University of Virginia Library

“Halleck's sparkling qualities were long ago developed, but no successor has arisen to
dispute his supremacy in his peculiar line. The delicacy of touch, the music of versification,
the finish and point of satire, and the magic of genius, are still as visible as
when they first arrested the public admiration, and made Halleck one of the foremost
of the poets of the country.”

“It is related in the Rev. James Freeman Clarke's account of his travels, lately published,
that at one of Rogers's breakfasts, the aged poet recited Halleck's lines on the
death of his friend Drake, and added: `No man living can write such poetry now.' ”

“Halleck is one of the brightest stars in our American literature, and his name is
like a household word wherever the English language is spoken.”

“There are few poems to be found, in any language, that surpass, in beauty of
thought and structure some of these.”

“Mr. Halleck never appeared in a better dress, and few poets ever deserved a better
one.”

“To the numerous admirers of Mr. Halleck, this will be a welcome book; for it is a
characteristic desire in human nature to have the productions of our favorite authors
in an elegant and substantial form.”

“Halleck's poetry has always been distinguished for easy versification, graphic
description, exquisite touches of the pathetic and the humorous (for these two powers
are always found combined), and for a keen sense of the ridiculous. On the same
page the reader will often find the tender and the droll so strangely intermixed, that
the tear and the smile will be in each other's embraces”

“The author of Marco Bozzaris is already classical in American literature; there
are no sweeter, quainter, or grander lines in our language, than some that he has produced.”

“The poetry of Halleck should not be confined to any one class of purchasers. It is
too genuine and national not to find a response in every true and simple heart.”

“Halleck's fame is world-wide, and precludes our criticism of his poetry.”

“The contents of this volume will bear a reperusal far better than much that is published
under the name of poetry, and making considerable pretension, will sustain a
first reading. It is only true genius that gives to its work a perpetual freshness, insomuch
that the more frequently we return to it the deeper is our admiration. The
publisher has issued the volume in a style of most unexceptionable elegance.”

“Without making unbecoming comparisons, we may avow our conviction, that
there are strains of poetry in this book which the age has not surpassed. There are
poems here in which melody and power, elegance of expression, and fullness of meaning,
are so exquisitely blended, that we know not where to look for instances of completer
triumph over the difficulties of poetical composition.”

“We are glad to see his poetical pieces again collected. Though many of them are
as familiar to us as a household word—as his `Marco Bozzaris'—others, as his `Fanny,'
have been long out of print. But in this volume we have them all, as selected by himself,
and got up in a style answering to their worth.”

“His poems are chaste, graceful, witty, and, as in the case of his `Marco Bozzaris,'
stirring. He ranks among the first of American poets, and has written some pieces
which will live as long as expressions of true pathos and friendship shall wake a
response in the heart.”