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relieved him of all doubt in this regard, and he committed himself at
once to authorship for a support. Previously to this, however, he had
published (in 1827) a small volume of poems, which soon ran through
three editions, and excited high expectations of its author's future
distinction in the minds of many competent judges.
That no certain augury can be drawn from a poet's earliest lispings
there are instances enough to prove. Shakespeare's first poems, though
brimful of vigor and youth and picturesqueness, give but a very faint
promise of the directness, condensation and overflowing moral of his
maturer works. Perhaps, however, Shakespeare is hardly a case in
point, his "Venus and Adonis" having been published, we believe, in his
twenty-sixth year. Milton's Latin verses show tenderness, a fine eye for
nature, and a delicate appreciation of classic models, but give no hint
of the author of a new style in poetry. Pope's youthful pieces have
all the sing-song, wholly unrelieved by the glittering malignity
and eloquent irreligion of his later productions. Collins' callow
namby-pamby died and gave no sign of the vigorous and original genius
which he afterward displayed. We have never thought that the world lost
more in the "marvellous boy," Chatterton, than a very ingenious imitator
of obscure and antiquated dulness. Where he becomes original (as it is
called), the interest of ingenuity ceases and he becomes stupid. Kirke
White's promises were indorsed by the respectable name of Mr. Southey,
but surely with no authority from Apollo. They have the merit of a
traditional piety, which to our mind, if uttered at all, had been less
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