Poem 2.
_Rouse Memnon's mother_: Awaken the Dawn from the dark Earth and the
clouds where she is resting. Aurora in the old mythology is mother of
Memnon (the East), and wife of Tithonus (the appearances of Earth and
Sky during the last hours of Night). She leaves him every morning in
renewed youth, to prepare the way for Phoebus (the Sun), whilst Tithonus
remains in perpetual old age and grayness.
_by Peneus' streams_: Phoebus loved the Nymph Daphne whom he met by the
river Peneus in the vale of Tempe. This legend expressed the attachment
of the Laurel (Daphne) to the Sun, under whose heat the tree both fades
and flourishes. It has been thought worth while to explain these
allusions, because they illustrate the character of the Grecian
Mythology, which arose in the Personification of natural phenomena, and
was totally free from those debasing and ludicrous ideas with which,
through Roman and later misunderstanding or perversion, it has been
associated.
_Amphion's lyre_: He was said to have built the walls of Thebes to the
sound of his music.
_Night like a drunkard reels_: Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene
3: "The gray-eyed morn smiles," etc.--It should be added that three
lines, which appeared hopelessly misprinted, have been omitted in this
Poem.
Poem 4.
_Time's chest_: in which he is figuratively supposed to lay up past
treasures. So in Troilus, Act III. Scene 3, "Time hath a wallet at his
back," etc.
Poem 5.
A fine example of the high-wrought and conventional Elizabethan
Pastoralism, which it would be ludicrous to criticise on the ground of
the unshepherdlike or unreal character of some images suggested. Stanza
6 was probably inserted by Izaak Walton.
Poem 9.
This Poem, with 25 and 94, is taken from Davison's "Rhapsody," first
published in 1602. One stanza has been here omitted, in accordance with
the principle noticed in the Preface. Similar omissions occur in 45, 87,
100, 128, 160, 165, 227, 235. The more serious abbreviation by which it
has been attempted to bring Crashaw's "Wishes" and Shelley's "Euganean
Hills" within the limits of lyrical unity, is commended with much
diffidence to the judgment of readers acquainted with the original
pieces.
_Presence_ in line 12 is here conjecturally printed for _present_. A
very few similar corrections of (it is presumed) misprints have been
made:--as _thy_ for _my_, 22, line 9: _men_ for _me_, 41, line 3: _viol_
for _idol_, 252, line 43, and _one_ for _our_, line 90: _locks_ for
_looks_, 271, line 5: _dome_ for _doom_, 275, line 25:--with two or
three more less important.
Poem 15.
This charming little poem, truly "old and plain, and dallying with the
innocence of love" like that spoken of in Twelfth Night, is taken with
5, 17, 20, 34, and 40, from the most characteristic collection of
Elizabeth's reign, "England's Helicon," first published in 1600.
Poem 16.
Readers who have visited Italy will be reminded of more than one picture
by this gorgeous Vision of Beauty, equally sublime and pure in its
Paradisaical naturalness. Lodge wrote it on a voyage to "the Islands of
Terceras and the Canaries"; and he seems to have caught, in those
southern seas, no small portion of the qualities which marked the almost
contemporary Art of Venice,--the glory and the glow of Veronese, or
Titian, or Tintoret, when he most resembles Titian, and all but
surpasses him.
_The clear_: is the crystalline or outermost heaven of the old
cosmography. For _resembling_ other copies give _refining_: the correct
reading is perhaps _revealing_.
_For a fair there's fairer none_: If you desire a Beauty, there is none
more beautiful than Rosaline.
Poem 18.
_that fair thou owest_: that beauty thou ownest.
Poem 23.
_the star Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken_:
apparently, Whose stellar influence is uncalculated, although his
angular altitude from the plane of the astrolabe or artificial horizon
used by astrologers has been determined.
Poem 27.
_keel_: skim.
Poem 29.
_expense_: waste.
Poem 30.
_Nativity once in the main of light_: when a star has risen and entered
on the full stream of light;--another of the astrological phrases no
longer familiar.
_Crooked eclipses_: as coming athwart the Sun's apparent course.
Wordsworth, thinking probably of the "Venus" and the "Lucrece," said
finely of Shakespeare "Shakespeare _could_ not have written an Epic; he
would have died of plethora of thought." This prodigality of nature is
exemplified equally in his Sonnets. The copious selection here given
(which from the wealth of the material, required greater consideration
than any other portion of the Editor's task) contains many that will not
be fully felt and understood without some earnestness of thought on the
reader's part. But he is not likely to regret the labour.
Poem 31.
_upon misprision growing_: either, granted in error, or, on the growth
of contempt.
Poem 32.
