Hobbs hints blue,—straight he turtle eats:
Nobbs prints blue,—claret crowns his cup:
Nokes outdares Stokes in azure feats,—
Both gorge. Who fished the murex up?
What porridge had John Keats?
The true poet is he who discovers and discloses, for man’s recognition
and enjoyment, the hidden beauties which abound everywhere in the great
kingdom of God. These beauties may be unrecognised at first, so that the
poet is not known as a poet, except to such as the speaker here is
supposed to be (“I know you”). He recognises in him a star. How is it,
then, that his light is hidden? The hand of God, who looks down on him
from far above (“God’s glow-worm”) as I look up to him from far below
(“my star”), has closed around him to keep him and his light safe till
the time shall come for discovery (Stanza 3) and for recognition (4).
The drawing, or simile follows, of a Tyrian fisherman (5), who brings
from the great sea the common-looking little whelk, from which, by a
secret process, is obtained that wonderful dye which out-dazzles art,
and almost equals Nature’s most exquisite tints (6-10). While the
process is going on, the world stands aloof (11); but as soon as the
extract is “priced and saleable,” the commonest people (12) can
recognise it and make it pay (13); while the man who fished it up
remains poor and unknown to fame.
The application is made with characteristic brevity, oddity, and
antithetic power: Nokes, Stokes, & Co., gorging turtle; John Keats
wanting porridge!
In connection with “Popularity” should be studied “The Two Poets of
Croisic,” far too long to be inserted here. An interesting comparison,
also, may be made with a little poem of Tennyson’s called “The Flower,”
beginning—
“Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed,
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.”
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