet, to our mind, has been the true Priest, and has done much to make man tread * Linwood. upon the shadow of the True. The Poet is, at once, Priest and Prophet. "Behold the glorious work becomes the Poet! To scatter wide the light his soul within; To lift his voice for TRUTH, that men may know it; O what a glorious and holy mission, then, is confided to the exalted genius of the true toiler up the steep sides of Mount Parnassus! To guide and rule in the present, and to wing his heavenly flight into a distant time, there to address souls unborn, in ages yet to come! Truth can walk triumphantly over those seeming victors, Sin and Death; and thus it is that Poetry, truly thought, hath in itself an unconquerable power of immortality. THE POET IN LOVE" THERE'S A WORLD IN LOVE," A SONG. BET us now contemplate the Poet when first in love! He loves the world doubly for that it contains love! He wanders listlessly about the meadows and woodsides when absent from her who in his eyes is like nought else he ever did behold, and whose image is" enamelled in fire." "Then, when in listless thoughtfulness, He strolls the meads along, From all the woods and rivers round Now o'er his pure spirit steals an exceeding de licacy, and he tints all things with the glowing colours of his doubly awakened imagination. Love purifies and enlightens all, and it causes the poet to worship the being with whom he hopes to link his destiny; and he tenderly garners her up in his heart of hearts, thinking her, in his bright fancy— 66 Too bright and good For human nature's daily food." In Love is the only position in the life of the Poet in which we find him untrue, and then he is untrue only to himself. Love is often made with him a glorious and transient madness. The divine doctrine of love which he cherishes, and in which love-the sentiment so little felt or understood by the world—can at any time o'ermaster that with which it is commingled, is too often but ill responded to. How often is he doomed to disappointment! How often does he see the bright colours of his heart's ideal picture fade one by one before |