With the tone of this Sonnet compare Hamlet's "Give me that man That is
not passion's slave," etc. Shakespeare's writings show the deepest
sensitiveness to passion:--hence the attraction he felt in the
contrasting effects of apathy.
Poem 33.
_grame_: sorrow. It was long before English Poetry returned to the
charming simplicity of this and a few other poems by Wyat.
Poem 34.
Pandion in the ancient fable was father to Philomela.
Poem 38.
_ramage_: confused noise.
Poem 39.
_censures_: judges.
Poem 40.
By its style this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may be
referred to the early years of Elizabeth. _Late forgot_: lately.
Poem 41.
_haggards_: the least tameable hawks.
Poem 44.
_cypres_ or cyprus,--used by the old writers for _crape_: whether from
the French _crespe_ or from the Island whence it was imported. Its
accidental similarity in spelling to _cypress_ has, here and in Milton's
Penseroso, probably confused readers.
Poems 46, 47.
"I never saw anything like this funeral dirge," says Charles Lamb,
"except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the
Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth,
earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve
itself into the element which it contemplates."
Poem 51.
_crystal_: fairness.
Poem 53.
This "Spousal Verse" was written in honour of the Ladies Elizabeth and
Katherine Somerset. Although beautiful, it is inferior to the
"Epithalamion" on Spenser's own marriage,--omitted with great reluctance
as not in harmony with modern manners.
_feateously_: elegantly.
_shend_: put out.
_a noble peer_: Robert Devereux, second Lord Essex, then at the height
of his brief triumph after taking Cadiz: hence the allusion following to
the Pillars of Hercules, placed near Gades by ancient legend.
_Eliza_: Elizabeth; _twins of Jove_: the stars Castor and Pollux;
_baldric_: belt, the zodiac.
Poem 57.
A fine example of a peculiar class of Poetry;--that written by
thoughtful men who practised this Art but little. Wotton's, 72, is
another. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, Lord Macaulay,
have left similar specimens.
Poem 62.
_whist_: hushed; _Pan_: used here for the Lord of all; _Lars and
Lemures_: household Gods and spirits of relations dead; _Flamens_: Roman
priests; _That twice-batter'd god_: Dagon.
_Osiris_, the Egyptian god of Agriculture (here, perhaps by confusion
with Apis, figured as a Bull), was torn to pieces by Typho and embalmed
after death in a sacred chest. This myth, reproduced in Syria and Greece
in the legends of Thammuz, Adonis, and perhaps Absyrtus, represents the
annual death of the Sun or the Year under the influences of the winter
darkness. Horus, the son of Osiris, as the New Year, in his turn
overcomes Typho.--It suited the genius of Milton's time to regard this
primaeval poetry and philosophy of the seasons, which has a further
reference to the contest of Good and Evil in Creation, as a malignant
idolatry. Shelley's Chorus in _Hellas_, "Worlds on worlds," treats the
subject in a larger and sweeter spirit.
_unshower'd grass_: as watered by the Nile only.
Poem 64.
_The Late Massacre_: the Vaudois persecution, carried on in 1655 by the
Duke of Savoy. This "collect in verse," as it has been justly named, is
the most mighty Sonnet in any language known to the Editor. Readers
should observe that, unlike our sonnets of the sixteenth century, it is
constructed , on the original Italian or Provençal model,--unquestionably
far superior to the imperfect form employed by Shakespeare and Drummond.
Poem 65.
Cromwell returned from Ireland in 1650. Hence the prophecies, not
strictly fulfilled, of his deference to the Parliament, in stanzas
21-24.
This Ode, beyond doubt one of the finest in our language, and more in
Milton's style than has been reached by any other poet, is occasionally
obscure from imitation of the condensed Latin syntax. The meaning of st.
5 is "rivalry or hostility are the same to a lofty spirit, and
limitation more hateful than opposition." The allusion in st. 11 is to
the old physical doctrines of the non-existence of a vacuum and the
impenetrability of matter:--in st. 17 to the omen traditionally
connected with the foundation of the Capitol at Rome. The ancient belief
that certain years in life complete natural periods and are hence
peculiarly exposed to death, is introduced in stanza 26 by the word
_climacteric_.
Poem 66.
_Lycidas_. The person lamented is Milton's college friend Edward King,
drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland.
Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian
Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exhibited more
magnificently in _Lycidas_ than in any other pastoral, is apparently of
Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has
here united ancient mythology, with what may be called the modern
mythology of Camus and Saint Peter,--to direct Christian images.--The
metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian
models.
_Sisters of the sacred well_: the Muses, said to frequent the fountain
Helicon on Mount Parnassus.
