THE REACTION IN POETRY.
Alfred Tennyson. Early Works. The Princess. Idyls of the King.
Elizabeth B. Browning. Aurora Leigh. Her Faults. Robert Browning. Other
Poets.
TENNYSON AND THE BROWNINGS.
ALFRED TENNYSON.--It is the certain fate of all extravagant movements,
social or literary, to invite criticism and opposition, and to be followed
by reaction. The school of Wordsworth was the violent protest against what
remained of the artificial in poetry; but it had gone, as we have seen, to
the other extreme. The affected simplicity, and the bald diction which it
inculcated, while they raised up an army of feeble imitators, also
produced in the ranks of poetry a vindication of what was good in the old;
new theories, and a very different estimate of poetical subjects and
expression. The first poet who may be looked upon as leading the
reactionary party is Alfred Tennyson. He endeavored out of all the schools
to synthesize a new one. In many of his descriptive pieces he followed
Wordsworth: in his idyls, he adheres to the romantic school; in his
treatment and diction, he stands alone.
EARLY EFFORTS.--He was the son of a clergyman of Lincolnshire, and was
born at Somersby, in 1810. After a few early and almost unknown efforts in
verse, the first volume bearing his name was issued in 1830, while he was
yet an under-graduate at Cambridge: it had the simple title--_Poems,
chiefly Lyrical_. In their judgment of this new poet, the critics were
almost as much at fault as they had been when the first efforts of
Wordsworth appeared; but for very different reasons. Wordsworth was simple
and intensely realistic. Tennyson was mystic and ideal: his diction was
unusual; his little sketches conveyed an almost hidden moral; he seemed to
inform the reader that, in order to understand his poetry, it must be
studied; the meaning does not sparkle upon the surface; the language
ripples, the sense flows in an undercurrent. His first essays exhibit a
mania for finding strange words, or coining new ones, which should give
melody, to his verse. Whether this was a process of development or not, he
has in his later works gotten rid of much of this apparent mannerism,
while he has retained, and even improved, his harmony. He exhibits a rare
power of concentration, as opposed to the diffusiveness of his
contemporaries. Each of his smaller poems is a thought, briefly, but
forcibly and harmoniously, expressed. If it requires some exertion to
comprehend it, when completely understood it becomes a valued possession.
It is difficult to believe that such poems as _Mariana_ and _Recollections
of the Arabian Nights_ were the production of a young man of twenty.
In 1833 he published his second volume, containing additional poems, among
which were _Enone_, _The May Queen_, _The Lotos-Eaters_, and _A Dream of
Fair Women_. _The May Queen_ became at once a favorite, because every one
could understand it: it touched a chord in every heart; but his rarest
power of dreamy fancy is displayed in such pieces as _The Arabian Nights_
and the _Lotos-Eaters_. No greater triumph has been achieved in the realm
of fancy than that in the court of good Haroun al Raschid, and amid the
Lotos dreams of the Nepenthe coast. These productions were not received
with the favor which they merited, and so he let the critics alone for
nine years. In 1842 he again appeared in print, with, among other poems,
the exquisite fragment of the _Morte d'Arthur_, _Godiva_, _St. Agnes_,
_Sir Galahad_, _Lady Clara Vere de Vere_, _The Talking Oak_, and chief,
perhaps, of all, _Locksley Hall_. In these poems he is not only a poet,
but a philosopher. Each of these is an extended apothegm, presenting not
only rules of life, but mottoes and maxims for daily use. They are
soliloquies of the nineteenth century, and representations of its men and
conditions.
THE PRINCESS.--In 1847 he published _The Princess, a Medley_--a pleasant
and suggestive poem on woman's rights, in which exquisite songs are
introduced, which break the monotony of the blank verse, and display his
rare lyric power. The _Bugle Song_ is among the finest examples of the
adaptation of sound to sense in the language; and there is nothing more
truthful and touching than the short verses beginning,
Home they brought her warrior dead.
Arthur Hallam, a gifted son of the distinguished historian, who was
betrothed to Tennyson's sister, died young; and the poet has mourned and
eulogized him in a long poem entitled _In Memoriam_. It contains one
hundred and twenty-nine four-lined stanzas, and is certainly very musical
and finished; but it is rather the language of calm philosophy elaborately
studied, than that of a poignant grief. It is not, in our judgment, to be
compared with his shorter poems, and is generally read and overpraised
only by his more ardent admirers, who discover a crystal tear of genuine
emotion in every stanza.
