POETRY FROM 1850 TO 1870: THE PRE-RAPHAELITES; THE SPASMODIC SCHOOL; MINOR
POETS.
[Sidenote: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).]
Contemporary with the great poets, who seem to feel first of all the
imperative necessity of understanding and interpreting the intellectual
movement of the age, were others, some of them great too, in whose work
passion takes a prior place to intellect. Of these the most talented group
were the Pre-Raphaelites, and the greatest man was Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The celebrated founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a man who had
the rare fortune to be highly distinguished in two arts. Other
artists--Thomas Woolner and William Bell Scott and Sir Joseph Noel Paton
are contemporary examples--have been poets also; but no one has attained a
level at once as high and as equal in both as Rossetti. He has also been
influential upon others in a degree rare even among men of as great
calibre; and finally, he was only the greatest of a family all highly
gifted in literature.
Rossetti, though English by birth, was more Italian than English by blood,
and he was brought up in an atmosphere largely Italian. Both his literary
and his artistic talents showed themselves early. The literary organ of
the Pre-Raphaelites, _The Germ_, received some of his earliest writings;
but he had begun to compose even earlier, the two well-known pieces, _The
Blessed Damozel_ and _My Sister's Sleep_, having both been written in his
nineteenth year. The greater part of his poetry was composed in early
manhood. On the death of his wife, in 1862, Rossetti, in the transport of
his grief, buried the MSS. in her coffin. They were exhumed in 1869 and
published under the simple title of _Poems_ in 1870. After his wife's
death Rossetti for a long time wrote little poetry, though he continued
his artistic work. In later years the complete breakdown of his health
checked his production. He suffered from insomnia and attempted to cure it
by the use of chloral, with the usual result. Nevertheless, some very fine
pieces, notably _The King's Tragedy_, are of late composition. The later
poems were gathered together in the _Ballads and Sonnets_ of 1881.
Rossetti was also a translator, and in 1861 had published, under the title
of _The Early Italian Poets_, the collection now known as _Dante and his
Circle_. He likewise occasionally wrote prose, his most considerable work
being a story, poetical in spirit, entitled _Hand and Soul_.
Mr. W. D. Howells (quoted in Sharp's _Dante Gabriel Rossetti_) says it
will always be a question whether Rossetti 'had not better have painted
his poems and written his pictures; there is so much that is purely
sensuous in the former and so much that is intellectual in the latter.'
There is certainly an element of truth in this judgment. The sensuousness
was the cause of the celebrated attack entitled _The Fleshly School of
Poetry_, which was met by Rossetti's effective rejoinder, _The Stealthy
School of Criticism_. The poet showed that the attack was in great measure
unjust, but he would not have sought to deny that there was sensuousness
in his poetry. He would have held, on the contrary, that poetry not only
might legitimately be, but ought to be, sensuous. This conception
influenced Rossetti's whole style of poetical portraiture. We see its
effect in the fine description of a girl in _A Last Confession_,
beginning, 'She had a mouth made to bring death to life.' It is all so
written that from it the painter could easily put the portrait on canvas.
But with respect to the allegation of sensuousness, the question for
criticism is one of degree. There are two aspects of it, the moral and the
artistic, which, though not entirely distinct, are best treated apart.
Rossetti's answer was most successful upon the moral side, though even in
this respect there remained one or two pieces not easily justified. From
the artistic point of view, it must be said that the sensuousness is
sometimes so great as to blur the intellectual outlines. We see this
particularly in the sonnets, which many regard as Rossetti's best work in
poetry. He certainly does put into the sonnet a fulness of melody and a
wealth of colour not surpassed and perhaps, in their conjunction, hardly
equalled in the language. But when we ask if the idea of the sonnet stands
out with due clearness, the answer must be in the negative. In the best
sonnets of Milton and Wordsworth, and in a less degree in those of
Drummond of Hawthornden, of Mrs. Browning and of Christina Rossetti, the
idea is precise and definite. Dante Rossetti is a poet who 'deals in
meanings,' but he sometimes darkens, if he does not altogether bury, the
meaning under a wealth of sonorous words. The fault of over-elaboration,
which is chargeable also against the pictorial art of the Pre-Raphaelites,
is visible here. We see it in other aspects too. The sense of spontaneity
is lost; the poet seems to be perpetually aiming at a mark just beyond his
reach; and there is an excessive addiction to some of the subordinate
artifices of verse. Among these Rossetti's favourite is alliteration; and
the reader is not infrequently troubled with the suspicion that a word is
used, not because it is the best, but because it begins with a particular
letter.
