The Sunday Oregonian., August 01, 1909, SECTION SIX, Page 4, Image 56

THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAS, PORTLAND. AUGUST 1. 1909.
0
ILOBB
Alfred
Tennysom
J) Da
CENTENARY OF THE "SWEET LAUREATE THE HUMAN HEART TO
BE UEJLil!il5is?ATiiU THIS-WfifiJV...
JLJT APPRECIATION BY ASDRBW
LAXG.
THIS life and work of Tennyson pre
sent something like the normal type
of what, in circumstances as for-
. tumta as mortals may expect, the life
and work of a modern poet ought to be.
A modern poet, one says, because even
poetry is now affected by the division
of labor. We do not look to the poet for
a large share, fa the practical activities
of existence: we do not expect him. like
Aeschylus and Sophocles, i Theognis and
AJo&eus. to take a conspicuous part in
politics and war; or even, as In the age
of Anne, to shine among wits and in so
ciety. Life has become, perhaps, too spe
cialised for. such multifarious activities.
Indeed, even In ancient days, as a Celtic
proverb and as the picture of life In the
Homerio epics prove, the poet was al
ready a man apart not foremost among
statesmen and rather backward among
warriors. If we agree with a not unpop
ular opinion, the poet ought to be a kind
of "Titanic" force, wrecking himself on
his own passions and on the nature of
things, as did Byron, Burns, Marlowe
and Musset.
But Tennyson's career followed lines
really more normal, the lines of the life
of Wordsworth, wisdom and self-control
directing the course of a long, sane,
round and fortunate existence. The great
physical strength which Is commonly the
basis of great mental vigor was enot
ruined In Tennyson by poverty and pas
sion, as In the case of Burns, nor in
forced literary labor, as In those of Scott
and Dickens. For long he was poor, like
Wordsworth and Southey, but never des
titute. He made his early effort; he had
his time of great sorrow, and trial, and
apparent failure. With practical wisdom
he conquered circumstances; he became
eminent; he outlived reaction against his
genius; he died In the fullness of a
happy age and of renown.
This full-orbed life, with not a few
years of sorrow and stress. Is what na
ture seems to Intend for the career of
a divine minstrel. , If Tennyson missed
the "one crowded hour-of glorious life."
he had not to be content In "an age
without a name."
It Is, for "tiie days that remain," to
bear witness to his real place in the
great hierarchy, amongst whom Dante
boldly yet Justly ranked himself. But if
we look at Tennyson's work In a two
fold aspect: Here, on the exquisite art
In which, throughout, his verse is
i w .
GREAT MEN FOR THREE GENERATIONS
HAVE PRAISED HIS VALUED LABORS
He Is decidedly the first of our living poets. William Wordsworth.
Take my word for It, he is a noble fellow, every inch of him. Bayard
Taylor.
Poet! I come to touch thy lance with mine;
Not as a knight, who on the listed field
Of tourney touched his adversary's shield
In token of defiance, but in sign
Of homage to the mastery, which is thine.
In English song; nor will I keep concealed.
And voiceless as a rivulet frost-congealed.
My admiration for thy verse divine.
Not of the howling dervishes of song.
Who craze the brain with their delirious dance.
Art thou, O sweet historian of the heart!
Therefore to thee the laurel leaves belong,
To thee our love and our allegiance.
For thy allegiance to the poet's art.
, H. W. Longfellow.
T do not meet. In these late decades, such company over a pipe.
Thomas Carlyle.
Simplicity and stateliness were vital in the texture of his poetry.
Stopford Brooke.
Others, It may be, touched a note more strong.
Scaled loftier heights, or glowed with fiercer rage;
But who like thee could stay our modern Doubt? i
Or soothe the sufferers with a tenderer heart?
Or dress gray legends with such perfect grace?
Or nerve life's world-worn pilgrims for their part?
Who, since our English tongue first grew, has stirred
More souls to noble effort by his word? Lewis Morris.
One sees qualities in him that predict more than a Wordsworth's
fame. David Masson.
Of poetry illustrious and consummate: of friendship noble and
sincere. Robert Browning.
