This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...the similar lines in Hymn to the Supreme Being, st. 16. It was apparently a favorite image. See Browning's reference to it in his poem on Smart. heaping up of the treasures of nature, an almost barbaric splendor of images. Does the poet wish to say that all nature praises God? The earth passes before him as in a vision. The great song of adoration swells upon his ear from every form of harmonious activity. Seasons change, almonds glow, tendrils climb, fruit trees blossom, birds build their nests, bell-flowers nod, the spotted ounce and her cubs play, harvests ripen, wild carnations blow, the pheasant shows his glossy neck, the squirrel hoards nuts, the map of nature is crowded with scenes of beauty, the crocus "burnishes alive " upon the snow-clad earth, the bullfinch sings his flute note, the redbreast balances on the hazel spray, silver fish glide through rivers, cataracts fall, fruits are luscious, gums give out incense, all to " heap up the measure, load the scales " with praise to the Lord who is great and glad. In this rapid summary there is a pomp, an energy, an activity that is indescribable. A later stanza on strength is almost terrifying in its powerful imagery. " Strong is the lion--like the coal His eyeball--like a bastion's mole His chest against the foes: Strong the gier-eagle on his sail, Strong against tide the enormous whale Emerges as he goes." I know nothing like it except Blake's Tiger which is marked by the same tenseness and abrupt energy. Many of the details in Smart's poems were drawn from his reading, especially from the Hebrew Scriptures. They could not have come from observation for they have little to do with the " old, oft catalogued repository of things in sky and wave and land." The images are fresh, ...

The Best of English Poetry:Shakespeare's SonnetsThe Works of Lord ByronThe Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThe Works of Robert BrowningThe Works of John Dryden