"Ah, hold! the heart is prone to fall away,
Her high and cherished visions to forget;
And if thou takest, how wilt thou repay
So vast, so dread a debt?"
The little volume appealed to but a small band of readers. The poems it
contained did not allure by fluency of fancy or richness of diction;
they were not of a kind to win sudden popularity: but they gave evidence
of a poet who, though not complete master of his art, and not arrived at
a complete understanding of himself, had yet a rare power of reflection
and expression and a still rarer sincerity of imaginative vision. They
were poems that gave large promise, and that promise was already in part
fulfilled by the 'Bothie.'
Early in 1849 the headship of University Hall in London was offered to
Clough and accepted by him. This was an institution professedly
non-sectarian, established for the purpose of receiving students in
attendance upon the lectures at University College. He was not to enter
upon the duties of the place until October, and he spent the greater
part of the intervening period in a fruitful visit to Italy. He reached
Rome in April. All Italy was in revolution. The Pope had fled from Rome.
The Republic had been declared, and Mazzini was in control of the
government. The French army was approaching to besiege the city, and
Clough resolved to await the event. No more vivid and picturesque
account of aspects of the siege exists than is to be found in his poem
of 'Amours de Voyage,' written in great part at Rome, under the pressure
and excitement of the moment; then laid aside in the poet's desk, and
not published till long afterward. It consists of a series of letters
supposed to be written by various persons, in which a narrative of
passing events is interwoven with a love story. The hero of the story is
a creation of extraordinary subtlety and interest. He has much of the
temperament of Hamlet: not wanting in personal courage, nor in
resolution when forced to action, but hesitating through sensitiveness
of conscience, through dread of mistaking momentary impulse for fixed
conviction, through the clearness with which diverging paths of conduct
present themselves to his imagination, with the inevitable doubt as to
which be the right one to follow. The character, though by no means an
exact or complete image of the poet's own, is yet drawn in part from
himself, and affords glimpses of his inner nature, of the delicacy of
his sensitive poetic spirit, of his tendency to subtle introspective
reflection, of his honesty in dealing with facts and with himself. To
see things as they are, to keep his eyes clear, to be true to
"The living central inmost I
Within the scales of mere exterior--"
was the principle of his life. The charm of 'Amours de Voyage,' however,
consists not merely in animated description, in delicate sentiment, and
in the poetic representation of sensitive, impressionable, and
high-minded youth, but in its delicate humor in the delineation of
character, and in its powerful, imaginative, picturesque reproduction of
the atmosphere and influence of Rome, and of the spirit of the moment to
which the poem relates. It is as unique and as original in its kind as
the 'Bothie.' It is a poem that appeals strongly to the lovers of the
poetry of high culture, and is not likely to lack such readers in future
generations.
From Rome in July Clough went to Naples, and there wrote another of his
most striking poems, 'Easter Day.' In the autumn of 1850 he again went
during a short vacation to Italy, but now to Venice; and while there
began his third long poem, 'Dipsychus,' of which the scene is in that
city. In this poem, which represents the conflict of the soul in its
struggles to maintain itself against the temptations of the world and
the Devil, Clough again wrote out much of his inner life. It is not so
much a piece of strict autobiography of the spirit of an individual, as
an imaginative drama of the spiritual experience common in all times to
men of fine nature, seeking a solution of the puzzle of their own
hearts. In none of his other poems is there such variety of tone, or
such an exhibition of mature poetic power. It is indeed loosely
constructed; but its separate parts, each contributing to the
development of its main theme, with their diversity of imagination,
reflection, wit, and sentiment, combine in an impressive unity of
effect.
The position at University Hall proved not altogether satisfactory; and
no other opening for him offering itself in England, Clough determined
after much hesitation and deliberation to try his fortune as a teacher
and writer in America. He sailed in October, 1852, on a steamer on which
he had Lowell and Thackeray for fellow passengers. He spent the next
eight months at Cambridge, employed in tutoring and in literary work,
winning the warm regard of the remarkable group of men of letters who
then gave distinction to the society of Cambridge and of Boston, and
especially keeping up his friendship with Emerson by frequent visits to
Concord. There seemed a fair prospect of success for him in his new
career. But his friends at home, deeply attached to him, and ill content
that he should leave them, obtained for him an appointment as examiner
in the Education Department of the Council Office. The salary would give
to him a secure though moderate income. He was the more drawn to accept
the place, because shortly before leaving England he had become engaged
to be married; and accordingly in July, 1853, he returned home and at
once entered on the duties of his office. In June 1854 he married. For
the next seven years his life was tranquil, laborious, and happy. The
account of these years contained in the beautiful sketch of his life by
his wife, which is prefixed to the collection of his 'Letters, Poems and
Prose Remains,'[B] gives a picture of Clough's domestic felicity, and of
the various interests which engaged him outside of the regular drudgery
of official work. His own letters bear witness to the content of his
days. He had little leisure for poetry. He was overworked, and in 1860
his health gave way. Leave of absence from the office was given to him.
He went to the seashore; he visited the Continent: but though at times
he seemed to gain strength, there was no steady recovery. In the autumn
of 1861 he went to Italy, accompanied by his wife; he enjoyed the
journey, but they had only reached the Lakes when he experienced a touch
of fever. They went on to Florence; he became more seriously ill. He
began however apparently to recover, but a sudden blow of paralysis
struck him down, and on the 13th day of November he died.
[B] It is on this sketch of his life that the present account of him
is mainly based.
Among the most original and beautiful of Matthew Arnold's poems is his
'Thyrsis, a Monody,' to commemorate his friend Arthur Hugh Clough.
Thyrsis his mate has gone:--
"No purer or more subtle soul"
than he ever sought the light that
"leaves its seeker still untired,--
Still onward faring by his own heart inspired."