Part 44 (1/2)
There are few finer pieces of poetical inspiration than the closing scene, where the friend and lover returns blind and helpless, and the woman's heart, unconquered before, surrenders to the claims of misfortune as the champion of love. After a happy life with her husband and an only child, sent for her solace, this gifted woman died in 1863.
HER FAULTS.--It is as easy to criticize Mrs. Browning's works as to admire them; but our admiration is great in spite of her faults: in part because of them, for they are faults of a bold and striking individuality. There is sometimes an obscurity in her fancies, and a turgidity in her language.
She seems to transcend the poet's license with a knowledge that she is doing so. For example:
We will sit on the throne of a purple sublimity, And grind down men's bones to a pale unanimity.
And again, in speaking of Goethe, she says:
His soul reached out from far and high, And fell from inner ent.i.ty.
Her rhymes are frequently and arrogantly faulty: she seems to scorn the critics; she writes more for herself than for others, and infuses all she writes with her own fervent spirit: there is nothing commonplace or lukewarm. She is so strong that she would be masculine; but so tender that she is entirely feminine: at once one of the most vigorous of poets and one of the best of women. She has attained the first rank among the English poets.
ROBERT BROWNING.--As a poet of decided individuality, which has gained for him many admirers, Browning claims particular mention. His happy marriage has for his fame the disadvantage that he gave his name to a greater poet; and it is never mentioned without an instinctive thought of her superiority. Many who are familiar with her verses have never read a line of her husband. This is in part due to a mysticism and an intense subjectivity, which are not adapted to the popular comprehension. He has chosen subjects unknown or uninteresting to the mult.i.tude of readers, and treats them with such novelty of construction and such an affectation of originality, that few persons have patience to read his poems.
Robert Browning was born, in 1812, at Camberwell; and after a careful education, not at either of the universities, (for he was a dissenter,) he went at the age of twenty to Italy, where he eagerly studied the history and antiquity to be found in the monasteries and in the remains of the mediaeval period. He also made a study of the Italian people. In 1835 he published a drama called _Paracelsus_, founded upon the history of that celebrated alchemist and physician, and delineating the conditions of philosophy in the fifteenth century. It is novel, antique, and metaphysical: it exhibits the varied emotions of human sympathy; but it is eccentric and obscure, and cannot be popular. He has been called the poet for poets; and this statement seems to imply that he is not the poet for the great world.
In 1837 he published a tragedy called _Strafford_; but his Italian culture seems to have spoiled his powers for portraying English character, and he has presented a stilted Strafford and a theatrical Charles I.
In 1840 appeared _Sordello_, founded upon incidents in the history of that Mantuan poet Sordello, whom Dante and Virgil met in purgatory; and who, deserting the language of Italy, wrote his princ.i.p.al poems in the Provencal. The critics were so dissatisfied with this work, that Browning afterwards omitted it in the later editions of his poems. In 1843 he published a tragedy ent.i.tled _A Blot on the 'Scutcheon_, and a play called _The Dutchess of Cleves_. In 1850 appeared _Christmas Eve_ and _Easter Day_. Concerning all these, it may be said that it is singular and sad that a real poetic gift, like that of Browning, should be so shrouded with faults of conception and expression. What leads us to think that many of these are an affectation, is that he has produced, almost with the simplicity of Wordsworth, those charming sketches, _The Good News from Ghent to Aix_, and _An Incident at Ratisbon_.
Among his later poems we specially commend _A Death in the Desert_, and _Pippa Pa.s.ses_, as less obscure and more interesting than any, except the lyrical pieces just mentioned. It is difficult to show in what manner Browning represents his age. His works are only so far of a modern character that they use the language of to-day without subsidizing its simplicity, and abandon the old musical couplet without presenting the intelligible if commonplace thought which it used to convey.
OTHER POETS OF THE LATEST PERIOD.
