Part 16 (2/2)
LECTURE VII
LA SAISIAZ
LECTURE VII
LA SAISIAZ
The peculiar interest attaching to _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ is wholly absent from _La Saisiaz_; for here is no uncertainty as to the ident.i.ty of the speaker, no soliloquist interposed between the author and his public. The dramatic interest absent, the personal interest is, however, proportionately stronger. As in _Prospice_ the closing lines are unmistakably the outcome of an overwhelming torrent of feeling, so in the later poem the problems demanding consideration have been forced into prominence by the events of the hour; and the mourner, who was ”ever a fighter,” will not rest until he has confronted them, and has done all that may be fairly and honestly done towards the settlement of tormenting doubts and fears. Thus, in _La Saisiaz_, we get, perhaps, the sole example in Browning's work of a direct attempt on his part to give to the world a rational and sustained argument, resulting in his personal decision as to the questions immediately involved; the immortality of the soul and the relation of its future to its present phase of existence. It is to this deliberate design that the striking difference in character of these two similarly inspired poems may be mainly attributable: that the joyful a.s.surance of _Prospice_ is succeeded by the reasoned hope of _La Saisiaz_.
The mourner hesitates to launch himself upon the waves of faith until he has argued the questions before him in so far as they are capable of argument. For the confidence of _Prospice_ that
The fiend-voices that rave _Shall_ dwindle, _shall_ blend, _Shall_ change, _shall_ become ... a peace out of pain:
we have the hope of _La Saisiaz_,
No more than hope, but hope--no less than hope. (l. 535.)
In place of the triumphant certainty of future reunion,
O thou soul of my soul! I _shall_ clasp thee again,
is the answering query--sole response to the question as to mutual recognition in another world
Can it be, and must, and will it? (l. 390.)
But the problems of _La Saisiaz_ are not capable of solution by argument; there comes a stage at which it is inevitable that faith must supplement and succeed the reasoning powers of the intellect. ”Man's truest answer”
is, after all, but human: the finite may not grasp the Infinite; and, looking upon the Infinite as revealed through Nature, man can but reflect
How were it did G.o.d respond?
It is the necessary failure in the attainment of a satisfactory conclusion by ratiocinative methods alone which causes the apparent uncertainty: apparent rather than actual, since, wherever in the course of the discussion feeling is allowed free exercise, there faith--or hope--prevails. In _Prospice_, reasoning offers no check to the emotions, and faith holds complete sway. Though Faith and Reason are no antagonistic forces, the ventures of Faith must yet transcend the powers of Reason, and Reasoning, whilst it may define, is incapable of limiting the province of Faith, since even ”true doctrine is not an end in itself: it cannot carry us beyond the region of the intellect.... All formulas are of the nature of outlines: they define by exclusion as well as by comprehension; and no object in life is isolated. Our premisses in spiritual subjects, therefore, are necessarily incomplete, and even logical deductions from them may be false.”[91]
But whatever the intellectual questionings and uncertainties occurring in the course of the poem itself, the prologue is a pure lyric of spiritual triumph. Though actually the outcome of the premises preceding and the conclusions following the argument between Fancy and Reason, no suggestion of effort is apparent in the joyous song of the soul freed from the trammels of the body to ”wander at will,” in the fruition of its fuller life. The reference to its mortal tenement recalls no painful element in the process of material decay; only autumn woods, the glowing colours of fading leaves and mosses.
Waft of soul's wing!
What lies above?
Suns.h.i.+ne and Love, Skyblue and Spring!
Body hides--where?
Ferns of all feather, Mosses and heather, Yours be the care!
Of the circ.u.mstances immediately giving rise to this personal expression of feeling the briefest notice will suffice, the bare facts being stated beneath the t.i.tle in the latest edition of the works; whilst for the details necessary to fill in the outline, we have only to turn to the poem itself, reading the first 140 lines. Miss Egerton-Smith was one of Browning's oldest women friends, but it was not until many years after their first meeting in Florence that their intercourse seems to have become a really important factor in the lives of both: when, after the return to England following his wife's death, the poet temporarily established himself in London with his sister as housekeeper. Miss Egerton-Smith would appear to have been of a nature not readily responsive to the demands of ordinary social intercourse; a nature likely to make special appeal to the man who saw in imperfection, perfection hid, and in complete temporal adaptability the exclusion of possibilities of future growth. Hence we find him writing in the moment of bereavement:
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