ism contains--a poetry which
we perceive to-day. It is even a part of the American life of our times.
But this absence of real poetry is far from being a bad sign; it is, on
the contrary, a proof of strength and energy.

Great works are not what we require of Americans; we would rather
endeavor to discover in them the traces of the moral spirit of their
country, its philosophical and historic signs, rather than poetic fables
skilfully constructed and eloquently told. For example, these female
poets of North America, suggest an interesting question for Europeans to
examine. Have all those Misses and Mistresses who write poems, dramas
and sonnets, any features of resemblance with our female authors? Has
America, which is represented so coarse in manners, inherited the vices
of European society, and become so degenerate as to give birth to that
monstrous nondescript, named among us a _bas-bleu_? We have endeavored,
diligently, to discover, in this large volume, traces of resemblance
between our women of letters and the female poets of America, but we
have discovered none. These daughters and wives of American citizens, of
merchants, bankers, magistrates and doctors in theology, do not write as
our female authors, from vain ambition, or love, or scandal, or (what
among us is by no means uncommon) to repent of the scandal that they
have occasioned. They write as among us young girls draw or sing. Poesy
is for them an ornamental art, and nothing more. Besides, this great
number of female poets in America, is explained by the much more liberal
education received by the women of English blood and of the Protestant
religion. We can find better specimens of poetry, certainly, but nothing
equalling them in the discretion and reserve that reign in all their
verses. We have sought, diligently, to discover the sentiments which
American women are most pleased in translating into written poetry: one
only is expressed, freely and energetically--maternal love. The other
sentiments and virtues are carefully veiled, as subjects upon which it
would be improper to dwell. Such verses are full of scruples and
delicacies, and to us, it is their principal charm. Love, so difficult
for the female heart to acknowledge in words; passionate confidences, so
easily turned into sarcasms, and almost repulsive when uttered by the
mouth of a woman, find no place in the inspirations of the American
poetess. There are no strongly expressed individual passion