The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-22 00:00:00

L ITERATURE.

EXCELSIOR; or, The Realms of Poesie. By
Alastor. Second Edition. William Pickering.
Graceful as this little volume is, even in its external
appearance, it can scarcely fail to prove attractive to
the enthusiast about poetry, by reason of the very
pseudonym (Alastor) which the author has selected
from Shelley, and of the very title itself (Excelsior),
which he has borrowed from Longfellow. In its
general character the work is essentially discursive.
It abounds throughout with criticisms upon the fa-
vourite poets of the writer, and with allusions to Ms
own more cherished dreams upon the diviner myste-
ries of existence. Everywhere in the pages of
"Excelsior" it is impossible not to recogniie the deep
and.. devotional fervour with which it has been penned,
Alastor betraying in every sentence the earnestness of
a very impassioned temperament. The most con-
spicuous fault in the book is that of exuberance. Is
desultory manner might be regarded as not only
excusable, but even allowable, from the very nature
of the subjects unfolded—hut with the exuberance of
its style, it is unquestionably otherwise. Among ell
blemishes, however, in an author manifestly young
and inexperienced, this is as unquestionably the most
entitled to forgiveness. Better surely to witness in
bis earlier effusions a prodigality of metaphor that
can be pruned down, or an extravagant abundance of
language that can be in time corrected;than to observe
the evidences of a feebleness which no practice can
invigorate, or of a sterility that defies cultivation. Wel-
come, thrice welcome, therefore, to us are initial volumes
replete with errors of the description here indicated,
errors which practice cannot fail to overcome, and
which are consequently preferable to the stunted
merits of a puerile and faultless mediocrity. Ac-
cording to Plutarch, the popularity of Alcibiades was
in! the first instance attributable to the squandering of
hilt wealth among the Athenians. Nevertheless the
bfiandishments of a correctly balanced and adroitly
selected diction are too important of their kind not to
bq sought after at the outset with the most sedulous
attention of the student.
In vorbis otiam tennis cautusque serendis,
Hoc aueet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor.
As with metrical, so also, though in a lesser degree,
with prose compositions, more especially, should those
compositions,as in the example under consideration, have
reference to criticisms upon poets and upon poetry.
Alastor wins the confidence of his reader at once by
his evident acquaintance with his subject, and not
only his acquaintance with it, but his profound and
burning admiration for it likewise. Poetry, the study
of poetry, it may be also the writing of poetry, is
clearly enough his vocation. His reverential regard
for that divinest among the Fine Arts is visible in
almost every chapter, but more particularly so in those
chapters which relate exclusively to its consideration.
Immediately after his " Invocation" he adventures,
humbly but earnestly upon a "Definition of Poesie."
He considers her to be the "beloved handmaid and
faithful servitor" of the Divinity. Fantastically, but
beautifully also, he says that "at her girdle she wears
the golden keys of Time, Space, and Eternity." The
close of.the definition is not the least eloquent sea-
tepee in the volume, where the writer exclaims
" That poetry is alone true, grand, and sublime,
which takes man from his wormlike crawling in the
dust, and plumes his soul with angel wings of aspi-
ration, which shall soar upwards and upwards until
they rest on the glorious f:totstool of God."
Throughout the principal part of the "Excelsior" we
discern the same generous blending of rapture and
adoration. The writer has manifestly a yearning for
that loftiest employment of human existence which
he has attributed in such noble words to Gilfillan—
that of " loving as a child, but worshipping like a
seraph," that " mighty God" to whom all our energies
should be dedicated. Having somewhat ingeniously
mapped out what he designates " the Four Quarters
of the Poetic World," Alastor glances at the various
poets (principally living ones) who are numbered'
among his more peculiar favourites. A fanciful
semblance is thereupon traced by him between Byron
and the Sun, Keats and the Moon, and Shelley and
the " dim mysterious starlight"—referging with
justice the misanthropy of Byron to his misfortunes,
speaking of Keats in a tone of gentle and genuine
affection, and repudiating with a scorn that cannot
but prove infectious, the charges of unmitigated cul-
pability directed against the beautiful and elevated me-
inory of Shelley. As affording the readiest means of ena-
bling the reader to estimate the nature of "Excelsior,"
we shall at once, however, *illustrate our remarks upon
it by quotation. Imparting an immediate interest,
moreover, as they do to the pages of. the volume, our
extracts shall be restricted to those passages which
relate to writers now living, beginning not inappro-
priately with Alastor's allusions to the Poet Laureate.
These are the opinions_ pronounced by him upon
TENNYSON.
" Not exactly cypress, but a wreath of weeping wil-
low, should encircle his name. He is enamoured with
ideal beauty and purity of • soul, and he sings the praises
of holy and exalted friendship more than the warmest
passion of love. He may be. characterised as un elevated
philosopher with a poet's expression, which a delicate
perception of MB beauti(ul and true has given him.
" His harp is not strung with strings whose wild loud
notes shall first awaken, and they petrify the world,
but, with silken, silvery, gossamer chords, whose fairy
melody is heard only by* the delicate spiritual ear.
" Yet keeps he perhaps too close to the shores of
Time, and dares nut, or will not, sail the mighty oceans
of mind, and bring as like golden fruit from beyond the
distant shores, sublime and inspiring ideas of futurity.
He keeps his wings too' closely furled, when we consider
his poetical powers !
" May Time give him courage and bear him happi-
ness;—root up the willow which points, with its thou-
sand drooping and nerveless arms, to the cold EAUTH,
and transplent the poplar which ever points, with its one
firm giant fingers, to the bright, glorious, and joy-inspir-
ing HEAVENS." •
Having thus gracefully symbolized his estimate' of
Tennyson,' the writer turns to the consideration of
BAILEY.
" This is, perhaps, the greatest poet of the present
generation, inasmuch, as in his Penns,' he has endea-
voured to display the boundless aspirations, thoughts,
and feelings of a young enthusiastic spirit, deeply im-
bued with a love of Nature, man, and Crock yet wanting
the greatest and 'most comforting doctrine of Faith,
from lack of which spring all the uneurbed and bound-
lees, but broken, aspirations of youth, and the feelings
and excesses attendant thereon.
"He bas nobly dared to do all this, and the world has
not let him go unrewarded.
" His last work The Angel World,' shows, however,
an increase of faith and humility, consequent upon his
having exhausted the more wild and passionate feelings
of his heart.
" Long ere we knew his name, whilst the hot ferment
of youthful thought made us desperate, we had formed
many similar ideas to those propagated in Festus,'
amongst many others still wilder. We thank God that
a most humble and confiding spirit is now at work
within us, and we trust that by our works we may never
sow one seed of doubt relative to these revelations,
which are the only hope and comfort of myriads. Still,
we are determined to put the most kindly and Christian-
like construction upon them, and to look more at their
general spirit than at isolated passages.
"Now that Bailey has exhausted all phases of un-
belief, we look for the highest poetic blessings from bins.
He will know how to administer relief to minds in
similar miserable mental states.
" All phases of mental suffering must have been en-
dured by one who seeks to enlighten the variously-
framed minds found in the human family.
"'Bailey wished to become God's poet-priest, which
faith and humility ,will yet constitute him—(this was a
favourite aspiration of our own. from boyhood).
" He approaches the nearest to our ideal of a poet,
many
,problems that perplex and
dfoerehploy boialdtelyressetiz tes
the worlds mind, and endeavours to
solve them. His heart is one mass of religious feeling,
amneddihuems.eesHeevekrnyowobsjewcetuthernoouugghh
tahnaetleevveartymoginad divine
gncreated
bears the stamp of divinity; and is thus full of deep
spirituel meaning.
" As for the beautiful and gorgeous imagery, which
lies as thick on his pages as moonlight snow on the large
leaves of yonder winter's evergreen, we will only say—
that it was never surpassed, arid that never were the
riches of a wealthier mind displayed to the world."
Almost immediately afzerwards the author thus
speaks of

