It is possible, from the tone of melancholy complaint, which pervades these productions, that some may be led to believe the author destitute of one gift, so necessary in her condition, that of pious resignation. It should be remembered, however, that the poems were separately composed,—most of them at long intervals of time; and that each, when written, naturally expressed the feelings of the author in her peculiar trials. The general effect of the whole upon the reader is not then the true test of the character of the several parts;—and, as "every heart knoweth its own bitterness" under the pressure of afflictions, who but the Searcher of hearts shall chide these lamentations of poor, stricken humanity, and say that they are too deep, and bitter, and prolonged!—If any human soul may utter from the depths of its anguish, a voice of sad repining to its Maker, it is that soul, which, conscious of powers beyond the common allotment to the race, undeveloped and uninstructed,—of honest and noble purposes, of large and generous sympathies and emotions toward all who live,—is prematurely drawing nearer to the close of a painful life, without having acted to a purpose in God's world, through the defect and decay of the tenement with which its mysterious being is invested,—leaving all that good undone which it aspired to do,—making no sign upon the times in which it appeared. Should such a grieved spirit pour itself out in a complaint, that does not breathe what we, the healthy and the happy, may call the calmness of resignation, it may be that "the tear of the Angel of Mercy" shall fall upon it, and "blot it out for ever" from the Judgment-Book of God's Remembrance.
