Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant - LightNovelsOnl.com
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I am almost ashamed, after this censure of an author whom, in the main, I admire as much as I do Cowper, to refer to my own translation of the Fifth Book of the Odyssey. I desire barely to say that I have endeavored to give the verses of the old Greek poet at least a simpler presentation in English, and one more conformable to the genius of our language.
Page 315.
_The mock-grape's blood-red banner_, etc.
_Ampelopis_, mock-grape. I have here literally translated the botanical name of the Virginia creeper--an appellation too c.u.mbrous for verse.
Page 320.
A BRIGHTER DAY.
This poem was written shortly after the author's return from a visit to Spain, and more than a twelvemonth before the overthrow of the tyrannical government of Queen Isabella and the expulsion of the Bourbons. It is not "from the Spanish" in the ordinary sense of the phrase, but is an attempt to put into a poetic form sentiments and hopes which the author frequently heard, during his visit to Spain, from the lips of the natives. We are yet to see whether these expectations of an enlightened government and national liberty are to become a reality under the new order of things.
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