"One of ou
of expressive °I
KENT.
latest poets. His classical expression,
the trio of classicaelllanguage,
the delicate beautyhis thoughts, and his great corn-
wandhint that ho will complete
airpady iope.ntural poets, whereof Shelley.and
and othevorer
Ho has already g 7 members.
Keats are
' Aletheiti; or, the Doom
nminnor poems, which are steeped
of Mythology,'
Count of Poesie, and:are
elltiLnd most delicate percep-
in tho purest and most
imbued with the deepest Ls:
onensofof nature. One en-
titledpoetry.
of
moderne most exquisite
don of the beauties and operations
who shed
' Orchestral,' we think
graphic and imaginative gems
" Here is the germ of ono of the truest poets,
a lustre on any sge, draped in the Wayinglafooeltds;
of classic
grace flud clepnce.
" We hear some critic has dared to call Kent a v° 1u p.
teary, when criticising ' Aletheia.' if richness ofima-
gery, fulness of expresioe, and ripeness of natural atTec-
Lions, constitute voluptuousness, then, and then only,
is Kent guilty of the charge. Let us remind such critics
that a filthy mind sees everything through its own me-
dium, and to it, even purity herself seems unclean.
" When we survey our small, but illustrious band of
living poets, with such names as Bailey, Atherstone,
Longfellow, Tennyson, Maeltay, acd Kent, as their
leaders, who shall eiare afarm that the present age will be
a blank in the poetical annals 01 the teglrsh language?"
Cordially
and earnestly may we commend the justice
of his subjoined
Panegyric upon

