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The Poetic Principle
The Poetic Principle
In speaking of the Poetic Principle, I have no design to be either
thorough or profound. While discussing, very much at random, the essentiality
of what we call Poetry, my principal purpose will be to cite for consideration
some few of those minor English or American poems which best suit my own
taste, or which upon my own fancy have left the most definite impression. By
"minor poems" I mean, of course, poems of little length. And here in the
beginning permit me to say a few words in regard to a somewhat peculiar
principle, which, whether rightfully or wrongfully, has always had its
influence in my own critical estimate of the poem. I hold that a long poem
does not exist. I maintain that the phrase, "a long poem," is simply a flat
contradiction in terms.
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as
it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of
this elevating excitement. But all excitements are, through a psychal
necessity, transient. That degree of excitement which would entitle a poem to
be so called at all, cannot be sustained throughout a composition of any great
length. After the lapse of half an hour, at the very utmost, it flags - fails
- a revulsion ensues - and then the poem is, in effect, and in fact, no longer
such.
There are, no doubt, many who have found difficulty in reconciling the
critical dictum that the "Paradise Lost" is to be devoutly admired throughout,
with the absolute impossibility of maintaining for it, during perusal, the
amount of enthusiasm which that critical dictum would demand. The great work,
in fact, is to be regarded as poetical, only when, losing sight of that vital
requisite in all works of Art, Unity, we view it merely as a series of minor
poems. If, to preserve its Unity - its totality of effect or impression - we
read it (as would be necessary) at a single sitting, the result is but a
constant alternation of excitement and depression. After a passage of what we
feel to be true poetry, there follows, inevitably, a passage of platitude
which no critical prejudgment can force us to admire; but if, upon completing
the work, we read it again, omitting the first book (that is to say,
commencing with the second), we shall be surprised at now finding that
admirable which we before condemned - that damnable which we had previously so
much admired. It follows from all this that the ultimate, aggregate, or
absolute effect of even the best epic under the sun is a nullity; - and this
is precisely the fact.
In regard to the "Iliad," we have, if not positive proof, at least very
good reason for believing it intended as a series of lyrics; but, granting the
epic intention, I can say only that the work is based in an imperfect sense of
art. The modern epic is, of the supposititious ancient model, but an
inconsiderate and blindfold imitation. But the day of these artistic anomalies
is over. If, at any time, any very long poems were popular in reality - which
I doubt - it is at least clear that no very long poem will ever be popular
again.
That the extent of a poetical work is, ceteris paribus, the measure of
its merit, seems undoubtedly, when we thus state it, a proposition
sufficiently absurd - yet we are indebted for it to the Quarterly Reviews.
Surely there can be nothing in mere size, abstractly considered - there can be
nothing in mere bulk, so far as a volume is concerned which has so
continuously elicited admiration from these saturnine pamphlets! A mountain,
to be sure, by the mere sentiment of physical magnitude which it conveys, does
impress us with a sense of the sublime - but no man is impressed after this
fashion by the material grandeur of even "The Columbiad." Even the Quarterlies
have not instructed us to be so impressed by it. As yet, they have not
insisted on our estimating Lamartine by the cubic foot, or Pollok by the pound
- but what else are we to infer from their continual prating about "sustained
effort"? If, by "sustained effort," any little gentleman has accomplished an
epic, let us frankly commend him for the effort, - if this indeed be a thing
commendable, - but let us forbear praising the epic on the effort`s account.
It is to be hoped that common sense, in the time to come, will prefer deciding
upon a work of Art, rather by the impression it makes - by the effect it
produces - than by the time it took to impress the effect, or by the amount of
"sustained effort" which had been found necessary in effecting the impression.
The fact is, that perseverance is one thing and genius quite another; nor can
all the Quarterlies in Christendom confound them. By and by, this proposition,
with many which I have been just urging, will be received as self - evident.
In the mean time, by being generally condemned as falsities, they will not be
essentially damaged as truths.
On the other hand, it is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue
brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and
then producing a brilliant or vivid, never produces a profound or enduring,
effect. There must be the steady pressing down of the stamp upon the wax.
Beranger has wrought innumerable things, pungent and spirit - stirring; but,
in general, they have been too imponderous to stamp themselves deeply into the
public opinion, and thus, as so many feathers of fancy, have been blown aloft
only to be whistled down the wind.