IDYLS OF THE KING.--The fragment on the death of Arthur, already
mentioned, foreshadowed a purpose of the poet's mind to make the legends
of that almost fabulous monarch a vehicle for modern philosophy in English
verse. In 1859 appeared a volume containing the _Idyls of the King_. They
are rather minor epics than idyls. The simple materials are taken from the
Welsh and French chronicles, and are chiefly of importance in that they
cater to that English taste which finds national greatness typified in
Arthur. It had been a successful stratagem with Spenser in _The Fairy
Queen_, and has served Tennyson equally well in the _Idyls_. It unites the
ages of fable and of chivalry; it gives a noble lineage to heroic deeds.
The best is the last--_Guinevere_--almost the perfection of pathos in
poetry. The picturesqueness of his descriptions is evinced by the fact
that Gustave Doré has chosen these _Idyls_ as a subject for illustration,
and has been eminently successful in his labor.
_Maud_, which appeared in 1855, notwithstanding some charming lyrical
passages, may be considered Tennyson's failure. In 1869 he completed _The
Idyls_ by publishing _The Coming of Arthur_, _The Holy Grail_, and
_Pelleas and Etteare_. He also finished the _Morte d'Arthur_, and put it
in its proper place as _The Passing of Arthur_.
Tennyson was appointed poet-laureate upon the death of Wordsworth, in
1850, and receives besides a pension of £200. He lived for a long time in
great retirement at Farringford, on the Isle of Wight; but has lately
removed to Petersfield, in Hampshire. It may be reasonably doubted whether
this hermit-life has not injured his poetical powers; whether, great as he
really is, a little inhalation of the air of busy every-day life would not
have infused more of nature and freshness into his verse. Among his few
_Odes_ are that on the death of the Duke of Wellington, the dedication of
his poems to the Queen, and his welcome to Alexandra, Princess of Wales,
all of which are of great excellence. His _Charge of the Light Brigade_,
at Balaclava, while it gave undue currency to that stupid military
blunder, must rank as one of the finest battle-lyrics in the language.
The poetry of Tennyson is eminently representative of the Victorian age.
He has written little; but that little marks a distinct era in
versification--great harmony untrammelled by artificial _correctness_; and
in language, a search for novelty to supply the wants and correct the
faults of the poetic vocabulary. He is national in the _Idyls_;
philosophic in _The Two Voices_, and similar poems. The _Princess_ is a
gentle satire on the age; and though, in striving for the reputation of
originality, he sometimes mistakes the original for the beautiful, he is
really the laurelled poet of England in merit as well as in title.
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.--The literary usher is now called upon to cry
with the herald of the days of chivalry--_Place aux dames_. A few ladies,
as we have seen, have already asserted for themselves respectable
positions in the literary ranks. Without a question as to the relative
gifts of mind in man and woman, we have now reached a name which must rank
among those of the first poets of the present century--one which
represents the Victorian age as fully and forcibly as Tennyson, and with
more of novelty than he. Nervous in style, elevated in diction, bold in
expression, learned and original, Mrs. Browning divides the poetic renown
of the period with Tennyson. If he is the laureate, she was the
acknowledged queen of poetry until her untimely death.
Miss Elizabeth Barrett was born in London, in 1809. She was educated with
great care, and began to write at a very early age. A volume, entitled
_Essays on Mind, with Other Poems_, was published when she was only
seventeen. In 1833 she produced _Prometheus Bound_, a translation of the
drama of Æschylus from the original Greek, which exhibited rare classical
attainments; but which she considered so faulty that she afterwards
retranslated it. In 1838 appeared _The Seraphim, and other Poems_; and in
1839, _The Romaunt of the Page_. Not long after, the rupture of a
blood-vessel brought her to the verge of the grave; and while she was
still in a precarious state of health, her favorite brother was drowned.
For several years she lived secluded, studying and composing when her
health permitted; and especially drawing her inspiration from original
sources in Greek and Hebrew. In 1844 she published her collected poems in
two volumes. Among these was _Lady Geraldine's Courtship_: an exquisite
story, the perusal of which is said to have induced Robert Browning to
seek her acquaintance. Her health was now partially restored; and they
were married in 1846. For some time they resided at Florence, in a
congenial and happy union. The power of passionate love is displayed in
her _Sonnets from the Portuguese_, which are among the finest in the
language. Differing in many respects from those of Shakspeare, they are
like his in being connected by one impassioned thought, and being, without
doubt, the record of a heart experience.