Fairer far than the morning star, and sweeter far than the songs that
rang
Loud through Heaven from the choral Seven, when all the stars of the
morning sang. ,
Shines the song that we loved so long since first such love in us
flamed and sprang. A. C Swinburne.
Take away Hawthorne's bashfulness. and let him talk easily and
fast, and you would have a pretty good Tennyson. R. W. Emerson.
He shows how one can be royal laureate, quite elegant and "aristo
cratic." and a little queer and affected, and at the same time perfectly
manly nd natural. Walt Whitman.
When, like light withdrawn from earth to heaven.
Your glorious gloaming fades into the sky.
We. looking upward, shall behold you there.
Shining among the young, unaging stars. Alfred Austin.
Tennyson's poetry is the newspaper of his era, and he the supreme
Journalist of the time. It Is not that he has been the mere reporter
or chronicler of passing events, but he has been an assiduous Commen
tator on them. P. C. Graham.
I call him, and think him. the noblest of poets not because the Im
pressions he produces are. at all times, the most profound not in that
the poetical excitement which he produces is. at all times, the most in
tensebut because he 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. Edgar Allen Poe.
We of the New World clasp hands with the Old,
In newer fervor and with firmer hold
And nobler fellowship.
O Master-Singer, with the finger tip
Of death laid thus on thy melodious lip.
All ages thou hast honored with thine art.
And ages yet unborn, thou wilt be part -
Of all songs pure and true.
Thine now the universal homage due
From Old and New. World. James Whitcomb Riley.
"BORN A POET, HE LOOKED A POET;" HIS
STRENGTH AND TRAITS AND AIM.
Plx feet high, broad-chested and strong - limbed: his face Shakes
pearean with deep eyelids; his forehead ample, crowned with dark wavy
hair- his head finely poised; his hand the admiration of sculptors, long
fingers with square tips, soft as a child's, but of great size and strength.
Hallam Tennyson.
I am always a little disappointed with the exterior of our great poet.
In spite of his eyes, which are very fine, but his head and face, striking
and dignified as they are. are almost too ponderous and massive for
beauty in so young a man: and every now and then there is a slight
sarcastic expression about his mouth. Fanny Kemble.
He was a poet from the first, feeling himself born (as had Milton
and Keats) to convince the world of the eternal truth of love and eaty
"For me verses have no other aim than to call into life nobler and
better sentiments than we feel and express in every-day life.
He lacked Byronic vigor and the bluff manliness of Sir Walter but
he stood full as close to nature as Wordsworth's self, his me lodles are
as liquid as Coleridge's, his songs as pure as Shelley s. and his color as
deep and splendid al Keats'. "Color, like the dawn, flows over the hor
izon from his pencil." Emerson.
He Is picturesque, rather than statuesque; ornate rather than severe.
With rich imagery, pure poetic diction, and genuine Inspiration, he yet
Wt nothing chance; in the minutiae of finish he was as true a master
workman as Horace or Melssonier.
But neither skill nor scholarship Is so Precious or so jf. "
work as the peace and courage, the hope and faith, which it breathes.
Hallam Tennyson. w
It Is said Tennyson failed of the loftier note o ""V'""-
be true it is equally true that where crowning was .""
nvson was an oVen fount of perpetual delight. It is h "mied hlmse"
and large-heartednexs. the intensity with which he Identified himself
ni?hh,sScountry'. .rt. and Interest h.r A"?'or21 "larger
v noetic Kenius. wni.u new "
a ia nurei
...uif M,un nprhnni nnv nafit of his century.
He saw evils and knew them, but looked for their eradication
through the development of the individual rather than through any rad
ical break with the established order.
Tet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs
And the thoughts of men are wlden'd with the process of the suns.
clothed, the lucid beauty of the form, the
melody almost audible as music, the mys
terious skill by which the words ud
constantly strike as the inevitable words
(and hence, unforgettable), the subtle al
lusive touches, by which a secondary im
age is suggested to enrich the leading
thought, as the harmonic ".partlals" give
richness to the- note struck upon the
string: There, when we think of the vast
fertility in subject and treatment, united
with happy selection of mo'tive, the wide
range of character, the dramatic force
of impersonation, the pathos in every va
riety, the mastery over the comic and
the tragic alike; above all, perhaps, those
phrases of luminous insight which spring
direct from Imaginative observation of
humanity true for all time, coming from
the heart to the heart his work will
probably be found to lie somewhere be
tween that of Virgil and Shakespeare:
having its portion, if I may venture on
the phrase, in the inspiration of both.