A remarkable instance of the effect of undue brevity in depressing a poem
- in keeping it out of the popular view - is afforded by the following
exquisite little serenade: -
"I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright:
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Hath led me - who knows how! -
To thy chamber - window, Sweet!
"The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream;
And the champak odors fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale`s complaint,
It dies upon her heart,
As I must on thine,
Oh, beloved as thou art!
"Oh, lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;
Oh! press it to thine own again,
Where it will break at last!"
Very few, perhaps, are familiar with these lines - yet no less a poet
than Shelley is their author. There warm, yet delicate and ethereal
imagination will be appreciated by all; but by none so thoroughly as by him
who has himself arisen from sweet dreams of one beloved to bathe in the
aromatic air of a southern midsummer night.
One of the finest poems by Willis - the very best, in my opinion, which
he has ever written - has, no doubt, through this same defect of undue
brevity, been kept back from its proper position, not less in the critical
than in the popular view.
"The shadows lay along Broadway,
`Twas near the twilight - tide -
And slowly there a lady fair
Was walking in her pride.
Alone walked she; but, viewlessly,
Walked spirits at her side.
"Peace charmed the street beneath her feet,
And Honor charmed the air;
And all astir looked kind on her,
And called her good as fair;
For all God ever gave to her
She kept with chary care.
"She kept with care her beauties rare
From lovers warm and true, -
For her heart was cold to all but gold,
And the rich came not to woo, -
But honored well are charms to sell
If priests the selling do.
"Now walking there was one more fair -
A slight girl, lily - pale;
And she had unseen company
To make the spirit quail:
`Twixt Want and Scorn she walked forlorn,
And nothing could avail.
"No mercy now can clear her brow
For this world`s peace to pray;
For, as love`s wild prayer dissolved in air,
Her woman`s heart gave way! -
But the sin forgiven by Christ in Heaven
By man is cursed always!"
In this composition we find it difficult to recognize the Willis who has
written so many mere "verses of society." The lines are not only richly ideal,
but full of energy, while they breathe an earnestness - an evident sincerity
of sentiment - for which we look in vain throughout all the other works of
this author.
While the epic mania - while the idea that, to merit in poetry, prolixity
is indispensable - has, for some years past, been gradually dying out of the
public mind by mere dint of its own absurdity - we find it succeeded by a
heresy too palpably false to be long tolerated, but one which, in the brief
period it has already endured, may be said to have accomplished more in the
corruption of our Poetical Literature than all its other enemies combined. I
allude to the heresy of The Didactic. It has been assumed, tacitly and
avowedly, directly and indirectly, that the ultimate object of all Poetry is
Truth. Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is
the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged. We Americans, especially, have
patronized this happy idea; and we Bostonians, very especially have developed
it in full. We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for
the poem`s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to
confess ourselves radically wanting in the true Poetic dignity and force; but
the simple fact is, that, would we but permit ourselves to look into our own
souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither
exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble,
than this very poem - this poem per se - this poem which is a poem and nothing
more - this poem written solely for the poem`s sake.
With as deep a reverence for the True as ever inspired the bosom of man,
I would, nevertheless, limit in some measure its modes of inculcation. I would
limit to enforce them. I would not enfeeble them by dissipation. The demands
of Truth are severe; she has no sympathy with the myrtles. All that which is
so indispensable in Song is precisely all that with which she has nothing
whatever to do. It is but making her a flaunting paradox to wreathe her in
gems and flowers. In enforcing a truth we need severity rather than
efflorescence of language. We must be simple, precise, terse. We must be cool,
calm, unimpassioned. In a word, we must be in that mood, which, as nearly as
possible, is the exact converse of the poetical. He must be blind, indeed, who
does not perceive the radical and chasmal differences between the truthful and
the poetical modes of inculcation. He must be theory - mad beyond redemption
who, in spite of these differences, shall still persist in attempting to
reconcile the obstinate oils and waters of Poetry and Truth.
Dividing the world of mind into its three most immediately obvious
distinctions, we have the Pure Intellect, Taste, and the Moral Sense. I place
Taste in the middle, because it is just this position which in mind it
occupies. It holds intimate relations with either extreme, but from the Moral
Sense is separated by so faint a difference that Aristotle has not hesitated
to place some of its operations among the virtues themselves. Nevertheless, we
find the offices of the trio marked with a sufficient distinction. Just as the
intellect concerns itself with Truth, so Taste informs us of the Beautiful,
while the Moral Sense is regardful of Duty. Of this latter, while Conscience
teaches the obligation, and Reason the expediency, Taste contents herself with
displaying the charms: - waging war upon Vice solely on the ground of her
deformity - her disproportion - her animosity to the fitting, to the
appropriate, to the harmonious - in a word, to Beauty.