Thoroughly interested in the social and political conditions of struggling
Italy, she gave vent to her views and sympathies in a volume of poems,
entitled _Casa Guidi Windows_. Casa Guidi was the name of their residence
in Florence, and the poems vividly describe what she saw from its
windows--divers forms of suffering, injustice, and oppression, which
touched the heart of a tender woman and a gifted poet, and compelled it to
burst forth in song.
AURORA LEIGH.--But by far the most important work of Mrs. Browning is
_Aurora Leigh_: a long poem in nine books, which appeared in 1856, in
which the great questions of the age, social and moral, are handled with
great boldness. It is neither an epic, nor an idyl, nor a tale in verse:
it combines features of them all. It presents her clear convictions of
life and art, and is full of philosophy, largely expressed in the language
of irony and sarcasm. She is an inspired advocate of the intellectual
claims of woman; and the poem is, in some degree, an autobiography: the
identity of the poet and the heroine gives a great charm to the narrative.
There are few finer pieces of poetical inspiration than the closing scene,
where the friend and lover returns blind and helpless, and the woman's
heart, unconquered before, surrenders to the claims of misfortune as the
champion of love. After a happy life with her husband and an only child,
sent for her solace, this gifted woman died in 1863.
HER FAULTS.--It is as easy to criticize Mrs. Browning's works as to admire
them; but our admiration is great in spite of her faults: in part because
of them, for they are faults of a bold and striking individuality. There
is sometimes an obscurity in her fancies, and a turgidity in her language.
She seems to transcend the poet's license with a knowledge that she is
doing so. For example:
We will sit on the throne of a purple sublimity,
And grind down men's bones to a pale unanimity.
And again, in speaking of Goethe, she says:
His soul reached out from far and high,
And fell from inner entity.
Her rhymes are frequently and arrogantly faulty: she seems to scorn the
critics; she writes more for herself than for others, and infuses all she
writes with her own fervent spirit: there is nothing commonplace or
lukewarm. She is so strong that she would be masculine; but so tender that
she is entirely feminine: at once one of the most vigorous of poets and
one of the best of women. She has attained the first rank among the
English poets.
ROBERT BROWNING.--As a poet of decided individuality, which has gained for
him many admirers, Browning claims particular mention. His happy marriage
has for his fame the disadvantage that he gave his name to a greater
poet; and it is never mentioned without an instinctive thought of her
superiority. Many who are familiar with her verses have never read a line
of her husband. This is in part due to a mysticism and an intense
subjectivity, which are not adapted to the popular comprehension. He has
chosen subjects unknown or uninteresting to the multitude of readers, and
treats them with such novelty of construction and such an affectation of
originality, that few persons have patience to read his poems.
Robert Browning was born, in 1812, at Camberwell; and after a careful
education, not at either of the universities, (for he was a dissenter,) he
went at the age of twenty to Italy, where he eagerly studied the history
and antiquity to be found in the monasteries and in the remains of the
mediæval period. He also made a study of the Italian people. In 1835 he
published a drama called _Paracelsus_, founded upon the history of that
celebrated alchemist and physician, and delineating the conditions of
philosophy in the fifteenth century. It is novel, antique, and
metaphysical: it exhibits the varied emotions of human sympathy; but it is
eccentric and obscure, and cannot be popular. He has been called the poet
for poets; and this statement seems to imply that he is not the poet for
the great world.
In 1837 he published a tragedy called _Strafford_; but his Italian culture
seems to have spoiled his powers for portraying English character, and he
has presented a stilted Strafford and a theatrical Charles I.
In 1840 appeared _Sordello_, founded upon incidents in the history of that
Mantuan poet Sordello, whom Dante and Virgil met in purgatory; and who,
deserting the language of Italy, wrote his principal poems in the
Provençal. The critics were so dissatisfied with this work, that Browning
afterwards omitted it in the later editions of his poems. In 1843 he
published a tragedy entitled _A Blot on the 'Scutcheon_, and a play
called _The Dutchess of Cleves_. In 1850 appeared _Christmas Eve_ and
_Easter Day_. Concerning all these, it may be said that it is singular and
sad that a real poetic gift, like that of Browning, should be so shrouded
with faults of conception and expression. What leads us to think that many
of these are an affectation, is that he has produced, almost with the
simplicity of Wordsworth, those charming sketches, _The Good News from
Ghent to Aix_, and _An Incident at Ratisbon_.
Among his later poems we specially commend _A Death in the Desert_, and
_Pippa Passes_, as less obscure and more interesting than any, except the
lyrical pieces just mentioned. It is difficult to show in what manner
Browning represents his age. His works are only so far of a modern
character that they use the language of to-day without subsidizing its
simplicity, and abandon the old musical couplet without presenting the
intelligible if commonplace thought which it used to convey.
