That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, CRITICISMS. ... I am disposed to consider the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" as, if not the finest, a portion of the finest subjective poetry in our literature. Their form reminds us of an English prototype, and it is no sacrilege to say that their music is showered from a higher and purer atmosphere than that of the Swan of Avon. We need not enter upon cold comparison of their respective excellencies; but Shakespeare's personal poems were the overflow of his impetuous youth: his broader vision, that took a world within its ken, was absolutely objective; while Mrs. Browning's Love Sonnets are the outpourings of a woman's tenderest emotions, at an epoch when her heart was most mature, and her whole nature exalted by a passion that to such a being comes but for once and all. Here, indeed, the singer rose to her height. Here she is absorbed in rapturous utterance, radiant and triumphant with her ow joy. The mists have risen and her sight is clear. Hea mouthing and affectation are forgotten, her lips cease to stammer, the lyrical spirit has full control. The sonnet, artificial in weaker hands, becomes swift with feeling, red with a "veined humanity," the chosen vehicle of a royal woman's vows. Graces, felicities, vigor, glory of speech, here are so crowded as to tread each upon the other's sceptred pall. The first sonnet, equal to any in our tongue, is an overture containing the motive of the canticle-"not Death, but Love" had seized her unaware. The growth of this happiness, her worship of its bringer, her doubts of her own worthiness, are the theme of these poems. She is in a sweet and, to us, pathetic surprise at the delight which at last had fallen to her. Never was man or minstrel so honored as her "most gracious singer of high poems." In the tremor of her love she undervalued herself - with all her feebleness of body, it was enough for any man to live within the atmosphere of such a soul! In fine, the "Portuguese Sonnets," whose title was a screen behind which the singer poured out her full heart, are the most exquisite poetry hitherto written by a woman, and of themselves justify us in pronouncing their author the greatest of her sex-on the ground that the highest mission of a female poet is the expression of love, and that no other woman approaching her in genius has essayed the ultimate form of that expression. An analogy with "In Memoriam" may be derived from their arrangement and their presentation of a single analytic theme; but Tennyson's poem, though exhibiting equal art, more subtile reasoning, and comprehensive thought, is devoted to the analysis of philosophic Grief, while the Sonnets reveal to us that Love which is the most ecstatic of human emotions, and worth all other gifts in life. - E. C. STEDMAN. STUDY OF "AURORA LEIGH "-A POETICAL NOVEL. This greatest and longest of Mrs. Browning's poems, which she herself pronounced "the most mature of my works, and the one into which my highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered," and which is esteemed by many critics the noblest poem of the present century, appeared in 1856. It was dedicated to her cousin, John Kenyon, a poet of considerable merit. In a letter to Leigh Hunt from Bagni di Lucca, dated October 6, 1857, Robert Browning writes: "I am still too near 'Aurora Leigh' to be quite able to see it all; my wife used to write it, and lay it down to hear our child spell, or when a visitor came --it was thrust under a cushion then. At Paris, a year ago last March, she gave me the first six books to read, I never having seen a line before. She then wrote the rest, and transcribed them in London, where I read them also. I wish, in one sense, that I had written and she had read it." The poem may be said to be an autobiographical epic, of which the heroine is Aurora Leigh, who in many points is doubtless a fac-simile of the author herself. Analysis. Book I. Childhood in Italy. Girlhood in England. Book II. Romney Leigh. Book III. London Life. Book IV. Marian Erle. Book V. Lady Waldemar. Book VI. In Paris. Book VII. Introduction. The Florentine Mother: early death; portrait. Assunta. Voyage to England. Education: classic French, German, a little algebra, a Romney Leigh, her cousin. The Chamber. Communion with Nature and Books; poetic inspiration. Literary Drudgery: criticisms on her writings; letters Lady Waldemar's Conversation with Aurora; announcement of her love for Romney; sketch of herself; account of Romney's intended marriage. Marian Erle; her history. Marian Erle; her history, continued. Meeting of Romney and Aurora. The Marriage-day: assembly at the church, composed of half St. Giles in frieze, and St. James in cloth of gold; disappearance of the bride; her letter. Effect on Romney. Solitary Life; moralizings, and misgivings concerning The Assembly at Lord Howe's; meeting with Lady Paris: meeting with Marian Erle; the account of her Marian's Account of Herself, continued. Letters to Lord Howe and Lady Waldemar. Departure, with Marian and her Child, for Italy; nightwatch on deck. Residence in Florence; letter from Vincent Carrington; metaphysical thinking; visits to scenes of childhood; melancholy. Book VIII. Romney in Italy. Book IX. Conclusion. An Evening in Florence; appearance of Romney; his Letter from Lady Waldemar. QUOTATIONS. "Of writing many books there is no end." "Life, struck sharp on death, "Some people always sigh in thanking God." "We get no good .. By being ungenerous, even to a book, "'Tis too easy to go mad, "In that first onrush of life's chariot-wheels, "Art's fiery chariot which we journey in "Get leave to work Is fatal sometimes-cuts your morning up "And we have all known Good critics who have stamped out poet's hopes; Good popes who brought all good to jeopardy; "A holiday of miserable men Is sadder than a burial-day of kings." "And trade is art, and art's philosophy, "The Devil's most devilish when respectable." "A wise man Can pluck a leaf, and find a lecture in 't." CRITICISMS. It is a tale in nine books, and may, with some indefiniteness, yet reasonable accuracy, be pronounced a modern epic, of which the central figure is a woman, and whose theme is social amelioration. Not arms and the man, but social problems and the woman, are sung by Mrs. Browning, and whether she solves the problems or not, it must be admitted that she has produced a taking and beautiful poem. I have always felt that it had defects, some of them serious, but each new reading has heightened my conception of its power and splendor. The pitch of its intensity, sustained from beginning to end, is astonishing in a work not much shorter than "Paradise Lost." There is no straining, nothing to hint that the poet worked with difficulty; and yet the richness of color and strength of imaginative fire are such as we should look for in brief lyrical effusions rather than in a long narrative poem. In the rapidity and animation of the style, the quick succession of incident, the sense of motion everywhere, the book recalls the manner of Homer. It is instinct with music. We feel that the poet does not recite, she sings. In its rich and ring |