A defect kindred in origin, but more serious, is shown in Rossetti's
treatment of nature. One of his best poems of this class is _The Stream's
Secret_. The poet certainly wrote it 'with his eye on the object,' for the
stream in question was no figment of the brain, but the Penwhapple in
Ayrshire. All the more for that reason it illustrates the difference
between inspiration and conscientious study. Rossetti did not feel natural
beauty like Wordsworth, and his descriptions have not the easy grace of
the true poet of nature. He deliberately set out to make a poem, with the
result that he produced a fine piece of skilled workmanship.
Next perhaps to Rossetti's reputation as a writer of sonnets stands his
reputation as a balladist; and it may be questioned whether the order
ought not to be reversed. Rossetti's art was far too elaborate for a
ballad of the genuine old type. Even in _The White Ship_ there is a note
which distinguishes it not only from the true popular ballad, but from
such approximations as the ballads of Scott. But poetry ought to be valued
for what it is, not for conformity with what may possibly be a misleading
standard; and Rossetti's ballads are noble poetry. He imbibed enough of
the ballad spirit to check his habitual faults, and of all his
compositions the ballads are the simplest and most natural. The universal
favourite, _The King's Tragedy_ is a grand story told with great fire and
energy. So, too, _Rose Mary_ is a powerful and beautiful poem, less
uniform however than _The King's Tragedy_, for the lyrics between the
parts are at best second-rate. It is in pieces like these, and in some of
the more clearly-thought sonnets, like _Lost Days_, that Rossetti proves
himself the true poet. The more deeply sensuous sonnets, and such
characteristic pieces as _The Blessed Damozel_, are representative rather
of the dangers and defects of his poetry.
[Sidenote: Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).]
Less great but hardly less interesting than her brother was Christina
Georgina Rossetti, who, like him, wrote for _The Germ_, though she
published no volume of poems for many years afterwards. Though her course
extends far beyond the limits of the period, the poetical work for which
she is most memorable was chiefly done within it, and her closest
connexions belong to it too. Her first published volume was _Goblin
Market, and other Poems_ (1862); her second, _The Prince's Progress, and
other Poems_ (1866). Then, after some prose tales, came the book of
nursery rhymes, _Sing-Song_ (1872). From this time onwards, except for _A
Pageant, and other Poems_ (1881), Miss Rossetti's books were chiefly of a
devotional character; but one of them, _Time Flies_ (1885), contains some
of the finest of her verse.
The religious poems form a most important section of Christina Rossetti's
works. She is one of the most profoundly devotional of modern writers.
Unlike Arnold and Clough, she is not a poet of doubt but of faith; unlike
Browning's, her creed is rather a creed of feeling than of intellect. But
while she is not touched with the doubt of the age she is touched with its
sadness. Her devotional pieces have sometimes, as in _Advent_, the ring of
conquering faith, but more often they have in them something of a wail.
What Dr. John Brown called the 'inevitable melancholy' of women seems to
find a voice in Christina Rossetti; and though she is bound by her faith
to an ultimately optimistic view, her habitual tone of mind is gloomy.
'Vanity of vanities' is the title of her finest sonnet, and it is also the
conclusion she draws from the life of this world.
One of the praiseworthy points of Christina Rossetti's work is that, while
invariably imaginative, it never fails to be clear. In this respect she
far surpasses her brother. The marks of the artist's chisel are, as we
have seen, too conspicuous in his work; in hers they are invisible. Yet
few writers are more carefully artistic than she. Less ambitious in her
aims than Dante Rossetti, her work impresses the reader with its adequacy
to those aims. Herein she has an advantage over Mrs. Browning also. The
latter has produced a far greater body of work, and at her best writes
with far more strength than Miss Rossetti; but on the other hand Miss
Rossetti is free from those astonishing lapses into bathos or triviality
or mere bad taste which disfigure Mrs. Browning's poetry. The two
poetesses meet most closely in their respective series of sonnets--_Monna
Innominata_ and the _Sonnets from the Portuguese_. These are among the
masterpieces of each, for both were peculiarly happy in the sonnet form;
Christina Rossetti because she was an artist by nature, Mrs. Browning
probably because the form compelled her to be an artist. The comparison is
unquestionably in favour of Mrs. Browning. The _Sonnets from the
Portuguese_ are richer and deeper than _Monna Innominata_. They record a
love actually felt; and they are the product of an intellect wider, though
perhaps less fine than Christina Rossetti's. But as regards the form, it
is by no means clear that the advantage lies with the elder writer. Mrs.
