The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-17 00:00:00

1100 occasion, together with some other matters touched on in this volume of great interest to English readers. 1. The Song of Hiawatha. By H. W. Longfellow. Author's Protective Edition. London : Bogue. 2. Men and Women. By Robert Browning. Two Vols. London : Chapman and Hall. Boni Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Browning have their admirers. It is only fit that special poets should have special readers, and we shall not, for that reason, attempt to antici pate the judgment which will be passed on these performances by Longfellowites and Browningites. In neither case are the poems much to our taste. We conceive that their authors have adopted a vicious system ; that they have mistaken affectation for originality ; and that their works partake of the peculiar faults of that school which conceives itself privileged by virtue of its genius to emanci pate itself from the laws of both rhyme and reason. We can, as in Mr. Tennyson's last poem, see occasional beauties in these volumes, though rarer and of a less striking kind than in "Maud ;" but, as coming from poets of some reputation, they seem to us very unsatisfactory proofs of the poetic talent and taste of our age. But our readers shall decide for them selves. 1. The " Song of Hiawatha " is intended, Mr. Longfellow tells us, as a kind of Indian Edda. " It is founded," he says, "on a tradition " prevalent among the North American In " dians, of a personage of miraculous birth, " who was sent among them to clear their " rivers, forests, and fishing-grounds, and to " teach them the arts of peace." Hiawatha, in fact, belongs to the heroic age of North America, all his deeds being tinged with the peculiar character of the Red Indian habits and traditions. If we ask whence these stories have been gained, Mr. Longfellow replies, in the peculiar metre of his poem should answer, I should tell you, " From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotalas, From the mountains, moors, and fenlands, Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes." The father of Hiawatha is Mudjekeewis, the great West-Wind — Father of the Winds of Heaven. His mother, the gentle Wenonah, is the daughter of Nokomis, who In the unremembered ages From the full moon fell. Deserted by the faithless West• Wind, We nonah dies, and Nokomis rears Hiawatha. His first great feat, when he rises to manhood, is a dreadful conflict with his father the West- Wind, who, being immortal, cannot be con. quered, and who tells his son that after death he shall share the kingdom of the Winds with him, and be ruler of the North-Wind, vice one Kabibonokka, who appears to fill that station at the opening of the poem. After this, Hiawatha performs great feats in fasting, sailing, and fishing, killing the sturgeon, the king of fish. His greatest achievement seems to have been the slaughter of a flock of crows and ravens, who had conspired to waste his corn-fields. Hiawatha was beforehand with them : He had risen before the daybreak, He had spread o'er all the corn-fields Snares to catch the black marauders, And was lying now in ambush In the neighbouring grove of pine -trees, Waiting for the crows and blackbirds, Waiting for the jays and ravens. The marauders, When they came with " caw and clamour," soon found themselves caught in the snares of Hiawatha : From his place of ambush came he, Striding terrible among them, And so awful was his aspect That the bravest quailed with terror. Without mercy he destroyed them Right and left, by tens and twenties, And their wretched, lifeless bodies Hung aloft on poles for scarecrows Round the consecrated corn-fields, As a signal of his vengeance, 4.9 a warMau to marauders. • THE PRESS. The wooing and marriage of Hiawatha aro circumstantially described. He journeys to a distant land, that he may wed a daughter of the Dacotahs—the fair Minnehaha, the lovely Laughing Water. He prospers in his wooing, and returns home with his bride : Sumptuous was the feast Nokomis, Made at Hiawatha's wedding ; All the bowls were made of bass-wood, White and polished very smoothly, All the spoons of horn of bison, Black and polished very smoothly. She had sent through all the village Messengers with wands of willow, As a sign of invitation, As a token of the feasting ; And the wedding guests assembled. Clad in all their richest raiment, Robes of fur and belts of wampum, Splendid with their paint and plumage, Beautiful with beads and tassels. First they ate the sturgeon, Nahma, And the pike, the Maskenozha, Caught and cooked by old Nokomis; Then on Pemican they feasted, Pemican and buffalo marrow, Haunch of deer and hump of bison, Yellow cakes of the Mondamin, And the wild rioe of the river. But the gracious Hiawatha And the lovely Laughing Water, And the careful old Nokomis, Tasted not the food before them, Only waited on the others, Only served their guests in silence. And when all the guests had finished, Old Nokomis, brisk and busy, From an ample pouch of otter, Filled the red stone pipes for smoking With tobacco from the South-land, Mixed with bark of the red willow, And with herbs and leaves of fragrance. Then she said, " 0 Pau-Puk-Keewis, Dance for us your merry dances, Dance the Beggar's Dance to please us, That the feast may be more joyous, That the time may pass more gayly, And our guests be more contented I " Pau-Puk-Keewis is an Indian beau of the first water:— For the women and the maidens Loved the handsome Pau-Puk-Keewis. He was dressed in shirt of doe-skin, White and soft, and fringed with ermine, All inwrought with beads of wampum; He was dressed in deer-skin leggings, Fringed with hedgehog quills and ermine. And in moccasons of buckskin, Thick with quills and beads embroidered. On his head were plumes of swan's down, On his heels were tails of foxes, In one hand a fan of feathers, And a pipe was in the other. Barred with streaks of red and yellow, Streaks of blue, and bright vermillion, Shone the face of Pau-Puk-Keewis. Other sports succeed, and Thus the wedding banquet ended, And the wedding guests departed, Leaving Hiawatha happy With the night and Minnehaha. The most poetical passage in the book seems to us that descriptive of a famine which in a severe winter visits the Indian land, and which Hiawatha, with all his skill and strength, strives in vain to resist: O the famine and the fever! 