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MARY E. HEWITT(1)
I am not aware that Mrs. Hewitt has written any prose; but her poems have been many, and occasionally excellent. A collection of them was published, in an exquisitely tasteful form, by Ticknor & Co., of Boston.(2) The leading piece, entitled “Songs of our Land,”(3) although the longest, was by no means the most meritorious. In general, these compositions evince poetic fervor, classicism, and keen appreciation both of moral and physical beauty. No one of them, perhaps, can be judiciously commended as a whole; but no one of them is without merit, and there are several which would do credit to any poet in the land. Still, even these latter are particularly rather than generally commendable. They lack unity, totality — ultimate effect, but abound in forcible passages. For example:
Shall I portray thee in thy glorious seeming,
Thou that the pharos of my darkness art? .... (4)
Like the blue lotos on its own clear river
Lie thy soft eyes, beloved, upon my soul ..... (5)
And there the slave, a slave no more,
Hung reverent up the chain he wore ..... (6)
Here ‘mid your wild and dark defile
O’erawed and wonder-whelmed I stand,
And ask — “is this the fearful vale
That opens on the shadowy land?” .... (7)
Oh friends! we would be treasured still,
Though Time's cold hand should cast
His misty veil, in after years,
Over the idol Past,
Yet send to us some offering thoughts
O’er Memory's ocean wide,
Pure as the Hindoo's votive lamp
On Ganga's sacred tide.(8)
(9) Mrs. Hewitt has warm partialities for the sea and all that concerns it. Many of her best poems turn upon sea adventures or have reference to a maritime life. Some portions of her “God bless the Mariner” are naive and picturesque: e.g. —
God bless the happy mariner!
A homely garb wears he,
And he goeth with a rolling gait,
Like a ship before the sea. [page 154:]
He hath piped the loud “ay, ay, Sir!”
O’er the voices of the main
Till, his deep tones have the hoarseness
Of the rising hurricane.(10)
But oh, a spirit looketh
From out his clear blue eye,
With a truthful childlike earnestness,
Like an angel from the sky.
A venturous life the sailor leads
Between the sky and sea,
But, when the hour of dread is past,
A merrier who than he?(11)
The tone of some quatrains entitled “Alone,” differs materia ally from that usual with Mrs. Hewitt. The idea is happy and well managed.(9)
Mrs. Hewitt's sonnets are upon the whole, her most praises worthy compositions. One entitled “Hercules and Omphale” is noticeable for the vigor of its rhythm.
12 Reclined, enervate, on the couch of ease,
No more he pants for deeds of high emprize;
For Pleasure holds in soft voluptuous ties
Enthralled, great Jove-descended Hercules.
The hand that bound the Erymanthean boar,
Hesperia's dragon slew with bold intent,
That from his quivering side in triumph rent
The skin the Cleonaean lion wore,
Holds forth the goblet — while the Lydian queen,
Robed like a nymph, her brow enwreathed with vine,
Lifts high the amphora brimmed with rosy wine,
And pours the draught the crowned cup within.
And thus the soul, abased to sensual sway,
Its worth forsakes — its might foregoes for aye.(13)
The unusual force of the line italicized, will be observed. This force arises first, from the directness, or colloquialism without vulgarity, of its expression: — (the relative pronoun “which”(14) is very happily omitted between “skin” and “the”) — and, secondly, to the musical repetition of the vowel in “Cleonaean,” together with the alliterative terminations in “Cleonaean” and “lion.” The effect, also, is much aided by the sonorous conclusion(15) “wore.”(12)
Another and better instance of fine versification occurs in “Forgotten Heroes.”
And the peasant mother at her door,
To the babe that climbed her knee,
Sang aloud the land's heroic songs —
Sang of Thermopylae —
Sang of Mycale — of Marathon —
Of proud Plataea's day —
Till the wakened hills from peak to peak
Echoed the glorious lay.
Oh, godlike name! — oh, godlike deed!
Song-borne afar on every breeze,
Ye are sounds to thrill like a battle shout,
Leonidas! Miltiades! (16) [page 156:]
(17) The general intention here is a line of four iambuses alters nating with a line of three; but, less through rhythmical skill than a musical ear, the poetess has been led into some exceedingly happy variations of the theme. For example; — in place of the ordinary iambus as the first foot of the first, of the second, and of the third line, a bastard iambus(18) has been employed. These lines are thus scanned:
An4d th4e peas | a2nt moth | e2r at | he2r door |
To4 th4e babe | tha2t climbed | he2r knee |
Sa4ng al4oud | the2 land's | he2ro | i2c songs |
The fourth line,
Sang o2f | The2rmo | py2læ,
is well varied by a trochee, instead of an iambus, in the first foot; and the variation expresses forcibly(19) the enthusiasm excited by the topic of the supposed songs, “Thermopylae”. The fifth line(20) is scanned as the three first. The sixth is the general intention, and consists simply of iambuses. The seventh is like the three first and the fifth. The eighth is like the fourth; and here again the opening trochee is admirably adapted to the movement of the topic. The ninth is the general intention, and is formed of four iambuses. The tenth is an alternating line and yet has four iambuses, instead of the usual three; as has also the final line — an alternating one, too. A fuller volume is in this manner given to the close of the subject; and this volume is fully in keeping with the rising enthusiasm. The last line but one has two bastard iambuses, thus:
Ye4 ar4e sounds | to2 thrill | lik4e a4 bat | tl2e shout | .
