The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska
British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries
Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus
The Loves of The Devils; The Rape of the Lips; and other Poems. London: John Chappell and Son, 1823. xiv+145p.
Contemporary Reviews
The following is a list of contemporary reviews for The Loves of Devils. If possible, I have included their contents verbatim from the original texts. Also included at the end is a review for Baruh's The Dance, Pythagoras, Plato's Dream, and Other Poems to help give further insight to the critics' views of his writing abilities.
The Literary Chronicle, no. 233 (Nov. 1, 1823), 964.
Among the ephemeral productions which that teeming mother, a new year, produces, there was one called, we believe, 'the Metropolis,' which gave a sort of parody on 'Moore's Loves of the Angels,' and entitled it the 'Loves of the Mortals.' Ex-sheriff Parkins, and Olive, soi-disant Princess of Cumberland, were the first and the only pair whose loves we recollect to have read and laughed at. Whether the author of the 'Loves of the Devils,' who states himself to be unschooled, self-taught, and under 21 years of age, took the hint from Moore, or from the editor of 'The Metropolis,' we know not, but he appears to us to have fallen as far short of the beauty and spirit of the one as he has of the humor of the other; and yet there is a sort of wild untutored genius about the pieces, which gives presage of better things.
The 'Rape of the Lips' is not quite so irregular a poem. It is addressed to
the ladies, and we should almost suspect the author to be of the sister kingdom,
as he tells the fair that he is a bachelor, and will remain unmarried until
one of them blesses him with their charms! In both poems the author subjects
himself to unfavorable comparison, and involuntarily Moore and Pope rush on
our recollections as we read the titles of his poems; nor are they original
in other respects, for, in reading them, we perpetually meet with old acquaintances.
Some of his minor poems, which are numerous, are more to our taste than either
of the principal ones, which do not rise above mediocrity. The following
though a most palpable parody, is pretty:
'Oh! say not woman's heart
is cold,
Or lost to every feeling;
Mark but that look, that
glance behold
Whilst every care revealing,
And sure 'twill prove
that each found thought,
With kind compassions
glowing;
When love and pity melt
the soul,
And burning tears are
flowing.
'Oh! say not woman's tear
is false,
Or that it flows at telling;
It is the soft perceptive
glow,
Which melts without compelling;
The flush that lights
up Beauty's cheeks,
Whilst every care revealing,
Her warm expressive soul
bespeaks,
Bespeaks her gen'rous
feeling.
The 'Fare Thee Well' is still a closer parody on Byron's celebrated address to his wife; and we might quite several other imitations equally obvious.
The author is young, and very amatory, for, independent of his 'Rape of the Lips,' there is scarcely one, even of his minor pieces, that is without his homage to lips and kisses; now we think both lips and kisses very good things in their way, but bad subjects to be always either talking or writing about, and, not withstanding all our author may say, we believe the ladies will be of our opinion. In conclusion, we must observe, that whatever indulgence may be extended to Mr. Baruh, on account of his youth or defective education, he has much to learn, and much, also, to unlearn, before he can attain celebrity as a poet."
Lady's Magazine, ns, v5 (1824), 352.
[unseen]
Literary Museum, no78 (1823), 659-60.
[unseen]
A review on The Dance, Pythagoras, Plato's Dream, and other Poems
(1825).
Monthly Magazine, no 60 (1825), 255-256.
The Dance, Pythagoras, Plato's Dream, and other Poems by S. Baruh, Author of "The Loves of the Devils," "Rape of the Lips," &c. &c. 12 mo.
Poems other poems! No, indeed, Mr. S. Baruh, not poems rhymes,
indeed, they are, though, sometimes, queer ones, but not even meters. Those
who attempt to write verses, if they have no ears to scan, can generally count
their fingers; S.B. cannot even do this or, if he can, he heeds it not
half a foot too much, or have a foot too little, he deems, perhaps, of
no importance in such verses as his they are destined for eternity, he
seems to imagine, and therefore the feet they move one may be like eternity
of which the half is equal to the whole. But Mr. B. tells us that he
has been praised, and therefore, he writes again;
But when you're
prais'd for verses half a score,
You're tempted oft
to write a dozen more.
We wish he had been contented with a dozen if it had even been a baker's
dozen, we might have got through them without actually yawning; but 134, not
lines, but pages! it is really too much for patience. But by whom can
he have been praised? Not by reviewers, that is clear; for he is in a might
passion with them, and lampoons them in such verses as these
The half-starved,
crack-brain'd, miserable garreteer,
And the commanding
potent reviewer.
That is re-view-eer, we suppose, by license of poetics pronunciation, or verse-mouth,
as Dr. Southey would call it: re-view-eer! but why not? As Mr. B. had
annihilated a syllabus in one line, why should he not create one in the other?
But by whom, then, have his "Loving Devils," and "Ravished Lips,"
&c. &c. been praised? Not by the ladies, delightful as lovings and lip-ravishings
may be to them, that is equally certain: for he lampoons them, also,
most grossly tells them that "their silly tongues deform their pretty
faces;" and that
They criticize, and kill,
and damn, and fight in
A manly style they
set up such a clatter,
It sounds like drumsticks
struck upon a platter.
So that it is clear the blue-stockings have been at him, also; and yet he will
write, and continue to be praised (by himself?) for
"'Gad, I don't fear
their blus-ter-ing and raving."
"Take them all in
all, or by they quire."
We bring these two lines together, because they prove that Mr. B. can make as
good verses with nine syllables as with ten; and we will add that also which
rhymes with the latter of these, as containing a just estimate of the author's
own poems.
"They're only fit
to put behind the fire."
Prepared by Ashley Hilger, University of Nebraska, December 2004.
© Ashley Hilger, 2004.