An immortal instinct, deep within the spirit of man, is thus, plainly, a
sense of the Beautiful. This it is which administers to his delight in the
manifold forms, and sounds, and odors, and sentiments, amid which he exists.
And just as the lily is repeated in the lake, or the eyes of Amaryllis in the
mirror, so is the mere oral or written repetition of these forms, and sounds,
and colors, and odors, and sentiments, a duplicate source of delight. But this
mere repetition is not poetry. He who shall simply sing, with however glowing
enthusiasm, or with however vivid a truth of description, of the sights, and
sounds, and odors, and colors, and sentiments, which greet him in common with
all mankind - he, I say, has yet failed to prove his divine title. There is
still a something in the distance which he has been unable to attain. We have
still a thirst unquenchable, to allay which he has not shown us the crystal
springs. This thirst belongs to the immortality of Man. It is at once a
consequence and an indication of his perennial existence. It is the desire of
the moth for the star. It is no mere appreciation of the Beauty before us, but
a wild effort to reach the Beauty above. Inspired by an ecstatic prescience of
the glories beyond the grave, we struggle, by multiform combinations among the
things and thoughts of Time, to attain a portion of that Loveliness whose very
elements, perhaps, appertain to eternity alone. And thus when by Poetry - or
when by Music, the most entrancing of the Poetic moods - we find ourselves
melted into tears not as the Abbate Gravia supposes through excess of
pleasure, but through a certain petulant, impatient sorrow at our inability to
grasp now, wholly, here on earth, at once and forever, those divine and
rapturous joys, of which through the poem, or through the music, we attain to
but brief and indeterminate glimpses.
The struggle to apprehend the supernal Loveliness - this struggle, on the
part of souls fittingly constituted - has given to the world all that which it
(the world) has ever been enabled at once to understand and to feel as poetic.
The Poetic Sentiment, of course, may develop itself in various modes - in
Painting, in Sculpture, in Architecture, in the Dance - very especially in
Music, - and very peculiarly and with a wide field, in the composition of the
Landscape Garden. Our present theme, however, has regard only to its
manifestation in words. And here let me speak briefly on the topic of rhythm.
Contenting myself with the certainty that Music, in its various modes of
metre, rhythm, and rhyme, is of so vast a moment in Poetry as never to be
wisely rejected - is so vitally important an adjunct, that he is simply silly
who declines its assistance - I will not now pause to maintain its absolute
essentiality. It is in Music, perhaps, that the soul most nearly attains the
great end for which, when inspired by the Poetic Sentiment, it struggles - the
creation of supernal Beauty. It may be, indeed, that here this sublime end is,
now and then, attained in fact. We are often made to feel, with a shivering
delight, that from an earthly harp are stricken notes which cannot have been
unfamiliar to the angels. And thus there can be little doubt that in the union
of Poetry with Music in its popular sense we shall find the widest field for
the Poetic development. The old Bards and Minnesingers had advantages which we
do not possess - and Thomas Moore, singing his own songs, was, in the most
legitimate manner, perfecting them as poems.
To recapitulate, then: - I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as
The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty. Its sole arbiter is Taste. With the
Intellect or with the Conscience, it has only collateral relations. Unless
incidentally, it has no concern whatever either with Duty or with Truth.
A few words, however, in explanation. That pleasure which is at once the
most pure, the most elevating, and the most intense, is derived, I maintain,
from the contemplation of the Beautiful. In the contemplation of Beauty we
alone find it possible to attain that pleasurable elevation, or excitement, of
the soul, which we recognize as the Poetic Sentiment, and which is so easily
distinguished from Truth, which is the satisfaction of the Reason, or from
Passion, which is the excitement of the Heart. I make Beauty, therefore -
using the word as inclusive of the sublime, - I make Beauty the province of
the poem, simply because it is an obvious rule of Art that effects should be
made to spring as directly as possible from their causes - no one as yet
having been weak enough to deny that the peculiar elevation in question is at
least most readily attainable in the poem. It by no means follows, however,
that the incitements of Passion, or the precepts of Duty, or even the lessons
of Truth, may not be introduced into a poem and with advantage; for they may
subserve, incidentally, in various ways, the general purposes of the work; but
the true artist will always contrive to tone them down in proper subjection to
that Beauty which is the atmosphere and the real essence of the poem.