Upon the whole, it may be said that the most skilful versifier could not have written lines better suited to the purposes of the poet. The errors of “Alone,”(21) however, and of Mrs. Hewitt's poems generally, show that we must regard the beauties pointed out above, merely in the light to which I have already alluded — that is to say, as occasional happiness to which the poetess is led by a musical ear.(17)
I should be doing the lady injustice were I not to mention that, at times, she rises into a higher and purer region of poetry than might be supposed, or inferred, from any of the passages which I have hitherto quoted. The conclusion of her “Ocean Tide to the Rivulet” puts me in mind of the rich spirit of Horne's noble epic, “Orion.”(22)
Sadly the flowers their faded petals close
Where on thy banks they languidly repose,
Waiting in vain to hear thee onward press;
And pale Narcissus by thy margin side
Hath lingered for thy coming, drooped and died, [page 157:]
Pining for thee amid the loneliness.
Hasten, beloved! — here! ‘neath the o ‘erhanging rock!
Hark! from the deep, my anxious hope to mock,
They call me back unto my parent main.
Brighter than Thetis thou — and ah3 more fleet!
I hear the rushing of thy fair white feet!
Joy! joy! — my breast receives its own again!(23) [page 158:]
The personifications here are well managed. The “Here! — ‘neath the o'erhanging rock!” has the high merit of being truthfully, by which I mean naturally, expressed, and imparts excelling vigor to the whole stanza. The idea of the ebb-tide, conveyed in the second line italicized, is one of the happiest imaginable; and too much praise can scarcely be bestowed on the “rushing” of the “fair white feet.”(24) The passage altogether is full of fancy, earnestness, and the truest poetic strength. Mrs. Hewitt has given many such indications of a fire which, with more earnest endeavor, might be readily fanned into flame.(24)
In character, she is sincere, fervent, benevolent — sensitive to praise and to blame; in temperament melancholy; in manner subdued; converses earnestly yet quietly. In person she is tall and slender, with black hair and full gray eyes; complexion dark; general expression of the countenance singularly interesting and agreeable.
[The following footnotes appear on page 153:]
1 From Poe's Works, ed. Griswold, 3:116-119. An expansion of the note on Mrs Hewitt in Godey's Lady's Book 33:158-159, 1846. The additional passages are considered spurious by Harrison, 16:vii; Campbell, ‘The Poe-Griswold controversy’, The mind of Poe, pp. 93-98, and ‘The Poe canon” The mind of Poe, pp. 231-232, considers them genuine.
2 The songs of our land, and other poems, Boston: Wm. D. Ticknor & Co., 1846.
3 ‘The songs of our land’, Songs, pp. [9]-15.
4 ‘Love's limning: imitation of Sappho’, Songs, p. 16:
Shall I portray thee in thy glorious seeming,
Thou that the Pharos of my darkness art —
The star above life ‘ s waters ever beaming
To guide the lonely voyager, my heart.
5 Ibid., vv. 9-12:
Like the blue lotos on its own clear river,
Lie thy soft eyes, beloved! upon my soul;
And in its depths thou mirrored art forever,
How dark soe’er the clouds above may roll.
6 The hearth of home” Songs, pp. 65-66:
The hearth was then, ‘mong low and great,
Unto the Lares consecrate:
The youth arrived to man's estate
There offered up his golden heart;
Thither, when overwhelmed with dread,
The stranger still for refuge fled,
Was kindly cheered, and warmed, and fed,
Till he might fearless thence depart:
And there the slave, a slave no more,
Hung reverent up the chain he wore.
7 ‘Lines written in the notch of the White Mountains’, Songs, p. 24:
Dread mountain gorge! that hast thy way,
In gloom, the sterile hills among;
Where coldly falls the cheering ray,
To light thy path with rocks o’erhung —
Here, ‘mid your wild and dark defile,
O’erawed, and wonder-whelmed I stand;
And ask, is this the fearful vale
That opens on the shadowy land?
8 ‘Parting from a household’, Songs, p. 140, vv. 5-12:
O friends! we would be treasured still!
Though Time's cold hand should cast
His misty veil, in after years,
Over the idol Past;
Yet send to us some offering thought,
O’er memory's ocean wide;
Pure as the Hindoo's votive lamp
On Ganga's sacred tide.
9 This passage is not in Godey's.
[The following footnotes appear on page 155:]
10 Hewitt, ‘God bless the mariner’, Songs, pp. 32-33:
God bless the hardy Mariner!
A homely garb wears he,
And he goeth with a rolling gait,
Like a ship upon the sea.
He hath piped the loud “ay! ay sir!”