_Mona_: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island,
from its dense forests.
_Deva_: the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character
from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and
Saxon.--These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the
shipwreck.
_Orpheus_ was torn to pieces by Thracian women; _Amaryllis_ and _Neaera_
names used here for the love idols of poets: as _Damoetas_ previously
for a shepherd.
_the blind Fury_: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life.
_Arethuse_ and _Mincius_: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as
synonymous with the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil.
_oat_: pipe, used here like Collins' _oaten stop_, No. 146, for _Song_.
_Hippotades_: Aeolus, god of the Winds. _Panope_ a Nereid. The names of
local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature
in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with
their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the
boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared
with a limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or
Asia Minor.
_Camus_: the Cam; put for King's University.
_The sanguine flower_: the Hyacinth of the ancients; probably our Iris.
_The pilot_: Saint Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the
Church on earth, to foretell "the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in
their heighth" under Laud's primacy.
_the wolf_: Popery.
_Alpheus_: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to
meet the Arethuse.
_Swart star_: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in
ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer.
_moist vows_: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea.
_Bellerus_: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify
Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End.
_The great Vision_:--The story was that the Archangel Michael had
appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name.
Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to
pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the
Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places
in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less
unfamiliar to English ears), are named,--_Namancos_ now Mujio in
Galicia, _Bayona_ north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one
of the _Cies_ Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance
of Vigo Bay.
_ore_: rays of golden light. _Doric lay_: Sicilian, pastoral.
Poem 70.
_The assault_: was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops
of Charles I. reached Brentford. "Written on his door" was in the
original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate
Street.
_Emathian Conqueror_: When Thebes was destroyed (B.C. 335) and the
citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar
to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV.
of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of
Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to
Poetry.
_the repeated air \Of sad Electra's poet_: Amongst Plutarch's vague
stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B.C. took
Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect
produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra
of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity
between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to
them.
Poem 73.
This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy
of, the "pure Simonides."
Poem 75.
Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with
Wordsworth's great Ode, No. 287.
Poem 76.
_Favonius_: the spring wind.
Poem 77.
_Themis_: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grandson by his mother to
Sir E. Coke;--hence, as pointed out by Mr. Keightley, Milton's allusion
to the _bench_.
_what the Swede intends, and what the French_: Sweden was then at war
with Poland, and France with the Spanish Netherlands.
Poem 79.
_Sydneian showers_: either in allusion to the conversations in the
"Arcadia," or to Sidney himself as a model of "gentleness" in spirit and
demeanour.
Poem 84.
_Elizabeth of Bohemia_: Daughter to James I., and ancestor to Sophia of
Hanover. These lines are a fine specimen of gallant and courtly
compliment.
Poem 85.
Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough,
who died March, 1628-9, coincidently with the dissolution of the third
Parliament of Charles's reign. Hence Milton poetically compares his
death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory
in 328 B.C.
Poems 92, 93.
These are quite a Painter's poems.
Poem 99.
_From Prison_: to which his active support of Charles I. twice brought
the high-spirited writer.
Poem 105.
Inserted in Book II. as written in the character of a Soldier of Fortune
in the Seventeenth Century.
Poem 106.
_Waly waly_: an exclamation of sorrow, the root and the pronunciation of
which are preserved in the word _caterwaul_. _Brae_: hillside; _burn_:
brook; _busk_: adorn. _Saint Anton's Well_: at the foot of Arthur's Seat
by Edinburgh. _Cramasie_: crimson.
Poem 107.
_burd_: maiden.
Poem 108.
_corbies_: crows; _fail_: turf; _hause_: neck; _theek_: thatch.
If not in their origin, in their present form this and the two preceding
poems appear due to the Seventeenth Century, and have therefore been
placed in Book II.
Poem 111.
The remark quoted in the note to No. 47 applies equally to these truly
wonderful verses, which, like "Lycidas," may be regarded as a test of
any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The
general differences between them are vast: but in imaginative intensity
Marvell and Shelley are closely related. This poem is printed as a
translation in Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously his
own. The most striking verses in it, here quoted as the book is rare,
answer more or less to stanzas 2 and 6:
Alma Quies, teneo te! et te, germana Quietis, Simplicitas! vos ergo diu
per templa, per urbes Quaesivi, regum perque alta palatia, frustra: Sed
vos hortorum per opaca silentia, longe Celarunt plantae virides, et
concolor umbra.
Poems 112&113.
_L'Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_. It is a striking proof of Milton's
astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in
our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many
great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects
of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological
introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the
first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that
Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.
112: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for _Cerberus_ we should
read _Erebus_, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of
Night. But the issue of this union is not Sadness, but Day and
Aether:--completing the circle of primary creation, as the parents are
both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.)
