The Knickerbocker | Page 2

236 Some Sentiments on Sonnets, with Sundry Specimens, 283 Stanzas to MARY. By Mrs. M. E. HEWITT, 348 Stanzas on the Burial of an Infant, 460 Stanzas to Niagara. By CLAUDE HALCRO, 489 Stanzas to my Three Departed Sisters, 556 Stanzas Written in Indisposition. By the late WILLIS GAYLORD CLARK, 569
T.
The Idleberg Papers: a Christmas Yarn, 11 Thoughts on Color. By JOHN WATERS, 26 The Quod Correspondence, 30, 120, 245, 368, 473, 529 Thoughts from Bulwer. By Mrs. M. T. W. CHANDLER, 52 The Mail Robber, 53 The ?neid of Virgil: with Notes by CHAS. ANTHON, 76 The Sacrifice, 127 The Death-Bed. By the 'COUNTRY DOCTOR,' 128 The Ruins of Burnside. By JAMES LAWSON, Esq., 137 The Smithy. By ALFRED B. STREET, Esq., 155 Two Pictures: Love Celestial and Love Terrestrial, 160 The Hermit of the Prairie, 161 Translation from CATULLUS. By Rev. Geo. W. BETHUNE, 166 The Painted Rock, 167 Thirty Years among the Players of England and America, 175 The Study of Woman's Life, 179 The American Review, 179 The North American Review, for January, 183 The Alms-House: a New-England Sketch, 212 The Tyranny of Affection, 222 The Fratricide's Death, 232 The Spectre Imp. By Mr. GEORGE HARVEY, 338 The Church Bell, 368 The Inner Life of Man. By Mr. CHARLES HOOVER, 389, 599 The Floral Resurrection, 417 The Dog-Star Spirit: or, Tray's Reflections, 431 The Poet Halleck: Epistle to the Editor, 437 The Plague at Constantinople in 1837, 511 The Song of Death. By MISS MARY GARDINER, 523 The Householder. by JOHN WATERS, 528 The Hearth of Home, 548
V.
Vicissitudes, 10 Voices of Affection, 336
W.
Winter Evening: an Extract. By J. G. PERCIVAL, Esq., 24 What is Transcendentalism? 205 Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor, 281 What is It? A Lover's Query, 489
+-------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: The page numbers in the | | index convert to issues in the following way: | | | | January, 1844 1-102 | | February 103-204 | | March 205-306 | | April 307-408 | | May 409-510 | | June 511-608 | +-------------------------------------------------+

T H E K N I C K E R B O C K E R.
VOL. XXIII. JANUARY, 1844. NO. 1.

DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.
BY A NEW CONTRIBUTOR.
Whatever the poets may say, it is incontrovertible that the great majority of men look upon the beauties and glories of Nature that surround them with almost entire indifference. We shall not inquire whether this is the result of a natural incapacity to perceive and admire the beautiful and sublime, or whether it is that their impressions are so deadened by familiarity as to be passed by unnoticed. Probably the former is the case with the greater number; although we cannot believe with some writers, that all our ideas of beauty are but the results of association, or of our perceptions of the proportion, or fitness, or utility of things. When we say that some things are naturally agreeable, and others naturally disagreeable, we have said all that we know about the matter; and this amounts to nothing more than a confession of our ignorance. Yet, if we admit in all men the existence of a natural sense of beauty, daily observation shows us that the pleasure arising from it is in most cases very feeble and evanescent. How many live in the midst of the most magnificent natural scenery, and never perceive its beauties until they are pointed out to them by some intelligent traveller! And often if admiration be professed, it is of that vague, undistinguishing kind, which indicates little knowledge of the causes why they admire. Even among men of cultivated tastes, there is much more of affected than real enthusiasm.
If what we have said be true, it is a curious subject of inquiry why descriptive poetry has been so popular. How happens it that so many who have looked upon Nature herself with great indifference, have been so much delighted with the reflection of her image in the pages of the poets? We suspect, indeed, that a part of the popularity of this class of writers is factitious. THOMSON, the most popular, is we suspect oftener purchased than read; and his 'Seasons' are not unfrequently spoken of with admiration by those who know little of them but the episodes. The chief interest of the 'Task' is to be sought for in other sources than its descriptions, notwithstanding the curiosa felicitas of Cowper's diction.
The pleasure which we feel in reading descriptive poetry may perhaps in all cases be traced to one of the three following sources: the conception in our own minds of objects corresponding in a greater or less degree to those which exist in the mind of the poet; the train of associations which his language awakens; or the moral interest with which he invests what he describes. In the case first