O’er the voices of the main,
Till his deep tones have the hoarseness
Of the rising hurricane.
11 Ibid., p. 33, vv. 9-16:
But oh! a spirit looketh
From out his clear, blue eye,
With a truthful, childlike earnestness,
Like an angel from the sky.
A venturous life the sailor leads
Between the sky and sea —
But when the hour of dread is past,
A merrier who, than he?
12 This passage is not in Godey's.
13 Hewitt, ‘Cameo II.: Hercules and Omphale’, Songs, p. 36:
Reclined enervate on the couch of ease,
No more he pants for deeds of high emprise;
For pleasure holds in soft, voluptuous ties
Enthrall’d, great Jove-descended Hercules.
The hand that bound the Erymanthian boar,
Hesperia's dragon slew, with bold intent —
That from his quivering side in triumph rent
The skin the Cleonaean lion wore,
Holds forth the goblet — while the Lydian queen
Robed like a nymph, her brow enwreathed with vine —
Lifts high the amphora, brimmed with rosy wine,
And pours the draught the crowned cup within.
And thus the soul, abased to sensual.sway,
Its worth forsakes — its might foregoes for aye.
14 For the ellipsis of pronouns, cf. p. 20, note 95; for the merits of that and which as relative pronouns, cf. p. 65, note 52.
15 For the sonority of the syllable ore, cf. Poe, ‘The philosophy of composition’ [how I wrote The Raven], Campbell, pp. 322-323:
Having made up my mind to a refrain, the division of the poem into stanzas was, of course, a corollary; the refrain forming the close to each stanza. That such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt; and these considerations inevitably led me to the long o as the most sonorous vowel in connection with r as the most pronouncible consonant.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 155, running to page 157:]
16 Hewitt, ‘Forgotten heroes’, Songs, p. 19, vv. 5-16:
And the peasant mother at her door,
To the babe that climbed her knee,
Sang aloud the land's heroic songs —
Sang of Thermopylae.
Sang of Mycal£, of Marathon,
Of proud Plataea's day,
Till the wakened hills from peak to peak
Echoed the glorious lay! [page 157:]
O godlike name! O godlike deed!
Song-borne afar on every breeze —
Ye are sounds to thrill like a battle shout,
Leonidas! Miltiades!x
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 157:]
17 This passage is not in Godey's.
18 See p. 115, note 62. Note that the author of the additions to this essay (let us say deutero-Poe) has adopted both Poe's name bastard iambus and Poe's numerical system of scansion (pp. 134-137) and expects the reader to understand them. Where deutero-Poe finds bastard iambi, Poe found anapaests; so Godey's 33:159:
In the line, “Sang of Thermopylae,” a trochee and two iambuses are employed, in very happy variation of the three preceding lines, which are formed each of an anapaest followed by three iambuses.
For Poe's first published hint (January 1848) at the riddle: when is an anapaest not an anapaest? when it is a bastard iambus, see p. 92, note 13.
19 For the thesis that a metrical variation shall reflect an emotional variation, see Coleridge on the metre of Christabel, p. 121, note 3.
20 Poe (Godey's 33:159) found fault with the fifth line:
The first line of the next quatrain even more forcibly carries out this idea [of lyric or martial song]. Here the verse begins with an anapaest (although a faulty one, “sang” being necessarily long) and is continued in three iambuses.
21 Hewitt, ‘Alone’, Songs, pp. 38-39.
22 The opening sentence of Canto 1 of Orion is a landscape that will bear comparison with Mrs Hewitt:
Ye rocky heights of Chios, where the snow,
Lit by the far-off and receding moon,
Now feels the soft dawn's purpling twilight creep
Over your ridges, while the singing dews,
Like creatures on a mission from the spheres,
Swarm down, and wait to be instinct with gold
And solar fire! — ye mountains waving brown
With thick-winged woods, and blotted with deep caves
In secret places; and ye paths that stray
E'en as ye list; what odours and what sighs
Tend your sweet silence through the star-showered night
Like memories breathing of the Goddess forms
That left your haunts, yet with the day return!
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 157 running to the bottom of page 158:]
23 Hewitt, ‘The ocean-tide to the rivulet’, Songs, p. 121, vv. 7-18:
Sadly the flowers their faded petals close,
Where on thy banks they languidly repose, [page 158:]
Waiting in vain to hear thee onward press;
And pale Narcissus by thy margin side
Hath lingered for thy coming, drooped, and died,
Pining for thee, amid the loneliness.
Hasten, beloved! here, ‘neath the o’erhanging rock, —
Hark! from the deep, my anxious hope to mock,
They call me backward to my parent main, —
Brighter than Thetis thou! and how more fleet —
I hear the rushing of thy fair, white feet,
Joy! — joy! — my breast receives its own again!
24 This passage is not in Godey's. [[But it is in Poe's Literary America manuscript — JAS]]
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Notes:
There is no longer any reason to be suspicious about the Griswold text as Poe's manuscript survives.
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[S:0 - JAG68, 1968] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - EAP: The Rationale of Verse — a preliminary edition (Greenwood)