TEXXTSOX AND MILTOX.
A Comparison and a Contrast, From
the Pen of Henry Van Dyke.
COMPARISON has long been recog
nized as one of the fruitful methods
of criticism. But in using this method
one needs to remember that it Is the least
obvious comparison which is often the
truest and the most suggestive. The re
lationship of poets does not lie upon the
surface; they receive their spiritual in
heritance from beyond the lines of direct
descent. Thus a poet may be most closely
connected with one whose name we never
Join with hlSi and we may And his deep
est resemblance to a man not only of an
other age, but of another school.
Tennyson has been compared most fre
quently with Keats, sometimes, but false
ly, with Shelley; and sometimes, more
wisely, with Wordsworth. Our accom
plished American critic, Edmund Clarence
Sledman, who touches nothing that he
does not adorn, has a chapter in his "Vic
torian Poets" on Tennyson and Theocri
tus. But the best comparison one which
runs far below the outward appearance
into the profound affinities of genius
yet remains to be carefully traced.
Among all poets certainly among all
English poets it seems to me that Ten
nyson's next to kin ia Milton.
By this I do not mean to say that they
are equally great or exactly alike. For
so far as perfect likeness is concerned,
there is no such thing among the sons of
men. Every Just comparison involves a
contrast. And when we speak of great
ness, Milton's place as the second poet of
England-is not now to be called in ques
tion by any rival claim. Tet even here,
when we ask who is to take the third
place, I think there is no one who has
such a large and substantial title as the
author of "In Memoriam" and "The Idylls
of the King." The conjunction of the
names of Milton and Tennyson wilUbe
no unfamiliar event for the future, and
for the present there is no better way of
studying these two great poets than to
lay their works side by side and trace
their lives through the hidden parallel
of a kindred destiny.
.
"In Memoriam" is an elegy for Arthur
Hallam, finished throughout Its 72 stan
zas with all that delicate care which the
elegiac form requires, . and permeated
with the tone of personal grief, not pas
sionate, but profound and pure. But it Is
'such an elegy as the world has never
seen Before and never will see again. It
is the work of years, elaborated with
such skill and adorned with such rich
ness of poetic imagery as other men
have thought too great to bestow upon
an epic It is the most exquisite struc
ture ever reared above a human grave,
more wondrous and more immortal than
that world-famous tomb which widowed
Artemisia built for the Carlan mausolus.
But it is also something far grander
and better. Beyond the narrow range
Of personal loss and loneliness, it sweeps
into the presence of the eternal realities,
facea the great questions of cur myste-
(ui
tojtZ f 4. MA U4 1 fa (fit t -xuMUMtC
Jfty tut cmo yu , u ! Aby Yn
cu. 7U) A.J.
a . . ......
TWELVE VOLUMES OF TRUE VERSE MARK
65 OF HIS 83 DEVOTED YEARS
1829
1830
1S32
1833
1842
1846
1847
1850
1852
1854
1855
1859
In the regular
lines after the
He told his son Hallam that at eight he had written "Thomsonian blank
. I., r,ri nf flowers, and at ten and eleven, under the spell
nf Pnnc'n Hnmpr. hundreds and hundreds of lines
Porelan meter." and a little later an epic of 6000
pattern of Scott.
1827 "Poems by Two Brothers."- Jackson a Louth iPMnVi ?alh
Charlas and Alfred 10 worth of copies free with 10 In cash
for tiiT manuscripts, which were sold (Southeby's December 1892)
. Jt $244 Matthew Arnold and Elizabeth Barrett found r" J Le
and Jowett said: -"It's wonderful the whelp should have known
such things."