_the mountain nymph_: compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. 210.
_The clouds in thousand liveries dight_: is in _apposition_ to the
preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton.
_tells his tale_: counts his flock; _Cynosure_: the Pole Star; _Corydon,
Thyrsis_, etc.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls; _Jonson's learned
sock_: the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate
comedies; _Lydian airs_: a light and festive style of ancient music.
113: _bestead_: avail.
_starr'd Ethiop queen_: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and
thence translated amongst the constellations.
_Cynthia_: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient
representations.
_Hermes_: called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist
school; _Thebes_, etc.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy; _Buskin'd_:
tragic; _Musaeus_: a poet in Mythology.
_him that left half told_: Chaucer, in his incomplete "Squire's Tale."
_great bards_: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended.
_frounced_: curled; _The Attic Boy_: Cephalus.
Poem 114.
Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of
Charles I.
_But apples_, etc.: A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole.
Poem 115.
_concent_: harmony.
Poem 123.
_The Bard_.: This Ode is founded on a fable that Edward I., after
conquering Wales, put the native Poets to death. After lamenting his
comrades (st. 2, 3) the Bard prophesies the fate of Edward II. and the
conquests of Edward III. (4); his death and that of the Black Prince
(5): of Richard II, with the wars of York and Lancaster, the murder of
Henry VI. (the _meek usurper_), and of Edward V. and his brother (6). He
turns to the glory and prosperity following the accession of the Tudors
(7), through Elizabeth's reign (8): and concludes with a vision of the
poetry of Shakespeare and Milton.
_Glo'ster_: Gilbert de Clare, son-in-law to Edward; _Mortimer_: one of
the Lords Marchers of Wales.
_Arvon_: the shores of Carnarvonshire opposite Anglesey.
_She-wolf_: Isabel of France, adulterous Queen of Edward II.; _Towers of
Julius_: the Tower of London, built in part, according to tradition, by
Julius Caesar.
_bristled boar_: the badge of Richard III.
_Half of thy heart_: Queen Eleanor died soon after the conquest of
Wales.
_Arthur_: Henry VII. named his eldest son thus, in deference to British
feeling and legend.
Poem 125.
The Highlanders called the battle of Culloden, Drumossie.
Poem 126.
_lilting_: singing blithely; _loaning_: broad lane; _bughts_: pens;
_scorning_: rallying; _dowie_: dreary; _daffin'_ and _gabbin'_: joking
and chatting; _leglin_: milkpail; _shearing_: reaping; _bandsters_:
sheaf-binders; _lyart_: grizzled; _runkled_: wrinkled; _fleeching_:
coaxing; _gloaming_: twilight; _bogle_: ghost; _dool_: sorrow.
Poem 128.
The Editor has found no authoritative text of this poem, in his judgment
superior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is
probably not later than the seventeenth century: in other stanzas a more
modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable. Logan's poem (127)
exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses.
_Hecht_: promised, the obsolete _hight_; _mavis_: thrush; _ilka_: every;
_lav'rock_: lark; _haughs_: valley-meadows; _twined_: parted from;
_marrow_: mate; _syne_ then.
Poem 129.
The _Royal George_, of 108 guns, whilst undergoing a partial careening
in Portsmouth Harbour, was overset about 10 A.M. Aug. 29, 1782. The
total loss was believed to be near 1000 souls.
Poem 131.
A little masterpiece in a very difficult style: Catullus himself could
hardly have bettered it. In grace, tenderness, simplicity, and humour it
is worthy of the Ancients; and even more so, from the completeness and
unity of the picture presented.
Poem 136.
Perhaps no writer who has given such strong proofs of the poetic nature
has left less satisfactory poetry than Thomson. Yet he touched little
which he did not beautify: and this song, with "Rule Britannia" and a
few others, must make us regret that he did not more seriously apply
himself to lyrical writing.
Poem 140.
_Aeolian lyre_: the Greeks ascribed the origin of their Lyrical Poetry
to the colonies of Aeolis in Asia Minor.
_Thracia's hills_ supposed a favourite resort of Mars.
_Feather'd king_ the Eagle of Jupiter, admirably described by Pindar in
a passage here imitated by Gray.
_Idalia_: in Cyprus, where _Cytherea_ (Venus) was especially worshipped.
_Hyperion_: the Sun. St. 6-8 allude to the Poets of the Islands and
Mainland of Greece, to those of Rome and of England.
_Theban Eagle_: Pindar.
Poem 141.
_chaste-eyed Queen_: Diana.
Poem 142.
