Author: RATTRAY (Robert Haldane):
Title: The Exile: A Poem. The Third Edition.
Description: London: Printed from the Calcutta Second Edition, for Kingsbury, Parbury, & Allen..., 1826. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Tall 8vo, 200 xz 119 mms., pp. vii [viii blank], 159 [160 blank], original boards, uncut, paper label on spine; corners worn, spine chipped, but a very good copy. Haldane's poem is based on the loss of a ship, The Athol, a few years before the publication the poem, with the commander of the ship escorting his two daughters to the East Indies to be married to two of their fellow passengers. It was favourably received, with, for example, The Oriental Herald and Journal of General Literature for 1827 remarking that, "it is a work of much merit, containing a tale of pathos, narrated in sounding versification, generally chaste, and distinguished for abrupt vigour, mingling occasionally with peculiar smoothness. No impure thoughts, no prurient allusions, no Janus-faced expression moulded to convey voluptuous images, while escaping censure.... The love depicted...is that of that gentle species which usually springs in young and amiable bosoms, and flow uninterruptedly in an honourable channel." The Monthly Review apologized for not noticing the poem sooner, and ridiculed its poetic merit in the conclusion: "If the reader be not satisfied with the taste of its quality, we recommend him to the perusal of the whole poem, notes and all, in which he will find much elaborate geographical information, about the length and breadth, &c. &c. of that hitherto unknown country, the Isle of Wight, with nautical and other information equally curious and original."

Keywords: poetry narrative literature


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