PAGE NO. 166 163 167 164 that is unimportant or of now exhausted interest in his poems: but where he is great, it is with that elementary greatness which rests on the most universal human feelings. Cowper is our highest master in simple pathos. 1. 19 fancied green cherished garden. Little more than his name appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem. It should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence,the climax of simple sublimity. It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as To-morrow' or 'Sally in our Alley,' when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative range of Poetry ;-through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass ;-how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence. SUMMARY OF BOOK FOURTH Ir proves sufficiently the lavish wealth of our own age in Poetry that the pieces which, without conscious departure from the standard of Excellence, render this Book by far the longest, were with very few exceptions composed during the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. Exhaustive reasons can hardly be given for the strangely sudden appearance of individual genius but none, in the Editor's judgement, can be less adequate than that which assigns the splendid national achievements of our recent poetry to an impulse from the follies and wars that at the time disgraced our foreign neighbours. The first French Revolution was rather, in his opinion, one result, and in itself by no means the most important, of that far wider and greater spirit which through inquiry and doubt, through pain and triumph, sweeps mankind round the circles of its gradual development and it is to this that we must trace the literature of modern Europe. But, without more detailed discussion on the motive causes of Scott, Wordsworth, Campbell, Keats, and Shelley, we may observe that these Poets, with others, carried to further perfection the later tendencies of the century preceding, in simplicity of narrative, reverence for human Passion and Character in every sphere, and impassioned love of Nature :— that, whilst maintaining on the whole the advances in art made since the Restoration, they renewed the half-forgotten melody and depth of tone which marked the best Elizabethan writers :— that, lastly, to what was thus inherited they added a richness : in language and a variety in metre, a force and fire in narrative, a tenderness and bloom in feeling, an insight into the finer passages of the Soul and the inner meanings of the landscape, a larger and wiser Humanity,-hitherto hardly attained, and perhaps unattainable even by predecessors of not inferior individual genius. In a word, the nation which, after the Greeks in their glory, has been the most gifted of all nations for Poetry, expressed in these men the highest strength and prodigality of its nature. They interpreted the age to itself-hence the many phases of thought and style they present:-to sympathize with each, fervently and impartially, without fear and without fancifulness, is no doubtful step in the higher education of the Soul. For, as with the Affections and the Conscience, Purity in Taste is absolutely proportionate to Strength :-and when once the mind has raised itself to grasp and to delight in Excellence, those who love most will be found to love most wisely. 1. 11 stout Cortez: History requires here Balbóa: (A. T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the pure serene of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet; he must be a Greek himself,' as Shelley finely said of Keats. The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems. This poem, with 236, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott employs proper names :-nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius. The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately. 1. 4 Nature's Eremite like a solitary thing in Nature.-This beautiful Sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title 'marvellous boy' in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of high collateral glory.' . It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this sweet and genuinely national style. A masterly example of Byron's command of strong thought and close reasoning in verse:-as the next is equally characteristic of Shelley's wayward intensity, and 204 of the dramatic power, the vital identification of the poet with other times and characters, in which Scott is second only to Shakespeare. Bonnivard, a Genevese, was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in Chillon on the lake of Geneva for his courageous defence of his country against the tyranny with which Piedmont threatened it during the first half of the seventeenth century.-This noble Sonnet is worthy to stand near Milton's on the Vaudois massacre. Switzerland was usurped by the French under This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Hohen After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarkation of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription- John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809.' The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other choice spirits of that age. : 1. 1 Maisie Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wildwood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted: the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the mere presentment of the situation. Inexperienced critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner, superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first-rate excellence in it (as shown here, in 196, 156, and 129) is in truth one of the least common triumphs of Poetry.-This style should be compared with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner feeling, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul,the Analytical method, in short,-most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley. correi: covert on a hillside. Cumber: trouble. Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in accordance with pathos. This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it in the highest rank amongst the many masterpieces of its illustrious Author. 1. 24 interlunar swoon: interval of the Moon's invisibility. 1. 1 Calpe Gibraltar. L. 11 Lofoden: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.W. coast of Norway. This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the subject better treated in 127 and 128. 1. 10 Arcturi: seemingly used for northern stars. L. 20 And wild roses &c. Our language has no line modulated with more subtle sweetness. A good poet might have written And roses wild,—yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar beauty. 1. 35 Ceres' daughter: Proserpine. L. 36 God of Torment: Pluto. This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most rapt imaginations, and is the direct modern representative of the feeling which led the Greeks to the worship of Nature. The leading idea of this beautiful description of a day's landscape in Italy is expressed with an obscurity not unfrequent with its author. It appears to be,-On the voyage of life are many moments of pleasure, given by the sight of Nature, who has power to heal even the worldliness and the uncharity of man. 1. 36 Amphitrite was daughter to Ocean. 1. 16 Sun-girt City: It is difficult not to believe that the correct reading is Sea-girt. Many of Shelley's poems appear to have been printed in England during his residence abroad: others were printed from his manuscripts after his death. Hence probably the text of no English Poet after 1660 contains so many errors. See the Note on No. 9. 1 1 Maenad: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on Dionysus in the Greek mythology. 1. 19 Plants under water sympathize with the seasons of the land, and hence with the winds which affect them. Written soon after the death, by shipwreck, of Wordsworth's brother John. This Poem should be compared with Shelley's following it. Each is the most complete expression of the innermost spirit of his art given by these great Poets:-of that Idea which, as in the case of the true Painter, (to quote the words of Reynolds,) subsists only in the mind: The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and which he dies at last without imparting.' 1. 34 the Kind: the human race. 1. 2 Proteus represented the everlasting changes, united with ever-recurrent sameness, of the Sea. 1. 1 the royal Saint: Henry VI. INDEX OF WRITERS WITH DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH, AND FIRST LINES OF THE ALEXANDER, WILLIAM, EARL OF STERLINE (1567 ?-1640) O if thou knew'st how thou thyself dost harm (To Aurora) A wanderer is man from his birth (The Future). In the deserted moon-blanch'd street (4 Summer Night) Through the black, rushing smoke-bursts (The Song of PAGE 15 419 423 422 416 415 423 414 418 Come hither, Evan Cameron (The Execution of Montrose) We cannot kindle when we will (Morality) AYTOUN, WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE (1813-1865) BACON, FRANCIS, LORD VERULAM (1561-1626) The World's a bubble, and the Life of Man (Life) Life! I know not what thou art 38 BARBAULD, ANNA LAETITIA (1743-1825) 168 BARNEFIELD, RICHARD (1574-1627) As it fell upon a day (The Nightingale) 21 BARNES, WILLIAM (1801-1886) Since I noo mwore do zee your feäce (The Wife A-lost). 328 BEAUMONT, FRANCIS (1584-1616) The primrwose in the sheåde do blow (Blackmwore Maidens) 327 Mortality, behold and fear (On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey) BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT (1806-1861) How do I love thee? Let me count the ways What was he doing, the great god Pan (A Musical Instru Fear death ?-to feel the fog in my throat (Prospice) 391 Give her but a least excuse to love me! 373 Grow old along with me (Rabbi Ben Ezra) 384 Just for a handful of silver he left us (The Lost Leader) 374 Let us begin and carry up this corpse (A Grammarian's Let's contend no more, Love (A Woman's Last Word). Oh, to be in England (Home-Thoughts, from Abroad). 378 376 375 375 |