The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-23 00:00:00

liCittraturt.

CONTEMPORARY POETRY.

111.

Ti certain axioms of criticism which have been
broached of late be sound in principle, the
nomenclature of poetry ought to be enlarged
to admit a new genus. As we have the Elegiac
and the Epic, the Didactic and the Dramatic,
so, under this proposed arrangement, we
should have what we will venture to call
the Youthful. We admit that the title is a
little vague, and likely at first sight to mislead
the unthinking public. It might be supposed
that by Youthful poetry was meant poetry
relating to youth ; as by Pastoral poetry is
clearly meant poetry relating to sheep and
cows. This supposition may be easily seen
to bu erroneous by a familiar analogy. When
we say Ancient poetry nobody imagines we
mean poetry about elderly people. On the
contrary, it is very well understood that the
term is applied to poetry that is itself old.
In the same way the Youthful genus obviously
implies poetry that is young—i.e., written in
youth.
There is some difficulty, no doubt, in form-
ing a distinct genus out of a characteristic
common to all genera. Essential differences
are indispensable to mark and distinguish one
genus from another ; and as it is certain that
every kind of poetry must have been young at
one period, so this peculiarity—which is, in
fact, no peculiarity at all—does not justify a
separate classification. We acknowledge the
force of that objection. But critics, like
naturalists, will not always subscribe to estab-
lished laws, and will sometimes insist upon
ignoring them to make room for new ones.
This is a case in point. Our Youthful poetry
is not separated from the other orders by any
conditions inherent to itself, as in the ve-
getable and animal kingdoms, but by a
declaratory law set up for the convenience of
criticism.

The law is this : that young poetry is not to
be judged by the rules of taste, grammar, or
common sense. To people of an ordinary way
of thinking it may seem that we have not
stated the canon accurately. If they have any
doubts on the subject, however, they may at
once clear them up by turning to some of the
opinions pronounced upon a volume of poems
recently published under the nom de plume of
Owen Meredith.* They will there find it
authoritatively promulgated.

When a young poet does something very
eccentric ; when he takes upon himself, for
example, to exercise an unlimited jurisdiction
over the " parts of speech," the rhythm of
verse, and the current meaning of words, and,
by the employment of a fantastical diction,
dresses up baby ideas to make them look full
grown, we are to understand that these are
the faults of youth which time will mend, and
that the very wilfulness which spurns the
restraints of language, art, and reason is
evidence of a genius which, like wine, wants
nothing but keeping to make it fit for use.
This was not exactly the argument employed
by Pitt, in answer to an opponent who taunted
him with his youth. He said that youth was
a fault which every day would mend ; but he
did not say that the faults of youth were proofs
of an inspired intelligence.

Could skill in poetry, without even making
any stipulations about natural requisites, be
acquired by dint of practice, there might be
some hope that industry in the making of
rhymes would be crowned with its usual
rewards. hut, we fear, the old adage is irre-
versible. The poet must be born to his voca-
tion. You cannot bring up a promising youth
to the fabrication of metres as you would to the
making of shoes. You cannot bind him'prentice
to the Muses. Unless Nature has given him some
qualifications, it is worse than a waste of time
to try to make a poet of him; you will only
spoil him for an honester calling. The greatest
of human calamities is to discover, when the
evil is past remedy, that we have mistaken our
course in life; and of such mistakes, which
are common enough, that of settling down in
a Fool's Paradise of verse is most to he de-

I Ear/4 Return, the Arket, and other Poem..
London; Chapman and Hall.

By Owen