I cannot better introduce the few poems which I shall present for your
consideration, than by the citation of the "Proem" to Mr. Longfellow`s "Waif":
"The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
"I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o`er me,
That my soul cannot resist:
"A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
"Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.
"Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.
"For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life`s endless toil and endeavor;
And to - night I long for rest.
"Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
"Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.
"Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.
"Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
"And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away."
With no great range of imagination, these lines have been justly admired
for their delicacy of expression. Some of the images are very effective.
Nothing can be better than -
"the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time."
The idea of the last quatrain is also very effective. The poem, on the
whole, however, is chiefly to be admired for the graceful insouciance of its
metre, so well in accordance with the character of the sentiments, and
especially for the ease of the general manner. This "ease," or naturalness, in
a literary style, it has long been the fashion to regard as ease in appearance
alone - as a point of really difficult attainment. But not so; a natural
manner is difficult only to him who should never meddle with it - to the
unnatural. It is but the result of writing with the understanding, or with the
instinct, that the tone, in composition, should always be that which the mass
of mankind would adopt - and must perpetually vary, of course, with the
occasion. The author who, after the fashion of the "North American Review,"
should be, upon all occasions, merely, "quiet," must necessarily, upon many
occasions, be simply silly, or stupid; and has no more right to be considered
"easy," or "natural," than a Cockney exquisite, or than the sleeping Beauty in
the wax - works.
Among the minor poems of Bryant, none has so much impressed me as the one
which he entitles "June." I quote only a portion of it: -
"There, through the long, long summer hours,
The golden light should lie,
And thick, young herbs and groups of flowers
Stand in their beauty by.
The oriole should build and tell
His love - tale, close beside my cell;
The idle butterfly
Should rest him there, and there be heard
The housewife - bee and humming - bird.
"And what, if cheerful shouts at noon,
Come, from the village sent,
Or songs of maids, beneath the moon,
With fairy laughter blent?
And what, if in the evening light,
Betrothed lovers walk in sight
Of my low monument?
I would the lovely scene around
Might know no sadder sight nor sound.
"I know that I no more should see
The season`s glorious show,
Nor would its brightness shine for me,
Nor its wild music flow;
But if, around my place of sleep,
The friends I love should come to weep,
They might not haste to go.
Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom
Should keep them, lingering by my tomb.
"These to their softened hearts should bear
The thought of what has been,
And speak of one who cannot share
The gladness of the scene;
Whose part, in all the pomp that fills
The circuit of the summer hills,
Is - that his grave is green;
And deeply would their hearts rejoice
To hear again his living voice."
The rhythmical flow, here, is even voluptuous - nothing could be more
melodious. The poem has always affected me in a remarkable manner. The intense
melancholy, which seem to well up, perforce, to the surface of all the poet`s
cheerful sayings about his grave, we find thrilling us to the soul, while
there is the truest poetic elevation in the thrill. The impression left is one
of a pleasurable sadness.
And if, in the remaining compositions which I shall introduce to you,
there be more or less of a similar tone always apparent, let me remind you
that (how or why we know not) this certain taint of sadness is inseparably
connected with all the higher manifestations of true Beauty. It is,
nevertheless,
"A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain."
The taint of which I speak is clearly perceptible even in a poem so full
of brilliancy and spirit as the "Health" of Edward C. Pinkney: -
"I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements
And kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air,
`Tis less of earth than heaven.
"Her every tone is music`s own,
Like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody
Dwells ever in her words;
The coinage of her heart are they,
And from her lips each flows
As one may see the burdened bee
Forth issue from the rose.
"Affections are as thoughts to her,
The measures of her hours;
Her feelings have the fragrancy,
The freshness of young flowers;
And lovely passions, changing oft,
So fill her, she appears
The image of themselves by turns, -
The idol of past years!
"Of her bright face one glance will trace
A picture on the brain,
And of her voice in echoing hearts
A sound must long remain;
But memory, such as mine of her,
So very much endears,
When death is nigh, my latest sigh
Will not be life`s, but hers.
