University of Virginia Library

I must trouble you with a line in which I thank you for the kind opinion you have expressed to me of my poetry. To give me credit for truth & earnestness in it, is not more, I may venture to say, than is due to one who has lived in her art from childhood to this day, & who has tasted in it her sweetest experiences . . . . . she might almost say her only very sweet experiences;—of life under the earthly aspect. It is true of me indeed that I am an earnest writer,— that I write from impulse & conviction of heart & mind,— that my faculty, whatever it be, angel or demon, rather possesses than is possessed by me. I thank you for giving me credit for that quality of truth in my poems, without which I shd. be less than I am.

Mr. Horne's notice of me was kindly intended & written,— but there was no attempt in it at analysis of the character of my poetry.[16] The Quarterly did not please me, I confess, very well—[17] It is difficult, you know, for a reviewer to please his subject. The North American Review was something fuller—[18] but the attempts at critical analysis in respect to me, have certainly not found any particular favor in my sight. My last volumes having, according to my own impression far more maturity of mind & power in them than the 'Seraphim' book, I am presumptuous enough to hope for

more fulness in the judgment likely to be held on them & there has yet been only time for a gust of newspaper criticism, ruffling the leaves,—[19]

Your observations upon American literature are precisely suitable, I think, to the case, —and I particularly agree with you on the matter of its being no compliment to be called the 'Mrs. Hemans of America'. That Mrs. Sigourney shd. have been ruffled at all by your remark, proves . . does it not? . . the American view of things,— & their ignoble indifference towards their own individuality in letters? If you never read a little volume of poems "On Man" by Cornelius Matthews of New York,[20] I wd. recommend it to you as a rare instance of exception from the ordinary smooth run, on a beaten road, of American poetry. It is defective in grace,— & perhaps in clearness,— but it is strong & bold & suggestive, &, as a transatlantic production, is on those grounds, a curiosity. When Mrs. Sigourney was in England she did me the honour of writing a letter to me once,— but I am not acquainted with her otherwise, either personally or by correspondence.[21]

I hold that Dr. Channing & Emerson are the two greatest names for letters which America has yet given us. Add another,— Cooper's,—

Which reminds me that I am preparing to read your 'Titian' with the advantage of a personal association,— I am very fond of romances,— and the class called 'ArtNovels,' is full of interest to me. How I shd. have lived so long without the knowledge of your 'Titian' I do not know,—but I remember sending for it to the library in vain, when it was first published.

Allow me to remain, dear Sir, with sincere wishes for your prosperity in & out of literature,