ABSTRACT
One of a series of 'evenings with' great writers in a periodical for the self-improvement of working men was devoted to Donne. Its author was J. A. Langford, described at the head of the essay as 'Chainnaker, Birmingham'. Langford (1823-1903) had in fact just then given up his trade of chairmaking to become a professional journalist; and he went on to establish himself as a commentator on the affairs of the day and as a local historian. There were 'evenings with' Herbert and other seventeenth-century poets in subsequent numbers of the journal. ('An Evening with John Donne', The Working Man's Friend and Family Instructor, supplementary number for December 1850, pp. 18-21.)
Dr. Johnson has offered some very curious reasons why religious poetry has not been successful in attaining a very high state of excellence. We venture to opine that in this respect the Doctor has committed himself, by giving a verdict which posterity will not confirm. We could select from our religious writers passages unequalled, in all that constitutes high poetry, by any equal number of passages from the
greatest bards who have not especially devoted their talents to religion, such as Byron and Shelley, for instance. It is curious to think that the Doctor should fall into such a mistake; and it is still more curious to think of the numbers who have since re-echoed the opinion, considering that all the facts are against them. Why, the greatest of every land, and of every faith, are the religious ones, whether we look at the sublime old Hebrew bards, with 'the fires of Sinai, and the thunders of the Lord!' or at the poets of classic Greece, or at their numerous successors, who have drawn their inspiration from the Christian faith, the fact is the same. Well has a modern poet said,
The high and holy works, mid lesser lays, Stand up like churches among village cots: And it is joy to think that in every age, However much the world was wrong therein, The greatest works of mind or hand have been Done unto God. So may they ever be! It shows the strength of wish we have to be great, And the sublime humility of might.-FEsTus.