"I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragon -
Her health! and would on earth there stood
Some more of such a frame,
That life might be all poetry,
And weariness a name."
It was the misfortune of Mr. Pinkney to have been born too far south. Had
he been a New Englander, it is probable that he would have been ranked as the
first of American lyrists by that magnanimous cabal which has so long
controlled the destinies of American Letters, in conducting the thing called
the "North American Review." The poem just cited is especially beautiful; but
the poetic elevation which it induces we must refer chiefly to our sympathy in
the poet`s enthusiasm. We pardon his hyperboles for the evident earnestness
with which they are uttered.
It was by no means my design, however, to expatiate upon the merits of
what I should read you. These will necessarily speak for themselves.
Boccalini, in his "Advertisements from Parnassus," tells us that Zoilus once
presented Apollo a very caustic criticism upon a very admirable book;
whereupon the god asked him for the beauties of the work. He replied that he
only busied himself about the errors. On hearing this, Apollo, handing him a
sack of unwinowed wheat, bade him pick out all the chaff for his reward.
Now this fable answers very well as a hit at the critics; but I am by no
means sure that the god was in the right. I am by no means certain that the
true limits of the critical duty are not grossly misunderstood. Excellence, in
a poem especially, may be considered in the light of an axiom, which need only
be properly put, to become self - evident. It is not excellence if it requires
to be demonstrated as such; and thus, to point out too particularly the merits
of a work of Art, is to admit that they are not merits altogether.
Among the "Melodies" of Thomas Moore, is one whose distinguished
character as a poem proper seems to have been singularly left out of view. I
allude to his lines beginning: "Come, rest in this bosom." The intense energy
of their expression is not surpassed by anything in Byron. There are two of
the lines in which a sentiment is conveyed that embodies the all in all of the
divine passion of love - a sentiment which, perhaps, has found its echo in
more, and in more passionate, human hearts than any other single sentiment
ever embodied in words: -
"Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,
Though the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;
Here still is the smile than no cloud can o`ercast,
And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.
"Oh! what was love made for, if `tis not the same
Through joy and through torment, through glory and shame?
I know not, I ask not, if guilt`s in that heart,
I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.
"Thou hast called me thy angel in moments of bliss,
And thy angel I`ll be, `mid the horrors of this, -
Through the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,
And shield thee, and save thee, - or perish there too!"
It has been the fashion, of late days, to deny Moore imagination, while
granting him fancy - a distinction originating with Coleridge - than whom no
man more fully comprehended the great powers of Moore. The fact is that the
fancy of this poet so far predominates over all his other faculties, and over
the fancy of all other men, as to have induced, very naturally, the idea that
he is fanciful only. But never was there a greater mistake. Never was a
grosser wrong done the fame of a true poet. In the compass of the English
language I can call to mind no poem more profoundly, more weirdly imaginative,
in the best sense, than the lines commencing: "I would I were by that dim
lake," which are the composition of Thomas Moore. I regret that I am unable to
remember them.
One of the noblest - and, speaking of fancy, one of the most singularly
fanciful - of modern poets, was Thomas Hood. His "Fair Inesp" had always, for
me, an inexpressible charm: -
"O saw ye not fair Ines?
She`s gone into the West,
To dazzle when the sun is down,
And rob the world of rest;
She took our daylight with her,
The smiles that we love best,
With morning blushes on her cheek,
And pearls upon her breast.
"O turn again, fair Ines,
Before the fall of night,
For fear the moon should shine alone,
And stars unrivalled bright;
And blessed will the lover be
That walks beneath their light,
And breathes the love against thy cheek
I dare not even write!
"Would I had been, fair Ines,
That gallant cavalier,
Who rode so gayly by thy side,
And whispered thee so near!
Were there no bonny dames at home,
Or no true lovers here,
That he should cross the seas to win
The dearest of the dear?
"I saw thee, lovely Ines,
Descend along the shore,
With bands of noble gentlemen,
And banners waved before;
And gentle youth and maidens gay,
And snowy plumes they wore;
It would have been a beauteous dream -
If it had been no more!
"Alas, alas, fair Ines!
She went away with song,
With Music waiting on her steps,
And shoutings of the throng;
But some were sad and felt no mirth,
But only Music`s wrong,
In sounds that sang Farewell, Farewell,
To her you`ve loved so long.
"Farewell, farewell, fair Ines!
