Part 31 (1/2)

It ranges in subject from a thrush song to a religious philosophy, in form from the simplest love lyric to the labored historical drama.

[Sidenote: TYPICAL SHORT POEMS]

Of the shorter poems of Tennyson there are a few which should be known to every student: first, because they are typical of the man who stands for modern English poetry; and second, because one is constantly meeting references to these poems in books or magazines or even newspapers. Among such representative poems are: ”The Lotos-Eaters,” a dream picture characterized by a beauty and verbal melody that recall Spenser's work; ”Locksley Hall” and ”Locksley Hall Sixty Years After,” the one a romance throbbing with youth and hope, the other representing the same hero grown old, despondent and a little carping, but still holding fast to his ideals; ”Sir Galahad,” a medieval romance of purity; ”Ulysses,” an epitome of exploration in all ages; ”The Revenge,” a stirring war song; ”Rizpah,” a dramatic portrayal of a mother's grief for a wayward son; ”Romney's Remorse,” a character study of Tennyson's later years; and a few shorter poems, such as ”The Higher Pantheism,” ”Flower in the Crannied Wall,”

”Wages” and ”The Making of Man,” which reflect the poet's mood before the problems of science and of faith.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALFRED TENNYSON]

To these should be added a few typical patriotic pieces, which show Tennyson speaking as Poet Laureate for his country: ”Ode on the Death of Wellington,” ”Charge of the Light Brigade,” ”Defense of Lucknow,” ”Hands all Round,” and the imperial appeal of ”Britons, Hold Your Own” or, as it is tamely called, ”Opening of the Indian and Colonial Exposition.” The beginner may also be reminded of certain famous little melodies, such as the ”Bugle Song,” ”Sweet and Low,” ”Tears,” ”The Brook,” ”Far, Far, Away”

and ”Crossing the Bar,” which are among the most perfect that England has produced. And, as showing Tennyson's extraordinary power of youthful feeling, at least one lyric of his old age should be read, such as ”The Throstle” (a song that will appeal especially to all bird lovers), beginning:

”Summer is coming, summer is coming, I know it, I know it, I know it; Light again, leaf again, life again, love again”-- Yes, my wild little poet!

Here Tennyson is so merged in his subject as to produce the impression that the lyric must have been written not by an aged poet but by the bird himself. Reading the poem one seems to hear the brown thrasher on a twig of the wild-apple tree, pouring his heart out over the thicket which his mate has just chosen for a nesting place.

[Sidenote: IDYLLS OF THE KING]

Of the longer works of Tennyson the most notable is the _Idylls of the King_, a series of twelve poems retelling part of the story of Arthur and his knights. Tennyson seems to have worked at this poem in haphazard fas.h.i.+on, writing the end first, then a fragment here or there, at intervals during half a century. Finally he welded his material into its present form, making it a kind of allegory of human life, in which man's animal nature fights with his spiritual aspirations. As Tennyson wrote, in his ”Finale” to Queen Victoria:

Accept this old, imperfect tale, New-old, and shadowing Sense at war with Soul.

The beginner will do well to forget the allegory and read the poem for its sustained beauty of expression and for its reflection of the modern ideal of honor. For, though Malory and Tennyson tell the same story, there is this significant difference between the _Morte d' Arthur_ and the _Idylls of the King_: one is thoroughly medieval, and the other almost as thoroughly modern. Malory in simple prose makes his story the expression of chivalry in the Middle Ages; his heroes are true to their own time and place. Tennyson in melodious blank verse changes his material freely so as to make it a reflection of a nineteenth-century gentleman disguised in a suit of armor and some old knightly raiment.

One may add that some readers cleave to Tennyson, while others greatly prefer Malory. There is little or no comparison between the two, and selections from both should be read, if only to understand how this old romance of Arthur has appealed to writers of different times. In making a selection from the _Idylls_ (the length of the poem is rather forbidding) it is well to begin with the twelfth book, ”The Pa.s.sing of Arthur,” which was first to be written, and which reflects the n.o.ble spirit of the entire work.

In _The Princess: a Medley_ the poet attempts the difficult task of combining an old romantic story with a modern social problem; and he does not succeed very well in harmonizing his incongruous materials.

