VERSES, SERIOUS AND COMIC.
Tuts volume is a collection of occasional poems, not differing much from others of their class in the nature of the subjects or in the poetical genius they display ; but still showing that if a poet cannot be made, pains, study, and training will produce a closer resemblance to the character than a mere reliance on un- assisted ability. Mr. KNAPP appears to have been a Cambridge student at a time when the bards of antiquity and the classical writers of the last age were more in vogue than they are now ; and, although he cannot be said to have caught their spirit, he has at least acquired something of their air. His verses may not flow, but they do not halt ; his fire is neither warm nor bright, but he has kept it clear.
" Sir," said JOHNSON, in answer to a suggestive plea of Bos- WELL'S in favour of a friend's book, " there is in it what has been imagination." A kindred remark may be made on the following extract from an ode of Mr. KNAPP'S on the Argonautic expedition. The epithets are poetical, the images classical, and the style faintly reminds one of GRAY: yet it is not poetry, although something like it. To borrow another illustration from the critic just quoted,
it is not a voice, but an echo
The winds were hushed, the murmuring tide Scarce kissed the towering Argo's side, Which in her ample bosom bore The gallant band of warriors bold, Eager to bear f Colehis' shore, The owed of toil, the fleece of gold. High upon the gilded prow Sat the bard with laurelled brow, The Muses' ilivourite son : He sang of daring feats of arms, Of all that warlike bosoms warms, Of battles bravely won: Then as a wild prophetic fire Was kindled in his blazing eye, With bolder hand he bade the lyre Unfold the page of destiny.
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