The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-22 00:00:00

376

rumoured, any who were with him in Burmah
contributed to the attacks on his reputation,
they had at least the sense to keep their
secret, for in that army none who had libelled
Godwin would have found a pleasant recep-
tion.

Days and Hours. By Frederick Tennyson.
London : J. W. Parker and Son.
Ma. FREDERICK TENNYSON (a brother of the
laureate) is certainly a poet, but in some
danger of missing his way. His notions of
the poet's nature and mission are mostly of
the tempestuous kind. lie would, as he
assures us, " leap into the earthquake's
cradle," "untwist the typhoon," " dare shatter-
ing hailstones," and " cling to a column of
earth lightning." Very much of his verso
heaves with volcanic throbbings and hurri-
canous sighs. His ideal, it will be acknow-
ledged from the following stanzas, is a stormy
one :
The spirit of the Poet, like the form
Of the high mountains, cleaves the heavens asunder,
And flies into far realms of fear and wonder,
And howling wildernesses where the storm
Goes darkly with its thunder.
• s •
Within the lone high places of his soul
Love, and Ambition, like the frost and sun,
Pile up great towers, or drive the earthquakes on,
Let loose the winds, or bid the torrents roll,
Or make the rivers run.
This disposition to heap Pelion on Olympus
is not his only fault. His verse is often per-
vaded by that sort of obscurity which leaves
the reader in doubt whether a great thought is
struggling for utterance, or whether pomp of
words is used to conceal poverty of meaning.
He has faith in what he forcibly terms
Dim thoughts that reach us from the Infinite,
Faint as far seas or twilight in eclipse ;
but page after page of dreamy aspiration and
vague verbal sublimity, presenting nothing
like a distinct image or idea to the mind, are
as tiring to it as the straining to distinguish
an uncertain object is wearisome to the eye.
Affected and corrupt expression is a growing
fault in the Roetry of our, day, and we fear
that our periodical writing has much to
answer for on this account. The criticism of
a writer cannot be better than his taste. If
an indifferent poet, neglected by the public,
turns reviewer, he will be likely enough to
think that he perceives imaginative power in
new-coined words and fantastic phrases. No
man of our author's natural talent would have
ventured to put forth such conceits as these
in an address of a lover to his mistress, if the
public taste had not been to some extent
vitiated by familiarity with bad models :-
0 Adelaide, gentle, fair, and true ;
Did Nature, when she cast thy perfect heart
In the pure sanctuary of her Art,
Take Diamond, and dissolve it to a dew ?
Did she take fixed Lightning in her hand,
And with it bathe thy pure Intelligence,
Thy nimble Fancy, and thy subtle Sense,
A linked armour nothing may withstand?
Did she rob Zephyrus of his long soft air
To plait thy lucks for thee? and in thine eyes
Pour the clear essence of the glad blue skies,
And out thy gleaming forehead from a star?
As in the above three verses, our poet is
commonly much more anxious to fill—or, as
he would say, to gem—his pages with glitter-
ing words than to care for their appropriate-
ness. The lark " dives into a rainbow's
rivers," the sun at morn makes " sweet rain-
bows in the sky," Arid would " bathe his
wings in sunbows," and the author's mistress,
With divine eyes looking into mine,
Rained down her sovran beauty's starry dew.
Diamonds play a great part not only in com-
posing the gates of Paradise, but in forming
walls of palaces and celestial towers. Golden,
however, is the most favoured epithet. Golden
seas wash golden waves to golden shores
The poet strikes the golden chords of his
golden lyre, and the warrior in golden armour
shakes his golden lance. We have golden
light, golden haze, and golden cloud; golden
stairs lead to a golden city with golden walls,
golden doors, and a kiolden citadel. Golden
dawn is regularly followed by golden noon
and golden eve. Fire-winged horses are shod
with gold, flowers bear only golden blossoms,
golden hours are passed in golden speech, and
love with his golden bow is ruled by a golden