Browning's sonnets are sometimes laboured in expression; Christina
Rossetti's have an inimitable ease, all the more delightful because in
modern poetry it is rare. Her beautifully pure style is one of her
greatest merits; and it is also one of the most striking points of
contrast between her and her brother. A sonorous richness is
characteristic of his style, a fine simplicity of hers. This simplicity,
and the fineness of touch and delicacy of taste which accompanied it,
served her well in those poems of the supernatural where her imaginative
flight is highest. She is a mistress in the fairy realm, and in its own
class _Goblin Market_ is unsurpassed.
[Sidenote: William Edmondstoune Aytoun (1813-1865).]
Another school which sprang up about the middle of the century, taking its
rise in the longing for something deeper and more satisfying than had been
recently in vogue, was that nicknamed 'the Spasmodic.' The name was fixed
upon the school by the extremely clever satirist of it, William
Edmondstoune Aytoun, himself a poet of a very different family, that of
Scott. Aytoun is best known from his _Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers_
(1848), narratives of martial exploit and tragic sorrow written in
animated but excessively rhetorical verse. He was also, in conjunction
with Mr. (afterwards Sir) Theodore Martin, the author of the _Bon Gaultier
Ballads_ (1845), one of the most amusing collections of comic verse of
this century. His satire of the Spasmodic School is contained in
_Firmilian_ (1854), a mock-serious piece purporting to be by a member of
the school. It was at the time customary to say that Aytoun had killed the
Spasmodic School. If he had done so he would hardly have deserved well of
literature. But though it is true that the Spasmodic Poets shot up like a
rocket only to come down like the spent stick, both the rise and the fall
were due partly to whims of popular taste, while the main cause of the
fall lay in defects of the writers which satire did not make and could do
little to remedy. On the whole, _Firmilian_ was more likely to have helped
the school than to have hurt it if it had contained in itself the seeds of
long life. But the name 'spasmodic' was only too accurately descriptive of
more than its style,--unfortunately so, for both the chief members,
Sydney Dobell and Alexander Smith, possessed talents for poetry in some
respects very high.
[Sidenote: Sydney Dobell (1824-1874).]
Sydney Dobell had the misfortune to be born a member of a narrow and
intense religious sect, in which his talents caused him to be regarded as
the destined instrument for some grand design of providence. He outgrew
the sect, but never quite outgrew the education it had given him and the
ideas it had instilled. From about 1850 he devoted himself chiefly to
literature. His writings are _The Roman_ (1850), _Balder_ (1853), _Sonnets
on the War_ (1855), in which he collaborated with Alexander Smith, and
_England in Time of War_ (1856). But his health failed, and though he
lived eighteen years longer he wrote little more of consequence.
'He never weeded his garden,' wrote Dr. John Brown of him, 'and will, I
fear, be therefore strangled in his waste fertility.' This is the central
truth about Dobell. Few poets are so uneven, perhaps hardly any poet
capable of rising so high has ever sunk so low. Many passages are mere
fustian, some are outrages against all taste; but others have a sublimity
not often surpassed.
At the beginning Dobell gave promise of development which, if fulfilled,
would have led him very high indeed. In the short interval between _The
Roman_ and _Balder_ the youthful author had grown surprisingly. _The
Roman_, a fervid poem carrying on a Byronic tradition of interest in
Italy, has all the faults of youth. It is too long, and it is bombastic.
Its chief merit is width of sympathy; and it also contains here and there
hints that promise in the future reach of thought. In _Balder_ we see this
promise redeemed. It is far more forcible than _The Roman_ and it is
loaded with thought. _Balder_ was a poem of vast design. It was to be in
three parts, of which only one was ever published. The purpose was, in
the words of the author's preface, to trace 'the progress of a human being
from Doubt to Faith, from Chaos to Order. Not of Doubt incarnate to Faith
incarnate, but of a doubtful mind to a faithful mind.' The design
therefore bears a certain general resemblance to that of _Paracelsus_.
_Balder_ is not equal to that great poem. It is even more difficult while
less profound, and it is especially far less of a unity. It is, strictly
speaking, paradoxical to regard as a whole what proclaims itself as a
part; but a part of a great design may have completeness in itself, and
this _Balder_ has not.
