"Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth
Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen,
That labor up the hill of heav'nly truth,
The better part with Mary and with Ruth
Chosen thou hast; and they, that overween,
And at thy growing virtues fret their spleen,
No anger find in thee, but pity and ruth.
Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends
To fill thy od'rous lamp with deeds of light,
And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure
Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends
Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,
Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure."
It will be seen, that he combined with his rhymes much of the freedom
and force of blank verse. He never allows the absence of good strong
sense nor the presence of unmeaning or useless words in order to make
out the rhyme.
By printing his sonnets compactly without separating the stanzas from
each other Milton carried on his sentences, as he found desirable, from
stanza to stanza, frequently without any close at the end of a stanza,
sometimes just beginning near the end. In this case the separation of
the stanzas by spaces would evidently be absurd. Read the last five
lines of his sonnet to Cromwell:――
"Peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war: new foes arise
Threat'ning to bind our souls with sec'lar chains.――
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw."
Here, in the method of separating the stanzas by wider spaces in
printing, the phrase "new foes arise" would have been separated from
the line which follows, with which it is so intimately connected,――the
head line of the last triplet.
The author may here be allowed to say, that in his judgment in the
whole compass of English poetry there are no sonnets equal to a few of
Milton's, numbered 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22 and 23. If any one would
know, whether Milton's meditations brought out sentiments worthy of
utterance, and whether he knew how to utter them with the melody of
rhyme and at the same time with the unshackled freedom and energy of
blank verse, I leave with him for his refreshment the following lines
from his sonnet on his own Blindness:――
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask: But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve, who only stand and wait."
More recently _Wordsworth_, who died in 1850, aged 80, has followed
Milton in his application of this form of poetry to higher subjects
than that to which it was applied by Petrarch. A very great fault
however is his abolishing Milton's method of designating the stanzas
and thus showing the places of the rhymes, the pleasures of which are
gone if their places are not easily found. He wrote 282 sonnets: he
wrote too many; and they are often diffuse and languid. The following
is one of his sonnets: it is on the Pastoral Character.
"A genial hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity belong
To the neat mansion, where, his Flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.
Though meek and patient as a sheathed sword,
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong
To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart; can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, array'd in Christ's authority,
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labors all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?"
The readers of poetry ought to feel much indebted to Mr. Wordsworth for
his remarks in regard to the language of poetry, and in regard to the
value of enkindled emotions. In his judgment, there ought not to be
a distinct poetic diction, separate from the language of good prose;
the poet should aim at good sense and intelligible diction, using the
language of men, abandoning "a large portion of phrases and figures of
speech, which from father to son have long been regarded as the common
inheritance of poets," and even abstaining from many good expressions,
which bad poets have so foolishly and perpetually repeated, as to
render them disgusting. As illustrating his meaning, he quotes from a
sonnet of _Gray_;――
"In vain to me the smiling mornings shine,
And reddening Phœbus lifts his golden fire:
The birds in vain their amorous descants join,
Or cheerful fields resume their green attire:
These ears, alas! for other notes repine."
Here this false diction destroys the value of every line.
The other remark of Mr. Wordsworth is this;――"all good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of good feelings." Perhaps it might be also said,
that in addition to sensibility and impassioned expression there should
be chosen, for the highest poetry, subjects of moral dignity and
religious interest, having a close bearing on human welfare not only
for a moment but for perpetuity.