[Sidenote: THE PRINCESS]

The story is, briefly, of a princess who in youth is betrothed to a prince. When she reaches what is called the age of discretion (doubtless because that age is so frequently marked by indiscretions) she rebels against the idea of marriage, and founds a college, herself the princ.i.p.al, devoted to the higher education of women. The prince, a gallant blade, and a few of his followers disguise themselves as girls and enter the school. When an unruly masculine tongue betrays him he is cast out with maledictions on his head. His father comes with an army, and makes war against the father of the princess. The prince joins blithely in the fight, is sore wounded, and is carried to the woman's college as to a hospital. The princess nurses him, listens to his love tale, and the story ends in the good old-fas.h.i.+oned way.

There are many beautiful pa.s.sages in _The Princess_, and had Tennyson been content to tell the romantic story his work would have had some pleasant suggestion of Shakespeare's _As You Like It_; but the social problem spoils the work, as a moralizing intruder spoils a bit of innocent fun. Tennyson is either too serious or not serious enough; he does not know the answer to his own problem, and is not quite sincere in dealing with it or in coming to his lame and impotent conclusion. Few readers now attempt the three thousand lines of _The Princess_, but content themselves with a few lyrics, such as ”Ask Me No More,” ”O Swallow Flying South,”

”Tears,” ”Bugle Song” and ”Sweet and Low,” which are familiar songs in many households that remember not whence they came. [Footnote: The above criticism of _The Princess_ applies, in some measure, to Tennyson's _Maud: a Monodrama_, a story of pa.s.sionate love and loss and sorrow.

Tennyson wrote also several dramatic works, such as _Harold_, _Becket_ and _Queen Mary_, in which he attempted to fill some of the gaps in Shakespeare's list of chronicle plays.]

[Sidenote: ENGLISH IDYLS]

More consistent than _The Princess_ is a group of poems reflecting the life and ideals of simple people, to which Tennyson gave the general name of _English Idyls_. The longest and in some respects the best of these is ”Enoch Arden,” a romance which was once very popular, but which is now in danger of being shelved because the modern reader prefers his romance in prose form. Certain of the famous poems which we have already named are cla.s.sed among these English idyls; but more typical of Tennyson's purpose in writing them are ”Dora,” ”The Gardener's Daughter” and ”Aylmer's Field,”

in which he turns from ancient heroes to sing the romance of present-day life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUMMERHOUSE AT FARRINGFORD Here Tennyson wrote ”Enoch Arden”]

Among mature readers, who have met the sorrows of life or pondered its problems, the most admired of Tennyson's work is _In Memoriam_ (1850), an elegy inspired by the death of Arthur Hallam. As a memorial poem it invites comparison with others, with Milton's ”Lycidas,” or Sh.e.l.ley's ”Adonais,” or Gray's ”Elegy in a Country Churchyard.” Without going deeply into the comparison we may note this difference: that Tennyson's work is more personal and sympathetic than any of the others. Milton had only a slight acquaintance with his human subject (Edward King) and wrote his poem as a memorial for the college rather than for the man; Sh.e.l.ley had never met Keats, whose early death he commemorates; Gray voiced an impersonal melancholy in the presence of the unknown dead; but Tennyson had lost his dearest friend, and wrote to solace his own grief and to keep alive a beautiful memory. Then, as he wrote, came the thought of other men and women mourning their dead; his view broadened with his sympathy, and he wrote other lyrics in the same strain to reflect the doubt or fear of humanity and its deathless faith even in the shadow of death.

It is this combination of personal and universal elements which makes _In Memoriam_ remarkable. The only other elegy to which we may liken it is Emerson's ”Threnody,” written after the death of his little boy. But where Tennyson offers an elaborate wreath and a polished monument, Emerson is content with a rugged block of granite and a spray of nature's evergreen.

[Sidenote: PLAN OF THE POEM]

_In Memoriam_ occupied Tennyson at intervals for many years, and though he attempted to give it unity before its publication in 1850, it is still rather fragmentary. Moreover, it is too long; for the poet never lived who could write a hundred and thirty-one lyrics upon the same subject, in the same manner, without growing monotonous.