Again, if we regard the poem in the light most favourable to it, as a
collection of passages in verse, we have to admit the most amazing
inequalities. Few passages in literature are more hideous than the
description of the monster on which Tyranny rides; but, on the other hand,
the best passages may challenge comparison with all but the greatest
poetry. Even this comparison has been sometimes made. The description of
Chamouni has been said to rival the great hymn of Coleridge, and that of
the Coliseum the celebrated stanzas of Byron on the same subject. The
comparison, especially with Coleridge, is unkind to Dobell. At his best he
cannot rival one of the most poetic minds in all literature in one of its
highest flights. Nevertheless, both passages are exceedingly good. The
subjects moreover are characteristic. Magnitude and massiveness are
congenial to Dobell, and almost necessary to draw out his best. 'Alone
among our modern poets,' says Dr. Garnett, 'he finds the sublime a
congenial element.' It is in such passages as those named, and in Balder's
magnificent vision of war, that Dobell shows the grand material of poetry
that was in him.
For this reason it might have been expected that Dobell's next volumes,
_Sonnets on the War_ and _England in Time of War_, would have been more
uniformly good. _The Roman_ proves that he had the fire of patriotism in
his veins, and many passages of his verse show that this fire was not all
spent, as most of Byron's was, to warm other nations than his own. Of all
the poets then living, Dobell had the largest share of Tennyson's
patriotic fervour and of his love for warlike themes. Nevertheless, the
_Sonnets on the War_ are of but moderate merit; and though _England in
Time of War_ contains some powerful pieces, it has all the inequality of
Dobell's earlier poetry. Dobell had learnt little of the art of
self-criticism, and whether he had the capacity to learn must remain
doubtful. He afterwards wrote a few fine poems, such as _The Magyar's
New-Year-Eve_ and _The Youth of England to Garibaldi's Legion_, but broken
health prevented him from undertaking any great work. He remains therefore
a poet great by snatches. A selection, including the passages already
mentioned, _An Evening Dream_, with its stirring ring of heroism, the
fascinating ballad, _Keith of Ravelston_, and some others, might be made,
which would greatly raise his reputation. The volume would not be large,
but the contents would be excellent.
[Sidenote: Alexander Smith (1829-1867).]
Next in importance among the Spasmodic Poets to Dobell was Alexander
Smith. He was the son of a pattern-designer of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, and
in his now little known but quietly pleasing novel, _Alfred Hagart's
Household_, he has embodied a good deal of autobiographic matter. He was
also the author of a thoughtful and well-written volume of essays,
_Dreamthorp_. But he is first and chiefly a poet. His earliest volume was
_A Life Drama_ (1853), which excited a degree of interest rarely roused by
the first work of a young author. It was warmly praised and loudly
condemned; and the result of the controversy that raged over it was to
make the author for a short time one of the most prominent writers in the
kingdom. But his fame speedily declined, and _City Poems_ (1857), though
it contains some of his best work, was coldly received. _Edwin of Deira_
(1861) was somewhat more successful, but was far from reviving the
interest which had centred in _A Life Drama_.
The present generation, which has been unjust to Dobell, has dealt still
more hardly with Alexander Smith. The Nemesis of excessive praise is
unjust depreciation, and both have been Smith's lot. He has been denied
the title of poet altogether; but he is a poet, and even a considerable
one. He shares both the defects and the excellences of Dobell, never
sinking so low, and, on the other hand, never rising as high. His
execution is unequal, he rants, he uses metaphor to excess, he is by no
means free from affectation. But though the _Life Drama_ is crude and
unequal, there is plenty of promise in it. There was ground to hope that
the spirit from which it proceeded was like a turbid torrent which would
by-and-by deposit its mud and flow on strong and clear. To those who hoped
thus _Edwin of Deira_ was disappointing. A good deal of the mud had been
deposited, the execution was more perfect, but there was less strength and
less volume of thought than might have been expected. It is in his minor
pieces and in occasional lines and passages that Smith shows best. There
is rare beauty in the melancholy close of the lyric _Barbara_ in _Horton_.
