UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF COLONIAL POETRY. THE Poetry of the New-England Colonists is scarcely > worthy of preservation except for the satisfaction of an historical curiosity. Though most industrious Kettell indeed tells us that "the early settlers were no less distinguished for their attachment to letters than for their religious character," yet his own collection contradicts him. With the exception of Philip Freneau, his volumes do not contain the name of a single writer of poetic merit born earlier than 1770. Of course there was verse-writing. Even the dullest period of the Georgian era permitted that. But the young Colonial Muse was mostly addicted to religious contemplation, and employed its nascent abilities in twisting versions of the Psalms and in the manufacture of occasional epitaphs and anagrams. At these last every person of education tried his or her hand; and all seem to have been about equally successful, differing in quantity, not much in quality. During the war for independence there was a change of humour, producing a mass of political poesy, sufficiently pungent, mixed with some smart personal, not very poetical satire. Trumbull's MFingal, a long burlesque poem of patriotic intention, strikes the keynote of such productions; and Joel Barlow's ponderous Columbiad is the concluding orchestral crash. But even the war produced no Tyrtæus; and the change from polemical to political added little to the poetical character of the current "poetry." Griswold sums up his |