That vessel never before
So fair a lady on its deck,
Nor danced so light bore, -
Alas, for pleasure on the sea,
And sorrow on the shore!
The smile that blest one lover`s heart
Has broken many more!"
"The Haunted House," by the same author, is one of the truest poems ever
written; one of the truest, one of the most unexceptionable, one of the most
thoroughly artistic both in its theme and in its execution. It is, moreover,
powerfully ideal, imaginative. I regret that its length renders it unsuitable
for the purposes of this Lecture. In place of it, permit me to offer the
universally appreciated "Bridge of Sighs."
"One more Unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!
"Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care:
Fashioned so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
"Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing
"Touch her not scornfully;
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her, -
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.
"Make no deep scrutiny
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful:
Past all dishonor,
Death has left on her
Only the beautiful.
"Still,for all slips of hers,
One of Eve`s family -
Wipe those poor lips of hers
Oozing so clammily,
"Loop up her tresses
Escaped from the comb,
Her fair auburn tresses;
Whilst wonderment guesses
Where was her home?
"Who was her father?
Who was her mother?
Had she a sister?
Had she a brother?
Or was there a dearer one
Still, and a nearer one
Yet, than all other?
"Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!
Oh, it was pitiful!
Near a whole city full,
Home she had none.
"Sisterly, brotherly,
Fatherly, motherly
Feelings had changed;
Love, by harsh evidence,
Thrown from its eminence;
Even God`s providence
Seeming estranged.
"Where the lamps quiver
So far in the river,
With many a light
From window and casement,
From garret to basement,
She stood, with amazement,
Houseless by night.
"The bleak wind of March
Made her tremble and shiver,
But not the dark arch,
Or the black flowing river:
"Mad from life`s history,
Glad to death`s mystery,
Swift to be hurled -
Anywhere, anywhere
Out of the world!
"In she plunged boldly,
No matter how coldly
The rough river ran, -
Over the brink of it,
Picture it - think of it,
Dissolute man!
Lave in it, drink of it,
Then, if you can!
"Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashioned so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
"Ere her limbs frigidly
Stiffen too rigidly,
Decently - kindly -
Smoothe and compose them:
And her eyes, close them,
Staring so blindly!
"Dreadfully staring
Through muddy impurity,
As when with the daring
Last look of despairing
Fixed on futurity.
"Perishing gloomily,
Spurred by contumely,
Cold inhumanity,
Burning insanity,
Into her rest. -
Cross her hands humbly,
As if praying dumbly,
Over her breast!
"Owning her weakness.
Her evil behavior,
And leaving, with meekness,
Her sins to her Saviour!"
The vigor of this poem is no less remarkable than its pathos. The
versification, although carrying the fanciful to the very verge of the
fantastic, is nevertheless admirably adapted to the wild insanity which is the
thesis of the poem.
Among the minor poems of Lord Byron, is one which has never received from
the critics the praise which it undoubtedly deserves: -
"Though the day of my destiny`s over,
And the star of my fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find;
Though thy soul with my grief was acquainted,
It shrunk not to share it with me,
And the love which my spirit hath painted
It never hath found but in thee.
"Then when nature around me is smiling,
The last smile which answers to mine,
I do not believe it beguiling,
Because it reminds me of thine;
And when winds are at war with the ocean,
As the breasts I believed in with me,
If their billows excite an emotion,
It is that they bear me from thee.
"Though the rock of my last hope is shivered,
And its fragments are sunk in the wave,
Though I feel that my soul is delivered
To pain - it shall not be its slave.
There is many a pang to pursue me;
They may crush, but they shall not contemn;
They may torture, but shall not subdue me;
`Tis of thee that I think - not of them.
"Though human, thou didst not deceive me;
Though woman, thou didst not forsake;
Though loved, thou forborest to grieve me;
Though slandered, thou never couldst shake;
Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me;
Though parted, it was not to fly;
Though watchful, `twas not to defame me;
Nor mute, that the world might belie.
"Yet I blame not the world, nor despise it,
Nor the war of the many with one -
If my soul was not fitted to prize it,
`T was folly not sooner to shun;
And if dearly that error hath cost me,
And more than I once could foresee,
I have found that, whatever it lost me,
It could not deprive me of thee.
"From the wreck of the past, which hath perished,
Thus much I at least may recall:
It hath taught me that what I most cherished
Deserved to be dearest of all.