OTHER POETS OF THE LATEST PERIOD.
_Reginald Heber_, 1783-1826: a godly Bishop of Calcutta. He is most
generally known by one effort, a little poem, which is a universal
favorite, and has preached, from the day it appeared, eloquent sermons in
the cause of missions--_From Greenland's Icy Mountains_. Among his other
hymns are _Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning_, and _The Son of
God goes forth to War_.
_Barry Cornwall_, born 1790: this is a _nom de plume_ of _Bryan Proctor_,
a pleasing, but not great poet. His principal works are _Dramatic Scenes_,
_Mirandola_, a tragedy, and _Marcian Colonna_. His minor poems are
characterized by grace and fluency. Among these are _The Return of the
Admiral_; _The Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea_; and _A Petition to Time_. He
also wrote essays and tales in prose--a _Life of Edmund Keane_, and a
_Memoir of Charles Lamb_. His daughter, _Adelaide Anne Proctor_, is a
gifted poetess, and has written, among other poems, _Legends and Lyrics_,
and _A Chaplet of Verses_.
_James Sheridan Knowles_, 1784-1862: an actor and dramatist. He left the
stage and became a Baptist minister. His plays were very successful upon
the stage. Among them, those of chief merit are _The Hunchback_,
_Virginius and Caius Gracchus_, and _The Wife, a Tale of Mantua_.
_Jean Ingelow_, born 1830: one of the most popular of the later English
poets. _The Song of Seven_, and _My Son's Wife Elizabeth_, are extremely
pathetic, and of such general application that they touch all hearts. The
latter is the refrain of _High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire_. She has
published, besides, several volumes of stories for children, and one
entitled _Studies for Stories_.
_Algernon Charles Swinburne_, born 1843: he is principally and very
favorably known by his charming poem _Atalanta in Calydon_. He has also
written a somewhat heterodox and licentious poem entitled _Laus Veneris_,
_Chastelard_, and _The Song of Italy_; besides numerous minor poems and
articles for magazines. He is among the most notable and prolific poets of
the age; and we may hope for many and better works from his pen.
_Richard Harris Barham_, 1788-1845: a clergyman of the Church of England,
and yet one of the most humorous of writers. He is chiefly known by his
_Ingoldsby Legends_, which were contributed to the magazines. They are
humorous tales in prose and verse; the latter in the vein of Peter Pindar,
but better than those of Wolcot, or any writer of that school. Combined
with the humorous and often forcible, there are touches of pathos and
terror which are extremely effective. He also wrote a novel called _My
Cousin Nicholas_.
_Philip James Bailey_, born 1816: he published, in 1839, _Festus_, a poem
in dramatic form, having, for its _dramatis personæ_, God in his three
persons, Lucifer, angels, and man. Full of rare poetic fancy, it repels
many by the boldness of its flight in the consideration of the
incomprehensible, which many minds think the forbidden. _The Angel World_
and _The Mystic_ are of a similar kind; but his last work, _The Age, a
Colloquial Satire_ is on a mundane subject and in a simpler style.
_Charles Mackay_, born 1812: principally known by his fugitive pieces,
which contain simple thoughts on pleasant language. His poetical
collections are called _Town Lyrics_ and _Egeria_.
_John Keble_, 1792-1866: the modern George Herbert; a distinguished
clergyman. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and produced, besides
_Tracts for the Times_, and other theological writings, _The Christian
Year_, containing a poem for every Sunday and holiday in the
ecclesiastical year. They are devout breathings in beautiful verse, and
are known and loved by great numbers out of his own communion. Many of
them have been adopted as hymns in many collections.
_Martin Farquhar Tupper_, born 1810: his principal work is _Proverbial
Philosophy_, in two series. It was unwontedly popular; and Tupper's name
was on every tongue. Suddenly, the world reversed its decision and
discarded its favorite; so that, without having done anything to warrant
the desertion, Tupper finds himself with but very few admirers, or even
readers: so capricious is the _vox populi_. The poetry is not without
merit; but the world cannot forgive itself for having rated it too high.
_Matthew Arnold_, born 1822: the son of Doctor Arnold of Rugby. He has
written numerous critical papers, and was for some time Professor of
Poetry at Oxford. _Sorab and Rustam_ is an Eastern tale in verse, of great
beauty. His other works are _The Strayed Reveller_, and _Empedocles on
Etna_. More lately, an Inspector of Schools, he has produced several works
on education, among which are _Popular Education in France_ and _The
Schools and Universities of the Continent_.