Graham's Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 3, September 1841

Graham's Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 3, September 1841

Who does not remember this glorious old song, with its simple melody, and well-managed accompaniments that seem to chime in with every word uttered by the singer, not only upholding him in his sentiment, and illustrating his positions by all kinds of impressive flourishes, but absolutely chuckling and caracoling over the unanswerable nature of the argument? If ever accompaniment expressed a positive certainty that the words of a song were the truest words in the world, it is this very accompaniment. It takes it for granted that nobody will dispute its opinion. It is as dogmatic as Aristotle, or Bob Hobbes, but yet, unlike them in some respects, it seems always to know pretty well what it is talking about. The truth is, that there are few persons who can remain altogether unconvinced by its illustrations, or at least who can remain unpersuaded by its ingenious manner of setting them forth. We say its illustrations, for any one with half an eye can perceive that the music is married to the immortal verse, and that the twain are one. We speak of them conjointly when we maintain the force of the songs illustrations. What indeed can be more forcibly put, as the lawyers say, (and sometimes the rhetoricians,) than the points of its thesis? What can be more slyly seducingwhat can be more apt to take a body unawares than allusions to canty hearths where cronies meet, an the darlins o our ee? To be sure, the case might have been better made out if the morning bleeze had been kept out of sight, or slurred over as a thing of no moment. Neither was it judicious to dwell upon the flowery lea, or the bonny bee, or the little birds in the tree, and that sort of thing. The song might have taken a hint, too, from our engraving, and said a word about a girl with blue eyes (we presume they are blue,) and auburn hair, (we know it is auburn,) and another little girl and a little boy, both with clean faces, and a dog looking wise at one side of the ingle, with a tabby cat at the other, watching chesnuts in the act of being roasted, and congratulating herself that no fabulous monkey is present to make use of her fair hand as a cats paw. All this the song might have forcibly introducedbut we presume it did its best, and we are obliged to it. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 65180
Author: Various
Release Date: Apr 27, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Graham, George R., 1813-1894