I'l onely print upon her dewy lip One loving kiss and so away will part. Shee wakes, and blushes on each cheek There on each side doth truly break Startle not, fairest! It is I am come 'Tis I am come, who but a friend before To our dear Valentine; Where I must offer to thine eies, Large hecatombs of kisses I wil lay The season too invites ; When spring comes they a billing go, * How sweet shee breaths! the zephyre wind that blows Sends forth not half so pure a smel As that which on thy chaster lips doth dwel: Could fix eternally, And pay these vows until I die He thus describes his mistress, dancing: "Robes loosly flowing, and aspect as free, Such comely graces 'bout her were. With this stanza he concludes a long piece, persuading Clarastella from her resolution of going into a nunnery. "Thyself a holy temple art Where love shall teach us both to pray, And incense on thy lips wil lay. In the observations prefixed to this article, we have not given the poets of Heath's school much credit for nature or feeling-nor do they indeed deserve it. In Heath himself, however, we occasionally meet with touches which betoken that the man did sometimes peep out from beneath the fantastic versifier. It is not unfrequent with him to speak of his love in terms more tender than hyperbolical comparisons can convey, and he sometimes paints the charms of his mistress and the warmth of his passion with an earnestness and strength of expression which leave little doubt of their reality. The following verses, termed "Love's Silence," are a proof that our author could sometimes fall into a natural vein. "Ay me! when I Am blind with passion, why Should my best reason speechlesse prove? (Which words can nere expresse) In silent rhetorick speak my love? If so; each smother'd sigh will vent my smart, O when thou see'st me stand thus mute and blind, Know that such love, Like Heaven's, comes from above, And should I strive to speak, The lover thus enthusiastically addresses his Clarastella. "Oh those smooth, soft, and rubie lips, Whose rosie and virmilion hue Then on this holy altar, I Offring one long continued mine Of golden pleasures to thy shrine." Nothing can be more low or ludicrous than the most of the occasions which Heath thought worthy of being celebrated in Clarastella song, provided they happened to his mistress. could not lose her "black fan," get a cold, or get dust in her eye, but Mr. Heath was straight at her feet with a copy of verses in his hand. When we think of the nature of the subjects which he chose, we cease to wonder so much that many of them should be vilely handled, as that they should be selected, and being selected that any thing good could ever be written about them. It is easy to believe that the man who could chuse the most trivial accidents and the most low and familiar occurrences for his themes, would treat them in a corresponding style. But we cannot help both being surprised and lamenting to see ingenuity of thought, liveliness of fancy, and richness of expression wasted them.—And upon this is the case in some of the yet poems before us. It is the case in one which we will venture to extract, which "builds the lofty rhyme" on no less a groundwork than the bite of an insect, which the quick-eyed lover espied on the fair hand of his mistress. "Behold how like a lovely fragrant rose Midst a fair lillie bed, Or set in pearl, like a bright rubie, shows Art could not die a crimson half so good The cunning leech knew that the richest bloud Choosing the young soft tender flesh for food, Thus being nectar-fill'd and swell'd with pride, O how I envy thee, smal creature, and That so I might but kisse that sacred hand, &c." From the occasional poems which follow Clarastella, we shall make only one and that the last of our extracts, which shews our author had some talents for humour.-It is called A sudden Phansie at Midnight, and is as follows, excepting the two last lines, which add nothing to, but easily might take away from, the pleasure of the reader. 66 How ist we are thus melancholie? what How say you yet to th' tother subsidie? Yes, yes and let our Ganymede nimbly flie Such as would make Apollo smile, or wu'd Draw all the sisters to our brotherhood. And though the bald fool staies not, let him know After the occasional poems, follows a crowd of worthless Elegies and Epigrams, in the rear of which again come Satyrs as worthless as their companions. Our readers will now be able to judge of Robert Heath at his best. Of the inferior part of this volume it is useless to take up our time and space in giving any specimens. Suffice it to say, that the bad is very bad indeed. The total absence of what is called taste in our poet is very remarkable. The unconscious manner in which he slides from the really beautiful to what is disgusting or ridiculous, prevents us from giving what might be made the most favorable view of his talents. Perhaps some of his most sparkling sentiments and expressions may yet sleep in the little volume which we have just closed: but, if they do, they are so intertwined and united with the worthless matter, that we found it impossible to separate them, or in such small and crumbling fragments only as to render them unfit for introduction here. Though it cannot be said that Heath soars very high, yet his course is unequal. His versification is one while harmonious in the extreme, at another as rugged-his language is sometimes rich, forcible, and copious; at another, flimsy, poor, and bald. He, at one time, discloses glimpses of fancy, feeling, and sentiment, and in the next page goes grovelling on in the dark, as if a ray of light or reason had never by any chance fallen on his path. He may be compared to that species of wine which when brisk is an elegant beverage, but which, when flat and stale, of which there is more than an equal chance, loses all its inspiriting qualities, becomes disgusting to the palate, and excites surprise that in any state it could be thought delightful. Of the history or circumstances of Robert Heath we know nothing, save that Esquire is tagged to his name, and that he says of himself, "No peasant bloud doth stein or chil my veins." Mr. Ellis, in his Specimens, gives two short extracts from him, and we do think that he was not unworthy of the notice of Mr. Campbell, who has included in his British Poets many whose merits we cannot help thinking inferior to those of Robert Heath. It should not be forgotten that these poems were sent out into the world without the consent of the author, who probably was abroad at the time of their publication. This we learn from the address of the "Stationer to the reader," who |