The picture of the sphinx, 'staring right on with calm eternal eyes,' has
the true touch of imagination; and so has the image of the wind smiting
'his thunder-harp of pines.' _Glasgow_ in the _City Poems_, is a strong as
well as a beautiful piece. There can be no question of the imaginative
power of this picture of the city in its cloud of smoke pierced by
sunlight:
'When sunset bathes thee in his gold,
In wreaths of bronze thy sides are rolled,
Thy smoke is dusky fire;
And, from the glory round thee poured,
A sunbeam like an angel's sword
Shivers upon a spire.
Thus have I watched thee, Terror! Dream!
While the blue night crept up the stream.'
[Sidenote: Coventry Patmore (1823-1896).]
There remain two or three considerable poets whom it is difficult to
classify. Coventry Patmore cannot be placed in either the Pre-Raphaelite
or the Spasmodic School, and though he has some points of affinity with
the poets of the intellectual movement, they are not close enough to
justify ranking him with them. Patmore is especially the poet of domestic
love. His greatest work, _The Angel in the House_ (1854-1856), was meant
to be a poem on married life. In the opening the poet congratulates
himself that he, though born so late, has had the good fortune to discover
'the first of themes sung last of all.' As he proceeded however he found
his mistake, and never carried out his design; but it imparted the
characteristic tone of quiet domestic affection to his verse. He may be
described as the Wordsworth of the home. He is seldom if ever great, but
his verse at its best has a simple sweetness, with an occasional dignity,
that is exceedingly pleasing. It is unfortunate that against the merits of
the better passages of _The Angel in the House_ there has to be set the
weakness of the letters of Jane. Patmore's purpose was to fit the thought
to the character; but merely weak thought and merely weak character have
no right to a place in poetry such as this. There is no dramatic
realisation and no humour to justify them.
_The Unknown Eros_ (1877) is a work strangely different from _The Angel
in the House_; it is more lyrical and more ambitiously imaginative; and
for this very reason it brings into greater prominence Patmore's
weaknesses. There is a frequent sense of effort. The meaning is often
obscure, and there are here and there, as in the earlier poem, surprising
lapses of taste. The poem recalls Drummond of Hawthornden, not only by the
rhythm, but also by a certain 'preciosity' of diction and imagery.
[Sidenote: The second Lord Lytton (1831-1891).]
The second Lord Lytton, best known in literature by his pseudonym of Owen
Meredith, must also be ranked among 'the unattached' of literature. He had
a distinguished diplomatic career which more than once interrupted his
pen. But, except for the intervals caused by his various ambassadorships
and his eventful tenure of the Viceroyalty of India, Lytton was, from 1855
to his death, a diligent writer. In 1855 _Clytemnestra and other Poems_
appeared, while _Marah_ was a posthumous work. The greater part of
Lytton's writings is poetical, and their total bulk is very great. It is
indeed too great for his fame, and most of his poems would be improved by
condensation. Lytton presents a singular example of heredity, which, in
his case, showed itself in a manner damaging to his reputation. We have
seen how the first Lord Lytton veered with every turn of the popular
taste. The second Lord Lytton changed his style, chameleon-like, with
almost every poet he happened to be reading. The consequence is, in the
first place, that his own style is not easily discovered; and in the
second place that he has been accused of plagiarism with more show of
reason than almost any other man of equal literary rank. It is not merely
that he echoes successively the pensive sentiment and melancholy
reflectiveness of Arnold, the rich diction of Tennyson, the headlong
abundance of Browning, the lyrical sweetness of Shelley, or that he in a
snatch or two almost paraphrases Byron. In _Lucile_, his indebtedness to
George Sand is far more extensive. It is true he avowed that he had taken
from her the story of the piece; but the story is the principal part of
it, and no writer ought to borrow quite so much from another. The fault is
a serious one, and it is reason sufficient for the belief that Owen
Meredith will never take a high place in poetry; yet his endowments were
almost great, his taste was purer than his father's, and had he been more
independent-minded he might have stood high in the second class of the
poets of the century.
[Sidenote: J. B. Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley (1835-1895).]
J. B. Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley, was a man of richer poetic gifts,
who might have done very great work had he met with popular encouragement.
He began his poetic career as early as 1859, but his first volume of
importance was _Praeterita_, issued under the pseudonym of William
Lancaster, in 1863. For the next ten years he was an active writer. Partly
his own taste and partly admiration for _Atalanta in Calydon_ induced him
to attempt the classical drama; and his two experiments, _Philoctetes_
(1866) and _Orestes_ (1867), rank among the most finished of their class.