_Attic warbler_: the nightingale.
Poem 144.
_sleekit_: sleek; _bickering brattle_: flittering flight; _laith_: loth;
_pattle_: ploughstaff; _whyles_: at times; _a daimen icker_: a corn-ear
now and then; _thrave_: shock; _lave_: rest; _foggage_: aftergrass;
_snell_: biting; _but hald_: without dwelling-place; _thole_: bear;
_cranreuch_: hoarfrost; _thy lane_: alone; _a-gley_: off the right
line, awry.
Poem 147.
Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language.
Poem 148.
_stoure_: dust-storm; _braw_: smart.
Poem 149.
_scaith_: hurt; _tent_: guard; _steer_: molest.
Poem 151.
_drumlie_: muddy; _birk_: birch.
Poem 152.
_greet_: cry; _daurna_: dare not.--There can hardly exist a poem more
truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, except Sappho, has any
Poetess known to the Editor equalled it in excellence.
Poem 153.
_fou_: merry with drink; _coost_: carried; _unco skeigh_: very proud;
_gart_: forced; _abeigh_: aside; _Ailsa craig_: a rock in the Firth of
Clyde; _grat his een bleert_: cried till his eyes were bleared;
_lowpin_: leaping; _linn_: waterfall; _sair_: sore; _smoor'd_:
smothered; _crouse and canty_: blythe and gay.
Poem 154.
Burns justly named this "one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots or
any other language." One verse, interpolated by Beattie, is here
omitted:--it contains two good lines, but is quite out of harmony with
the original poem.
_Bigonet_: little cap, probably altered from _beguinette_; _thraw_:
twist; _caller_: fresh.
Poem 155.
_airts_: quarters; _row_: roll; _shaw_: small wood in a hollow, spinney;
_knowes_: knolls.
Poem 156.
_jo_: sweetheart; _brent_: smooth; _pow_: head.
Poem 157.
_leal_: faithful; _fain_: happy.
Poem 158.
Henry VI. founded Eton.
Poem 161.
The Editor knows no Sonnet more remarkable than this, which, with 162,
records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose affectionate care for many
years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to a life radically wretched.
Petrarch's sonnets have a more ethereal grace and a more perfect finish;
Shakespeare's more passion; Milton's stand supreme in stateliness,
Wordsworth's in depth and delicacy. But Cowper's unites with an
exquisiteness in the turn of thought which the ancients would have
called Irony, an intensity of pathetic tenderness peculiar to his loving
and ingenuous nature. There is much mannerism, much 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.
Poem 163.
_fancied green_: cherished garden.
Poem 164.
Nothing except his surname 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.
Poem 166.
_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.
Poem 169.
The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems.
Poem 170.
This poem, with 236, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott
employs proper names: nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius.
Poem 191.
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.
Poem 198.
_Nature's Eremite_: refers to the fable of the Wandering Jew.--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."
Poem 201.
It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this
sweet and genuinely national style.
Poem 202.
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.
Poem 209.
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.
Poem 210.
Switzerland was usurped by the French under Napoleon in 1800: Venice in
1797 (211).
Poem 215.
This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Austrians under
Archduke John and the French under Moreau, in a forest near Munich.
_Hohen Linden_ means _High Limetrees_.
Poem 218.
After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before
Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarcation
of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription--"John
Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809."
Poem 229.
The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other
choice spirits of that age.
Poem 230.
_Maisie_: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than
this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a
wild-wood 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 presentiment 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.
Poem 234.
_correi_: covert on a hillside; _Cumber_: trouble.
Poem 235.
Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very
ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in
accordance with pathos.
Poem 243.
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.
Poem 252.
_interlunar swoon_: interval of the Moon's invisibility.
Poem 256.
_Calpe_: Gibraltar; _Lofoden_: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.-W.
coast of Norway.
Poem 257.
This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the
subject better treated in 127 and 128.
Poem 268.
_Arcturi_: seemingly used for _northern stars_.
_And wild roses_, etc. 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.
Poem 270.
_Ceres' daughter_: Proserpine; _God of Torment_: Pluto.
Poem 271.
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.
Poem 274.
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.
_Amphitrite_ was daughter to Ocean.
_Sun-girt City_: It is difficult not to believe that the correct reading
is _Seagirt_. 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.
Poem 275.
_Maenad_: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on Dionysus in the Greek
mythology.
_The sea-blooms_, etc.: Plants under water sympathise with the seasons
of the laud, and hence with the winds which affect them.
Poem 276.
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."
Poem 278.
Proteus represented the everlasting changes united with ever-recurrent
sameness, of the Sea.
Poem 279.
_the Royal Saint_: Henry VI.