"Tirabuctoo." A poem of 250 linos, with wnicn Airrea won i.ie
Chancellor's Medal at Cambridge. When it came time to read it the
author was too. diffident to appear, and Charles Merivale (later
the historian) performed the office for hira.
"Poems. Chieflv Lyrical." warmly weicomea oy jjuiii.
eoneciallv charmed with "Lilian" ana Jianana in me muoieu -
Grange." .
"Poems." Including 'The Lady of Shalott," rne miners ms-
ter," 'The Palace of Art." me Dream oi rair unie.i,
"The Lover's Tale." This was the Iirst oi several P '"'J f' "
volumes ("Helens Tower" is anoiner insiancfj, n ....v..
today excessively rare, realizing from 150 to 1500 each when occa
sionally sold. " . .,
"Poems ' (2 VOlS.) JNOtaDie Wlin i-ucusiey nan, u ij!ci,
'a- Arthur " "Rndiva." "Break. Break, Break," etc. The book
brought prompt popular recognition of the poet, who thus "ar
rived" two years before Elizabeth Barrett and four ahead of Robert
Ttrnttminfir.
(February 28) "The New Timon and tne roeis (in i-uncrii, an
swering an attack upon mm maae earner m me vei u duiwc- .
Lytton.
"Tho Princess: a Medley." ("Wedding tne jsngiana oi viciuria iu
that of Coeur de Leon.") With "Aurora Leigh" and Luciie tms
is ranked as one oi tne oniy mice Bui.cniu, n.... -Trial
invention in modern letters. The six famous "incidental lyrics'
Between the rougher voices of the men.
Like linnets in the pauses of he wind,
were not added till the second edition of 18d0.
nune) "In Memoriam: A. H. H.." published anonymously, though
....,nrCr.in tcr never in doubt. Tennyson said the poem, eiao-
orated for 17 years under his hand, was "the voice of the whole
human race speaking through me." It was reviewed with highest
Draise by Gladstone; Victoria preferred it to all other English
books save only the Bible, and its appearance decided the Laureate
ship in Tennyson's favor. The manuscript Is now in the library at
Trinity, Cambridge.
(November) "An Ode on the ueatn oi tne uuite or Wellington.
i o "rrho rharirp of the Lieht Brigade." sent to' the
Examiner under spur of Russell's phrase, "Some one had blundered."
"Maud" and other poems, including aiso me iwo poems. iasi men
tioned, "The Brook," "The JJaisy. etc.
"The Idylls of a King." Six others were added to these initial four
during the next 13 years, completing a theme of which the poet had
dreamed since 1830. Men as different as Jowett, Macaulay, Buskin
r' nuir... holder! rwbII the chorus of Draise that met the volume.
which has been called "the greatest narrative poem since 'Paradise
Lost.'" (1676J
18S3 "A Welcome to Alexandra." .
("Saxon or Dane or Norman we,
Teuton or Celt, or whatever we be, ,
We are each all Dane in our welcome to thee. )
"Enoch Arden" (originally pumisnea unaer tne Boon suppressed
title of Idylls oi tne nearm t, muiuucu luuuuua, Ana
Grandmother," "The Northern Farmer." "Old Style," etc. Through
rhe title noem it has become the author's best known and most
popular work, having been translated into 17 languages.
"The Holv Grail and (Jtner foeins, iiiuuuihk xne nwiuicrn rui-m-
"5. ,rri... T , nt Arthur" err
er, .New &iyie. xo ioa,,e - .
..-...n vinrv " which was put on at tne Lyceum Dy inenry irving,
(Si Anril of the year following. This was the first of a half dozen
dramatic pieces, the others being: "Harold, ;, "Becket," "The Cup -"T-he
Promise of May" and "The Foresters." Each was ppomptly
ataired by Irving or the Kendals in England or by Daly in America.
D & ...... . i ,. rr. t . .... i
"Rnllariis and Poems, including among oinem xiio xievenge, ins
Defense of Lucknow" and "Rtzpah.
Tiresias and Other Poems, dedicated to ritzgeram. who naa aiea
two years before.
"Locksley Hall, Sixty Tears Alter. .
