the 23d of February, 1821,
having left this for his epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in
water." Thus dying at the age of twenty-four, he must be judged less for
what he was, than as an earnest of what he would have been. _The Eve of
St. Agnes_ is one of the most exquisite poems in any language, and is as
essentially allied to the simplicity and nature of the modern school of
poetry as his _Endymion_ is to the older school. Keats took part in what a
certain writer has called "the reaction against the barrel-organ style,
which had been reigning by a kind of sleepy, divine right for half a
century."

OTHER WRITERS OF THE PERIOD.

In consonance with the Romantic school of Poetry, and as contributors to
the prose fiction of the period of Scott, Byron, and Moore, a number of
gifted women have made good their claim to the favor of the reading world,
and have left to us productions of no mean value. First among these we
mention Mrs. FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS, 1794-1835: early married to Captain
Hemans, of the army, she was not happy in the conjugal state, and lived
most of her after-life in retirement, separated from her husband. Her
style is harmonious, and her lyrical power excellent; she makes melody of
common-places; and the low key in which her poetry is pitched made her a
favorite with the multitude. There is special fervor in her religious
poems. Most of her writings are fugitive and occasional pieces. Among the
longer poems are _The Forest Sanctuary_, _Dartmoor_, (a lyric poem,) and
_The Restoration of the works of Art to Italy_. _The Siege of Valencia_
and _The Vespers of Palermo_ are plays on historical subjects. There is a
sameness in her poetry which tires; but few persons can be found who do
not value highly such a descriptive poem as _Bernardo del Carpio_,
conceived in the very spirit of the Spanish Ballads, and such a sad and
tender moralizing as that found in _The Hour of Death_:

Leaves have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither, at the north-wind's breath,
And stars to set--but all,
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!

Such poems as these will live when the greater part of what she has
written has been forgotten, because its ministry has been accomplished.

_Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Norton_, (born in 1808, still living:) she is the
daughter of Thomas Sheridan, and the grand-daughter of the famous R. B.
Sheridan. She married the Hon. Mr. Norton, and, like Mrs