In the desert a fountain is springing,
In the wide waste there still is a tree,
And a bird in the solitude singing,
Which speaks to my spirit of thee."
Although the rhythm here is one of the most difficult, the versification
could scarcely be improved. No nobler theme ever engaged the pen of poet. It
is the soul - elevating idea, that no man can consider himself entitled to
complain of Fate while, in his adversity, he still retains the unwavering love
of woman.
From Alfred Tennyson - although in perfect sincerity I regard him as the
noblest poet that ever lived - I have left myself time to cite only a very
brief specimen. I call him, and think him, the noblest of poets, not because
the impressions he produces are, at all times, the most profound, not because
the poetical excitement which he induces is, at all times, the most intense,
but because it is, at all times the most ethereal - in other words, the most
elevating and the most pure. No poet is so little of the earth, earthy. What I
am about to read is from his last long poem, "The Princess": -
"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
"Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail
That brings our friends up from the underworld;
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
"Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half - awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
"Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more."
Thus, although in a very cursory and imperfect manner, I have endeavored
to convey to you my conception of the Poetic Principle. It has been my purpose
to suggest that, while this Principle itself is, strictly and simply, the
Human Aspiration for Supernal Beauty, the manifestation of the Principle is
always found in an elevating excitement of the Soul, quite independent of that
passion which is the intoxication of the Heart, or of that Truth which is the
satisfaction of the Reason. For, in regard to Passion, alas! its tendency is
to degrade rather than elevate the Soul. Love, on the contrary - Love, the
true, the divine Eros, the Uranian as distinguished from the Dionaean Venus -
is unquestionably the purest and truest of all poetical themes. And in regard
to Truth - if, to be sure, through the attainment of a truth we are led to
perceive a harmony where none was apparent before, we experience, at once the
true poetical effect; but this effect is referable to the harmony alone, and
not in the least degree to the truth which merely served to render the harmony
manifest.
We shall reach, however, more immediately a distinct conception of what
the true Poetry is, by mere reference to a few of the simple elements which
induce in the Poet himself the true poetical effect. He recognizes the
ambrosia, which nourishes his soul, in the bright orbs that shine in Heaven,
in the volutes of the flower, in the clustering of low shrubberies, in the
waving of the grain - fields, in the slanting of the tall, Eastern trees, in
the blue distance of mountains, in the grouping of clouds, in the twinkling of
half - hidden brooks, in the gleaming of silver rivers, in the repose of
sequestered lakes, in the star - mirroring depths of lonely wells. He
perceives it in the songs of birds, in the harp of Aeolus, in the sighing of
the night - wind, in the repining voice of the forest, in the surf that
complains to the shore, in the fresh breath of the woods, in the scent of the
violet, in the voluptuous perfume of the hyacinth, in the suggestive odor that
comes to him at eventide from far - distant, undiscovered islands, over dim
oceans, illimitable and unexplored. He owns it in all noble thoughts, in all
unworldly motives, in all holy impulses, in all chivalrous, generous, and self
- sacrificing deeds. He feels it in the beauty of woman, in the grace of her
step, in the lustre of her eye, in the melody of her voice, in her soft
laughter, in her sigh, in the harmony of the rustling of her robes. He deeply
feels it in her winning endearments, in her burning enthusiasms, in her gentle
charities, in her meek and devotional endurances; but above all - ah! far
above all - he kneels to it, he worships it in the faith, in the purity, in
the strength, in the altogether divine majesty of her love.
Let me conclude by the recitation of yet another brief poem - one very
different in character from any that I have before quoted. It is by
Motherwell, and is called "The Song of the Cavalier." With our modern and
altogether rational ideas of the absurdity and impiety of warfare, we are not
precisely in that frame of mind best adapted to sympathize with the
sentiments, and thus to appreciate the real excellence, of the poem. To do
this fully, we must identify ourselves, in fancy, with the soul of the old
cavalier.
"Then mounte! then mounte, brave gallants, all,
And don your helmes amaine:
Deathe`s couriers, Fame and Honor, call
Us to the field againe.
No shrewish teares shall fill our eye
When the sword - hilt`s in our hand;
Heart - whole we`ll part and no whit sighe
For the fayrest of the land;
Let piping swaine, and craven wight,
Thus weepe and puling crye,
Our business is like men to fight,
And hero - like to die!"
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