"Demeter and Other Poems," including "Merlin and the Gleam"
tr3 w immortal "Crossing the Bar." now placed as the final
poem in all collected editions at the author s request
"The Death of Oenone and Other Poems." ''The 'Oenone' and
Tithonus' are steeped in the golden beauty of Syracusan art. J.
A. Symonds.
IS64
1869
1875
1880
1885
18S5
1889
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11 MI.n il.-TT"- r m I
rlous existence,
and reaches out to lay i "Lycidas'
I
. v -o.r.ir-, ( unseen but I easy and
hold or in -- - , that )t ha9 been mad9
we are
saved.
in the
.Mrnt whereby aione
mleht well be given
words of St. Paul: "For our light aff- J
tion which is but for a moment worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory; while we look not at
the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are not seen are eternal."
At first sight it may seem almost ab
surd to compare the elegy with the epic,
and impossiole to discover any resem
blance between those long-rolling, thun
derous periods of blank verse and these
short, shallow nights of song, which "dip
their wings In tears and skim away."
The comparison of "la Memoriam" wi'
El
would certainly appear more
obvious; so obvious. Indeed,
thousand times,
and is fluently repeated by every critic
who has had occasion 'to speak of Eng
lish elegies. But this is Just one of those
cases in which an external similarity
conceals a fundamental unllkeness. For,
in the flrst place, Edward King, to whose
memory "Lycidas" was dedicated, was
far from being an intimate friend of Mil
ton, and nis lament has no touch of the
deep heart-sorrow which throbs in "In
Memoriam." And, in the second place,
"Lycidas" is in no sense a metaphysical
poem, does not descend Into the depths
or attempt to answer the vexed ques
tions. BJt "In Memoriam" is, in its
very easerice, profoundly and thoroughly
(Concluded on Page 5.)
FAVORITE LINES FROM A MASTER PEN
KNOWN BY HEART A WIDE WORLD OVER
Jewels five words long
That on the stretched forefinger of all Time
Sparkle forever. . The Princess.
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Locksley Hall.
I, the heir of all the ages. In the loremosi iiies or nme. "
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
(Ibid.)
Oenone.
Palace of Art.
Lady Clara.
JJlysses.
t , . , X.A
In the spring a livelier iris c""'K ."- 't. nf i. -
in the bpnng a young m., - ilocksley Hall.
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control
These three alone lead life to sovereign power Oenone.
Because right is right, to ioiiow ngni
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house, .
wv,ftrein at ease fori aye to dwell.
His honor rooted In dishonor stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him, falsely true. .
Launcelot end Elaine.
That tower of strength
Which stood four-square an -'Skef w'llngtotu
Howe'er it be, it seems to me, ,
T4. nnhU tO he mod.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
A,q imr,le faith than Norman blood.
How dull It 1b to pause, to make an end.
To rust unDurnisn a, "
a tho' to breathe were life!
I held it true with one who sings
To one clear harp with diverse tones.
That men may rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things. In Memoriam.
An Infant crying in the night;
An infant crying for the light.
And with no language but a cry.
In Memoriam.
And thus he bore without abuse
rt- nM name nf centleman.
J Jie ftittiiv o
There lives more faith in honest doubts.
Believe me, tnan in iwi me,tijmia.
And grasps the skirts of happy chance.
And DreasLs ine uiuwo v..i-u...
Tis better to have loved and lost
rr- ,, kin Invert at all.
Tears, Idle tears, I knew not wnat tr.ey menu.
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 raoJ,ne princess.
The moan of doves in Immemorial elms. t
" And murmuring of innumerable bees. princess.
The old order changeth, yielding place to new; .
And God fulfills himself in many ways. Passing of Arthur.
A daughter of the gods divinely tall TO-.
And most divinely fair. Dream of Fair Women.
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.-Jdylls. .
Faultily faultless, Icily regular, splendidly null Maud. .
Come Into the garden, Maud, ,..
For the black bat. night, has flown.
Come into the garden, Maud. -Mllrt
, I am here at the gate alone. Maud.
For men may come and men may so,-
But I go on forever. The Brook.
In Memoriam.
- In Memoriam.
In Memoriam.
In Memoriam. .
Tr
4