0 the wasting of the famine ! 0 the blasting of the fever! O the wailing of the children ! 0 the anguish of the women I All the earth was sick and famished; Hungry was the air around them, Hungry was the sky above them, And the hungry stars in Heaven Like the eyes of wolves glared at them! Into Hiawatha's wigwam Came two other guests, as silent As the ghosts were, and as gloomy, Waited not to be invited, Did not parley at the doorway, Sat there without word of welcome In the seat of Laughing Water; Looked with haggard eyes and hollow At the face of Laughing Water. And the foremost said : " Behold me ! 1 am Famine, Bukadawin!" And the other said: " Behold me ! 1 am Fever, Alikosewin !" And the lovely Minnehaha Shuddered as they looked upon her, Shuddered at the words they uttered, Lay down on her bed in silence, Hid her face, but made no answer; Lay there trembling, freezing, burning, At the looks they cast upon her, At the fearful words they uttered. Hiawatha roams abroad hoping to procure food, but is compelled 19 return upsue eeseful ; SATURDAY, Over snow-fields waste and pathless, Under snow-encumbered branches, Homeward hurried Hiawatha, Empty-handed, heavy-hearted, Heard Nokomis moaning, wailing : " Wahonomin ! Wahonomin I Would that I had perished for you, Would that I were dead as you are I Wahonomin I Wahonomin! " And he rushed into the wigwam, Saw the old Nokomis slowly Rocking to and fro and moaning, Saw his lovely Minnehaha Lying dead and cold before him, And his bursting heart within him', Uttered such a cry of anguish, That the forest moaned and shuddered, That the very stars in Heaven Shook and trembled with his anguish. Then he sat down, still and speechless, On the bed ofMinnehaha, At the feet of Laughing Water, At those willing feet that never More would lightly run to meet him, Never more would lightly follow. With both hands his face he covered, Seven long days and nights he sat there, As if in a swoon he sat there, Speechless, motionless, unconscious Of the daylight or the darkness. Then they buried Minnehaha ; In the snow a grave they made her, In the forest deep and darksome, Underneath the moaning hemlocks ; Clothed her in her richest garments, Wrapped her in her robes of ermine, Covered her with snow, like ermine; Thus they buried Mintiehaha. When " pale-faces " visit the land, and a black•robed chief, With the Cross upon his bosom, comes to tell the people of the Virgin Mary and her Blessed Son the Saviour, Hiawatha commends the visitors to the care of his people, and takes his departure for " the region of the North-West Wind, for the islands of the blessed." We do not know how far this " Song of Hiawatha " is to be regarded as a faithful representation of Indian tradition, though from Mr. Longfellow's own account we must suppose it to be mainly imaginary. Possibly it may have some deeper significance than we can penetrate on a cursory perusal. But, viewed as a work of imagination and art, as the chosen theme of a poet, it seems extremely meagre iu design and feeble in execution. The Indian's " belt of wampum," and his " paint and feathers," are the images in the poem which recur most frequently. It is probable that Mr. Longfellow has caught the wild and mythical character of Indian tradi tion ; but even in this respect his poem seems to want consistency, while he certainly has not succeeded in presenting the human and romantic interest which we may suppose to be attached to some Indian legends. Two editions of the poem are published— one, as a railway book, at a shilling, the other in a pretty volume, neatly bound. 2. To Mr. Browning must be accorded a foremost place in the fragmentary or spas modic school. He is evidently of opinion that to be poetic it is necessary to be obscure. He expects us to understand passion from a dash, pathos from a note of admiration, and a whole tumult of emotions from an unfinished sen tence. He has heard of the ancient artist who indicated the father's emotion at his daugh ter's sacrifice by hiding his face. Mr. Brown ing is always veiling his meaning that we may understand the more from his absence of expression. He is a master of dark speech, and of fathomless intent. His meaning lies so deep, that no plummet we know of can sound it. After vain attempts to comprehend some of his poems—there are fifty of them in the two volumes, he tells us—we are forced to abandon the effort in despair. His Sphinx is too cunning for us. In the volume of Arago's works just published, the French philosopher insists that clearness or intelligibility is the politeness au author owes to his readers. How Mr. Browning must scoff at such a rule. By his practice he insists that what is intelligible is worthless. It is the part of genius to pro duce what is incomprehensible. Like the tuneful Jubb in Little Pedlington, he has written poems which none but he can coin prehend. We must give some examples, for in truth the book is of that kind which only specimens can describe, Here is one poem complete ;--