I cannot agree with T. W. as to the stanza quoted from the Hymn to the
Ocean.
"Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant since" (has wasted them),
is very good sense, and much more Byronic than the cacophonous inversion
T. W. proposes.
_Blackwood's_ criticism of this hymn (probably by the Professor) is not
at all too severe. Noble as are some parts of it, it is full of
cockneyisms and platitudes. What can be worse than
"There let him _lay_."
Again:
"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!"
is most magnificent in its sonorous march: but the next line is equally
absurd:
"Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee _in vain_!"
_In vain!_ Why, did not Columbus discover a world? Did not Nelson make
England's fame eternal? Do not our tea, coffee, wine, and cotton cross
the surging seas?
As to the "Gladiator" stanza, nobody can doubt that _rushed_ is the
right and most poetic reading. _Rush_ is a strong word: _gush_ a weak
one, much hackneyed by neoteric poetasters. Byron never used _gush_ in
such a sense. Thoughts do not _gush_, though blood and water may. I
therefore venture to differ from T. W. and his two illustrious friends.