They secured the warm approval of the best judges, but they did not become
popular. He tried novels, also without winning popularity; and after two
more experiments in verse--_Rehearsals_ (1870) and _Searching the Net_
(1873)--he almost disappeared from the ranks of authors for twenty years;
for the _Soldier of Fortune_, though bulky, can hardly be considered
important. It was the reissue in 1893 of his best pieces under the title
of _Poems Dramatic and Lyrical_ that first made Lord de Tabley's name
widely known. So marked was the success of this collection that it was
followed two years later by another, which was less successful because it
was the result of a less rigid selection.
These volumes represent Lord de Tabley at his best, and that best is very
good indeed. Such pieces as the _Hymn to Astarte_, the _Woodland Grave_
and _Jael_, would do honour to any poet. There is intense dramatic power
in the last-named piece, and a rich magnificence of style in the others. A
tendency to sameness may sometimes be detected. He has, for example, one
favourite colour, and the whole world is seen by him bathed in an amber
light. There are also here and there echoes of contemporary poets, such as
Browning, and still more, Swinburne, whose fulness of sound attracted De
Tabley. But he is an essentially independent poet, and had he been
encouraged to write he would doubtless have grown increasingly
independent. Few losses in contemporary literature are more serious than
that occasioned by his almost complete silence between 1873 and 1893, just
the years when, by reason of his age, his work ought to have been best. He
was a great man unrecognised, and the failure to recognise is sometimes
severely punished.
[Sidenote: William Morris (1834-1896).]
Most of Lord de Tabley's contemporaries by birth belong rather to the
subsequent period than to the Age of Tennyson. Even Swinburne did so,
though before 1870 he had, by the publication of _Atalanta in Calydon_
(1865), enriched English literature with one of its most perfect dramas on
the Greek model, and by the _Poems and Ballads_ (1866) had 'raised a
storm, and founded a school.' The fact that he founded a school makes him
rather the poetical leader of the present generation than a member of the
preceding one. In some ways Lord de Tabley has more affinity to this later
band than to those who were under the dominion of Carlyle and Browning and
Tennyson. He certainly shows the workings of a new spirit, and seems to
feel the old ideals insufficient; but his twenty years of literary eclipse
serve to fix him chronologically rather among the older men. For a
different reason William Morris, a man just one year older than De Tabley,
also belongs, as a poet, to this period. Morris was a man who played many
parts in life, and he played them not concurrently, but rather
successively. In his characters as high priest of domestic art and as
prophet to the Socialists he is identified with the closing quarter of the
century; while his greatest achievements in poetry belong to the third
quarter. _The Defence of Guenevere and other Poems_ (1858) was his first
volume of verse. Then after nine years came _The Life and Death of Jason_,
followed almost immediately by _The Earthly Paradise_ (1868-1870). Morris
afterwards translated the _Aeneid_ and the _Odyssey_, and he also did much
to make familiar in England the spirit of Icelandic literature. His
_Sigurd the Volsung_ (1876) is certainly the finest English poem inspired
by Scandinavia, and perhaps his greatest work.
Morris is the most prominent example in these later days of that revival
of the mediaeval spirit which was initiated by the Romanticists of the
latter part of last century, which attained its fullest flower in Scott,
and which shows itself in such varied aspects in Rossetti's poetry, in the
Pre-Raphaelite painters, and in the Oxford theologians. Morris exhibits it
in a way quite his own. Chaucer more than any one else is his master in
poetry. To him Morris reverted for the model of his verse, and the old
poet's influence is seen in the disciple's mode of conception as well as
in many turns of expression. One thing however Morris could not learn,
though Chaucer was eminently qualified to teach it, and that was the true
narrative spirit. Morris chose the narrative form, but the interest of
his poetry rarely lies in the story. He does not himself care greatly for
the story. He is never passionate; he is too calm to enter deeply into the
feelings or to be absorbed in the fortunes of his characters. The charm of
his poetry resides rather in leisurely and restful beauty of description.
In this respect it ranks high, but seldom attains absolute mastery. Nearly
all of Morris is readable and enjoyable, but few of his lines linger in
the memory, and perhaps the only one frequently quoted is that in which he
describes himself as 'the idle singer of an empty day.' Morris was more
than this, but it may be questioned whether there is enough either of the
substance of thought in his verse or of melody and pure poetic beauty to
keep it long alive.
MINOR POETS.
[Sidenote: Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848).]