_Reginald Heber_, 1783-1826: a G.o.dly Bishop of Calcutta. He is most generally known by one effort, a little poem, which is a universal favorite, and has preached, from the day it appeared, eloquent sermons in the cause of missions--_From Greenland's Icy Mountains_. Among his other hymns are _Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning_, and _The Son of G.o.d goes forth to War_.
_Barry Cornwall_, born 1790: this is a _nom de plume_ of _Bryan Proctor_, a pleasing, but not great poet. His princ.i.p.al works are _Dramatic Scenes_, _Mirandola_, a tragedy, and _Marcian Colonna_. His minor poems are characterized by grace and fluency. Among these are _The Return of the Admiral_; _The Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea_; and _A Pet.i.tion to Time_. He also wrote essays and tales in prose--a _Life of Edmund Keane_, and a _Memoir of Charles Lamb_. His daughter, _Adelaide Anne Proctor_, is a gifted poetess, and has written, among other poems, _Legends and Lyrics_, and _A Chaplet of Verses_.
_James Sheridan Knowles_, 1784-1862: an actor and dramatist. He left the stage and became a Baptist minister. His plays were very successful upon the stage. Among them, those of chief merit are _The Hunchback_, _Virginius and Caius Gracchus_, and _The Wife, a Tale of Mantua_.
_Jean Ingelow_, born 1830: one of the most popular of the later English poets. _The Song of Seven_, and _My Son's Wife Elizabeth_, are extremely pathetic, and of such general application that they touch all hearts. The latter is the refrain of _High Tide on the Coast of Lancas.h.i.+re_. She has published, besides, several volumes of stories for children, and one ent.i.tled _Studies for Stories_.
_Algernon Charles Swinburne_, born 1843: he is princ.i.p.ally and very favorably known by his charming poem _Atalanta in Calydon_. He has also written a somewhat heterodox and licentious poem ent.i.tled _Laus Veneris_, _Chastelard_, and _The Song of Italy_; besides numerous minor poems and articles for magazines. He is among the most notable and prolific poets of the age; and we may hope for many and better works from his pen.
_Richard Harris Barham_, 1788-1845: a clergyman of the Church of England, and yet one of the most humorous of writers. He is chiefly known by his _Ingoldsby Legends_, which were contributed to the magazines. They are humorous tales in prose and verse; the latter in the vein of Peter Pindar, but better than those of Wolcot, or any writer of that school. Combined with the humorous and often forcible, there are touches of pathos and terror which are extremely effective. He also wrote a novel called _My Cousin Nicholas_.
_Philip James Bailey_, born 1816: he published, in 1839, _Festus_, a poem in dramatic form, having, for its _dramatis personae_, G.o.d in his three persons, Lucifer, angels, and man. Full of rare poetic fancy, it repels many by the boldness of its flight in the consideration of the incomprehensible, which many minds think the forbidden. _The Angel World_ and _The Mystic_ are of a similar kind; but his last work, _The Age, a Colloquial Satire_ is on a mundane subject and in a simpler style.
_Charles Mackay_, born 1812: princ.i.p.ally known by his fugitive pieces, which contain simple thoughts on pleasant language. His poetical collections are called _Town Lyrics_ and _Egeria_.
_John Keble_, 1792-1866: the modern George Herbert; a distinguished clergyman. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and produced, besides _Tracts for the Times_, and other theological writings, _The Christian Year_, containing a poem for every Sunday and holiday in the ecclesiastical year. They are devout breathings in beautiful verse, and are known and loved by great numbers out of his own communion. Many of them have been adopted as hymns in many collections.
_Martin Farquhar Tupper_, born 1810: his princ.i.p.al work is _Proverbial Philosophy_, in two series. It was unwontedly popular; and Tupper's name was on every tongue. Suddenly, the world reversed its decision and discarded its favorite; so that, without having done anything to warrant the desertion, Tupper finds himself with but very few admirers, or even readers: so capricious is the _vox populi_. The poetry is not without merit; but the world cannot forgive itself for having rated it too high.