LONGFELLOW.
it A deeply-beloved a:Lori:mu poet, who, howovGf,
sighs a little. zoo much after the Past which seerni to.
him ai a setting sun; the Future appearing but as a small
star of the seventh toDgnitude,
with uncertain, twinkliug
light.
" Yet is his soul a gem of the purest ray serene,'
which also, c=,rtaiLly, tho dark uofathomed caves cl
ocean' (the deep ocean ofthought) have borne; nor has
he yet forgotten those dark caves a gloom.
" Perchance ho may yet flash back more strongly' the
cheering rays of the Sun of Hope, and may yet enliven

0 N)
N
w 4
--f

as Well AS -exalt mankind—the latter of which he has al-
ready.done.
" The world's face is amply stiffased with tears; it is
the poet's duty to wipe away a few—not to add more.
"'He his read of, and, perhaps, believed too impli-
citly the glories'of the Pest; which, after all, if viewed
MlCRO—instead of TELE—soopically, would have. shown
far morn defects than besuties, and far more misery than
happiness.
" One would be led to fancy that he had written many
of his poems under the dense gloom of a pine forest (to
which same sombrons trees he is deeply attached). He
is, however, a bard of deep love'and warmest sympathy,
of the purest heart, and most elevated and enlightened
Christian feeling. The elegance and deep sentiment of
his poetry (and prose likewise) are unsurpassed in any
language..`
May God prosper him, and throw a few more sunny
gleams of Hope through the shadowy forest of his mind,
and show more brilliantly to the world the clustering
tufts of hopeful eyed flowers and blossoms under its
gloom!
" His grand Psalm of Life' must neither be forgotten
by himself nor the world!"

Thee azotances of eulogium upon Longfellow we
can find it in our heart to approve to the very utter-
most, even in spite of the disappointment experienced
vciy recently on the perusal of his " Golden Legend"
—scarcely less impious than incoherent. Willis the
American, and Lamartine the Frenchman are names
subsequently brought from beyond the Channel, and
froth beyond the Atlantia, to be classed iimong the cata-
logue of Alastor's especial favourites. 'For Charles
Mackay and Eliza Cook he acknowledges hiS predi-
lectiou ; iri regard to the latter, he says she is,
" through her weekly journal pouring a flood of sim-
ply -beautiful thoughts through the 'mental veins of
her beloved country,'' while, in regard to the former,
he vrow's.that " he who loves him not as a brother must
have the dry heart of a mummy." Sir Bulwer Lytton
is subsequently mentioned in terms of profound adini-
ration,tnotigh we do not conceive that the writer has
to the full appreciated the genius of that remarkable
and comprehensive intellect—one of the most remark-
able and coMprehensive in the range of our national
literature. Fully and entirely applauding the tribute
next Offered to the " true poet's heart" of 'Dickens,
we would gladly witness the realisation of the hope
expressed in reference to that matchless delineator
of character. The following sentences will,be agree-
able, inasmuch as they relate to a celebrity as po-
pular as