Sarah Flower Adams is sure of at least a small niche in the temple of the
English poets were it but for the beautiful hymn, 'Nearer, my God, to
thee.' Her _Vivia Perpetua_ is an ill-constructed drama, partly redeemed
by fine passages.
[Sidenote: William Allingham (1824-1889).]
William Allingham was an Irish poet, of much taste, but of no great power.
His inspiration is strangely fitful and uncertain, and after his removal
to London, in consequence of the success of his earlier verses, it seemed
almost wholly to desert him. He was for a time editor of _Fraser's
Magazine_.
[Sidenote: John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895).]
John Stuart Blackie, for many years Professor of Greek in Edinburgh
University, was a very vigorous miscellaneous writer. He translated
Aeschylus, the _Iliad_ and _Faust_. He was very successful in the lighter
lyrical strain, and appears at his best in his rollicking and amusing
university songs.
[Sidenote: Robert Barnabas Brough (1828-1860).]
Robert Barnabas Brough was the author of _Songs of the Governing Classes_
(1859), a small collection of pieces, chiefly satirical, and remarkable
for their vigour, point and sincerity. Strength of feeling, clearness of
intellect and wit are his characteristics. Brough was generally very much
in earnest, but in his _Neighbour Nellie_ he showed that he could touch
lighter themes very charmingly.
[Sidenote: Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884).]
Charles Stuart Calverley, the scholarly and witty author of _Verses and
Translations_ (1862) and _Fly Leaves_ (1872), had a faculty for more
serious things, but, partly from indifference, partly because of the
accident which made great effort in his later years impossible, he never
wrote anything worthy of his talents. What he has left however is the very
best of its kind. He is one of the most skilful of translators; and his
parodies and satiric verse are excellent.
[Sidenote: Mortimer Collins (1827-1876).]
Mortimer Collins, poet and novelist, had a very happy knack for the
lighter kinds of lyrical verse, half playful and half serious. Under
pressure of circumstances he wrote too much, and the failure to 'polish
and refine' tells against a great deal of his work.
[Sidenote: William Cory (1823-1892).]
William Cory, originally Johnson, for many years one of the masters of
Eton, was the author of a small volume of Poems entitled _Ionica_ (1858),
which, after long neglect, won, in its third edition of 1891, the
attention due to thoughtfulness and scholarly expression. Cory's best
pieces, such as _Mimnermus in Church_, soar beyond the range of the minor
poet, and show that it only needed quantity to insure him a considerable
place in literature. But he wrote few such pieces, and indeed little verse
of any kind after _Ionica_.
[Sidenote: Sir Francis Hastings Doyle (1810-1888).]
Sir Francis Hastings Doyle succeeded Matthew Arnold in the chair of poetry
at Oxford. Doyle is distinguished for the spirit and the martial ring of
the ballads in which he celebrates deeds of daring. _The Red Thread of
Honour_, _The Private of the Buffs_, and _Mehrab Khan_ are pieces that
take high rank among poems inspired by sympathy with the heroism of the
soldier.
[Sidenote: Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810-1886).]
Sir Samuel Ferguson has been called the national poet of Ireland, on the
score of _Congal_, an epic published in 1872. He is really more remarkable
for his shorter pieces, some of the best of which deal with subjects not
specially Irish. He was an active contributor to the _Dublin University
Magazine_ at the beginning of the period.
[Sidenote: Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870).]
Adam Lindsay Gordon divides with Charles Harpur and Alfred Domett
(Browning's 'Waring') the honour of being laureate of the Antipodes.
Wildness in youth drove him to Australia. It is probably true that but for
the stirring and adventurous life there he never would have written
anything of note; nevertheless, what we find in his verse is rather the
spirit of the English hunting field and of English adventure the world
over, than much that is distinctively Australian.
[Sidenote: David Gray (1838-1861).]
David Gray, author of _The Luggie_, a poem on a small stream which flowed
near his home, was cut off too soon to do much in literature. His verse
however is pleasant, and it might have acquired power. It retains a
pathetic interest on account of the author's fate. He was drawn by the
hope of fame from his native village to London, caught a cold there, and
died while his poem was in process of printing.
[Sidenote: Dora Greenwell (1821-1882).]
Dora Greenwell is chiefly remarkable as a writer of religious verse, the
best of which is to be found in _Carmina Crucis_. She also wrote prose of
considerable merit.
[Sidenote: Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875).]
