(1751-1775)
During the 1750's sentimental poetry did not fulfill the expectations
which the outburst of 1744 had seemed to promise. It sank to lower
levels, and its productions are noteworthy only as signs of the times and
presages of the future. Richard Jago wrote some bald verses intended to
foster opposition to hunting, and love for the lower animals,--according
to the sentimental view really the "little brothers" of Man. John
Dalton's crude _Descriptive Poem_ apostrophized what was regarded as the
"savage grandeur" of the Lake country; it is interesting only because it
mentions Keswick, Borrowdale, Lodore, and Skiddaw, half a century
later to become sacred ground. The practical dilemma of the
sentimentalist,--drawn toward solitude by his worship of Nature, and
toward society by his love for Man,--was described by Whitehead in _The
Enthusiast_, the humanitarian impulse being finally given the preference.
Though the last of these pieces is not contemptible in style, none
of these writers had sufficient ardor to compel attention; and if
sentimentalism had not been steadily disseminated through other literary
forms, especially the novel, it might well have been regarded as a lost
cause.
The great poet of this decade was Gray, whose _Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard_, by many held the noblest English lyric, appeared in 1751.
His classical ideal of style, according to which poetry should have,
in his words, "extreme conciseness of expression," yet be "pure,
perspicuous, and musical," was realized both in the _Elegy_ and in the
otherwise very different _Pindaric Odes_. The ethical and religious
implications of the _Elegy_, its piety, its sense of the frailties as
well as the merits of mankind, are conservative. Nor is there in the
_Pindaric Odes_ any violation of classical principles. Gray never
deviates into a pantheistic faith, a belief in human perfection, a
conception of poetry as instinctive imagination unrestrained, or any
other essential tenet of sentimentalism. Yet the influence of the new
spirit upon him may be discerned. It modified his choice of subjects, and
slightly colored their interpretation, without causing him to abandon the
classical attitude. The _Elegy_ treats with reverence what the Augustans
had neglected,--the tragic dignity of obscure lives; _The Progress of
Poesy_ emphasizes qualities (emotion and sublimity) which the _Essay on
Criticism_ had not stressed; and _The Bard_ presents a wildly picturesque
figure of ancient days. Gray felt that classicism might quicken its
spirit and widen its interests without surrendering its principles, that
a classical poem might be a popular poem; and the admiration of posterity
supports his belief.
An astounding and epochal event was the publication (1760 ff.) of
the poems attributed to Ossian. Their "editor and translator," James
Macpherson, author of a forgotten sentimental epic, alleged that Ossian
was a Gaelic poet of the third century A.D., who sang the loves and wars
of the heroes of his people, brave warriors fighting the imperial legions
of Rome; and that his poems had been orally transmitted until now,
fifteen centuries later, they had been taken down from the lips of Scotch
peasants. It was a fabrication as ingenious as brazen. As a matter of
fact, Macpherson had found only an insignificant portion of his extensive
work in popular ballads; and what little he had found he had expanded and
changed out of all semblance to genuine ancient legend. Both the
guiding motive of his prose-poem (it is his as truly as _King Lear_
is Shakespeare's), and the furore of welcome which greeted it, may be
understood by recalling the position of the sentimental school on the eve
of its appearance. The sentimentalists were maintaining that civilization
had corrupted tastes, morals, and poetry, that it had perverted Man from
his instinctive goodness, and that only by a return to communion with
Nature could humanity and poetry be redeemed. But all this was based
merely on philosophic theory, and could find no confirmation in history
or literature: history knew of no innocent savages; and even as
unsophisticated literature as Homer was then supposed to be, disclosed no
heroes perfect in the sentimental virtues.
_Ossian_ appeared; and the truth of sentimentalism seemed historically
established. For here was poetry of the loftiest tone, composed in the
unlearned Dark Ages, and answering the highest expectations concerning
poetry inspired by Nature only. (Was not a distinguished Professor of
Rhetoric saying, "Ossian's poetry, more perhaps than that of any other
writer, deserves to be styled the poetry of the heart"?) And here was
the record of a nature-people whose conduct stood revealed as flawless.
"Fingal," Macpherson himself accommodatingly pointed out, "exercised
every manly virtue in Caledonia while Heliogabalus disgraced human nature
in Rome." More than fifty years afterwards Byron compared Homer's Hector,
greatly to his disadvantage, with Ossian's Fingal: the latter's conduct
was, in his admirer's words, "uniformly illustrious and great, without
one mean or inhuman action to tarnish the splendor of his fame." The
benevolent magnanimity of the heroes, the sweet sensibility of the
heroines, their harmony with Nature's moods (traits which Macpherson had
supplied from his own imagination), were the very traits that won
the enthusiasm of the public. The poem in its turn stimulated the
sentimentalism which had produced it; and henceforth the new school
contended on even terms with the old.
One of the effects of the progress of sentimentalism was the decline of
satire. Peculiarly the weapon of the classical school, it had fallen into
unskillful hands: Churchill, though keen and bold, lacked the grace of
Pope and the power of Johnson. Goldsmith might have proved a worthier
successor; but though his genius for style was large, his capacity for
sustained indignation was limited. Even his _Retaliation_ is humorous in
spirit rather than satiric. He was a being of conflicting impulses; and
in his case at least, the style is not precisely the man. His temperament
was emotional and affectionate; by nature he was a sentimentalist. But
his inclinations were restrained, partly by the personal influence of Dr.
Johnson, partly by his own admiration for the artistic traditions of
the classicists. He despised looseness of style, considered blank verse
unfinished, and cultivated what seemed to him the more polished elegance
of the heroic couplet. The vacillation of his views appears in the
difference between the sentiments of _The Traveller_ and those of _The
Deserted Village_. The former is a survey of the nations of Europe, the
object being to discover a people wholly admirable. Merit is found in
Italians, Swiss, French, Dutch, and English,--but never perfection; even
the free and happy Swiss are disgusting in the vulgar sensuality of their
pleasures; happiness is nowhere. One is not surprised to learn that Dr.
Johnson contributed at least a few lines to a poem with so orthodox a
message.
In _The Deserted Village_, on the other hand, Goldsmith employed the
classical graces to point a moral which from the classical point of view
was false. His sympathetic feelings had now been captivated by the notion
of rural innocence. The traits of character which he attributed to the
village inhabitants,--notably to the immortal preacher who, entertaining
the vagrants,