ABSTRACT
Every reader of modern poetry is acquainted of course with ‘The Ancient Mariner’ of this author. It is one of those compositions, indeed, which cannot be perused without a more than ordinary excitation of fancy at the time; and which, when once read, can never afterwards be entirely forgotten. What we mean, however, more particularly to say at present, is, that this production has always appeared to us in the light of a very good caricature of the genius of its author. It displays, in fact, all the strength and all the weakness, all the extravagancies and eccentricities, all the bold features, and peculiar grimace, if we may so express ourselves, of his intellectual physiognomy, and in forming an opinion respecting the talents which he possesses, this composition may serve the very same purpose which an overcharged drawing of a countenance could answer to one who would form to himself some 393general idea of the kind of features by which an individual was distinguished. In order to adapt such a representation to the reality of the case, we must of course soften its prominences and correct its extravagancies; we must raise some parts and depress others; and while we retain the general likeness and grouping of the individual features which compose the countenance, we must reduce the whole to that medium character, from which, amidst the infinite varieties that occur, it is the rarest of all things to meet with any great deviation.