Robert Stephen Hawker, a clergyman who spent his life in the remote parish
of Morwenstow, in Cornwall, is best known for his _Cornish Ballads_
(1869). The spirited and stirring _Song of the Western Men_, printed as
early as 1826, and accepted by Scott as a genuine old ballad, is the most
celebrated of all his compositions. Hawker wrote also _The Quest of the
Sangraal_ (1863), a poem displaying a mysticism which must have been
deep-seated in the author's character; for it led to his reception, just
before he died, into the Roman Catholic Church.
[Sidenote: Jean Ingelow (1820-1897).]
Jean Ingelow is one of the best of recent poetesses, and has also acquired
a considerable, though a less conspicuous name as a writer of fiction. She
is best as a lyrist, and some of her poems are touched with a very fine
and true pathos. She likewise excels in the modern ballad form.
[Sidenote: Edward Lear (1812-1888).]
Edward Lear, author of the _Nonsense Rhymes_ (1861) stands high in the
very peculiar and difficult kind of writing indicated by the title of his
book. There are other writers of humorous verse, like Lewis Carroll, who
possess greater qualities, but the _Nonsense Rhymes_ are unique for rich
whimsical inventiveness. Lear was an artist as well as a writer, and
illustrated his own books.
[Sidenote: Gerald Massey (1828-1907).]
Gerald Massey is a minor poet of unusual range. His attachment to the
Christian Socialists gives a clue to his work; but in him the enthusiasm
of humanity is concentrated in an intense patriotism. Massey's martial
verse is fine, but not quite excellent. _Sir Richard Grenville's Last
Fight_ suggests comparison with Tennyson's _Revenge_; and the comparison
illustrates the difference between good art and consummate art. Neither is
Massey the equal of Doyle on this side; but he is far more varied and
copious.
[Sidenote: The Honourable Mrs. Norton (1808-1877).]
The Honourable Mrs. Norton was a grand-daughter of Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, and inherited some of the family genius. Her poetic gift was not
great, but her verse is spirited, and has frequently a ring of genuine
pathos. Her sister, Lady Dufferin, also wrote verse, which, though less
brilliant than Mrs. Norton's, is on the whole of a more poetic quality.
[Sidenote: Adelaide Anne Procter (1825-1864).]
Adelaide Anne Procter, daughter of Barry Cornwall, was a pleasing writer
of the type of Mrs. Hemans, that is to say, feminine in the less
flattering sense. There is a certain grace in her verse, but it is
altogether destitute of weight and power of thought. Most of her poems
were originally contributed to Dickens's papers, _Household Words_ and
_All the Year Round_.
[Sidenote: William Caldwell Roscoe (1823-1859).]
William Caldwell Roscoe was at once lyrist, dramatist and critic, but
failed to achieve greatness in any of these lines. If Roscoe had lived
longer he might possibly have justified the opinion of his friends; but
his actual performance, though graceful, is not weighty.
[Sidenote: William Bell Scott (1811-1890).]
William Bell Scott was a poet-painter, related to and in general sympathy
with the Pre-Raphaelites, but never a member of the brotherhood. Scott's
verse is characterised by mysticism; but mysticism in verse demands very
skilful expression, and Scott's power over language was not sufficient.
Perhaps his best poem is _The Sphinx_.
[Sidenote: Menella Bute Smedley (1820-1877).]
Menella Bute Smedley wrote both prose and verse well, and occasionally
with distinction. Though an invalid, she published several volumes of
poetry, and contributed to her sister, Mrs. Hart's _Child-World_ and
_Poems written for a Child_. Miss Smedley, like so many female writers, is
in many of her poems markedly patriotic, and, though sometimes too
rhetorical, she is, when stirred, successful in pieces of this type.
[Sidenote: George Walter Thornbury (1828-1876).]
George Walter Thornbury, historian of the buccaneers, was also a poet who,
in his _Songs of the Cavaliers and Roundheads_ (1857) showed considerable
skill in rapid and spirited narrative. The best of his later poems are
gathered up in _Legendary and Historic Ballads_ (1875).
[Sidenote: Aubrey de Vere (1814-1902).]
Aubrey de Vere, an Irish poet, has written, in the course of his long
career, a good deal of pleasing and thoughtful verse. His sonnets are
especially good, as were also his father's, but they would be still better
if they were more terse. Much of his verse is religious, and the mystical
tone of mind, indicative of the tendency which led him, as it led Hawker,
into the Roman Catholic Church, is the one most distinctive of him.