The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-04 00:00:00

ESTIMATE OF THE POETICAL

CHARACTER OF WORDSWORTH.

(From " The Poetry and Poets of Britain." By
Daniel Scrymgeour.)
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
(1770 .)
A great portion of Mr. Wordsworth's life, since
the completion of his education at Cambridge, has
been passed amidst the mountain seclusion of Rydal
Lake, in Westmoreland. His genius was compli-
mented with the laureateship on the death Of Mr.
Southey. No man, perhaps, ever made poetry, not
merely the constructive part of the art, but its whole
feelings and contemplations, so completely his occu-
pation. His youth fell fortunately in an age when
the poetical literature of Fnglend had begun to re-
vive; but the criticism of the times, independently of
political animosities, did not yet seem to have tem-
pered its taste to the novel music of the " Lake "
bards. (1) Cowper, and Burns, and Crabbe had struck
out new paths, and the academic steps of Wordsworth
followed their track into nature with such literal
fidelity as to border on the practical exaggeration of
his own theory respecting the extent of field and mi-
nuteness of variety afforded by nature for the pur-
poses cf poetry,(2) His new (X) poetical experiment,
in which Mr. Coleridge shared, appeared in the Ly-
rical- Ballads in 1798. The poet and his associated
friends struggled stoutly against the ridicule and
hostility which their " school " drew down on
them ; and their perseverance has been rewarded in
the popularity of much that was so mercilessly derided.
The feelings touched by some of these pieces, their
pathos, and truth to nature, won them way in popular
estimation. Mr. Wordsworth's great work, " The
Excursion," is a portion of a philosophical poem, in
three parts, to be entitled " The Recluse," "contain-
ing views f man, nature, and society,"(4) "having
for its principal object the sensations and opinions of a
poet living in retirement." The portion published
presents a group of beautiful and profound thoughts,
—of splendid and pathetic descriptions, united by a
slight narrative, resulting from the poet's accidentally
meeting a Scottish pedlar, "the grey-haired Wan-
derer," whose peculiar education has made him a
moralist, a philosopher, and a Christian. They join,
and are joined by, other personages, and the poem
consists chiefly of a semi• dramatic exchange of argu-
ment and sentiment among the characters. The main
moral seems to be to justify the ways of God to man,
and to encourage the hopes of the wretched beyond
the grave. The ethereal metaphysical specula..
tions of " The Excursion" render the thought
often obscure, or at least difficult to be appre-
hended ; but the calm beauty of its pictures
of solitude,—of lowly, suffering wortb,—the fre-
quent energy and vivacity of its imagery—and its un-
ceasing heavenward enthusiasm—are qualities that
stamp it with the seal of one of the noblest of ima-
ginations. Many of Mr. Wordsworth's smaller
poems are "flowers fresh with childhood ;" and among
those of a more extended aim, what, in grace of de-
lineation, or delicacy of fancy, can equal " Ruth ;"
in affecting simplicity of circumstantial lineament of
things in themselves morally and poetically beautiful,
than " Michael," or the Cumberland Beggar ?"
and in " Tintern Abbey," the whole sympathies of
the poet's nature, in reference to the relation of man
to the external world, are poured forth in exemplifi-
cation of one of the prominent characteristics of
Cowper's genius. If Cowper has taught the new
generation to renew the habit of looking " at nature,"
the telescopic power of Wordsworth's poetry has
vastly extended our sphere of vision—has brought
the minutest and the nearest, as well as the moat dis •
taut, the vastest, and most undefined objects, within
the sphere of our sympathies—has widened the glance
of faith, and hope, and charity—and has given to the
" humblest daisy on the mountain-side," not merely
"a voice to bid the doubting sons of men be still"—
the cold tongue of dogmatic theology might do this—
but a voice with the power of the Mosaic rod, to
draw from the flinty and unfeeling heart the gushing
waters of all that is holy in piety, pure in affection,
and hopeful and consoling amidst the obduracy of
sorrow-hardened humanity. In Wordsworth's poetry
the scul of man animates nature, ar, in the Platonic
philosophy (5), the Deity was the innate spirit of
the universe. ature inhabits him, and he inhabits
nature, with a reciprocity of life-giving influence.
" The sounding cataract
Haunted me like a passion.
S

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms were then to me
An appetite, a feeling, and a lose."
Byron and Burns are beings apart from Nature, to
whose enjoyment she holds the cup, accepted by the
one with haughty disdain, or drained with the sullen
gratification of selfish passion—by the other with
hearty and benevolent relish cf the enjoyment, but
with the eagerness that deadens and kills while it
gratifies. But Wordsworth shares her " boon-ness"
with herself, as if the very flowers were conscious of
his verse ; using," Christian-like, "as not abusing."
In estimating the spirit and tendency of Mr.
Wordsworth's poetry, we have looked on its better
side, and have disregarded the adhering vitiations that
clung to his style, from the original peculiarity of his
poetical theory. Coleridge, who almost worshipped
Wordsworth, has left, in his " Biographia Literaria,"
a philosophical and critical estimate of the poet ; and,
from the extent to which the cast of Mr. Words-
worth's style of expression and mode of thought have
penetrated our subsequent poetical literature, we may
reasonably predict that posterity will approve the
criticism of his friend.
Mr. Wordsworth has classified his collected works
—which he is fond of viewing as parts of an architec-
tural whole, and would wish to be judged as such—
into, I. Poems referring to Childhood; 11. Poems
founded on the Affections ; 111. Poems of the Fancy;
IV. Poems of the Imagination; V. Sonnets, Inscrip-
tion?, &c. ; all forming, as it were, " the little cells,
oratories, and sepulchral recesses" of the " Gothic)
Church" to be reared in " The Recluse."
(1) From the residence of Mr. Virordswortb, Mr.
teir
Southey, and Mr. Coleridge, near each other amoandng
h the
lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland, y
school" were termed in ridicule, by some of the re-
views, the " Lake Poets."
(2) See Works, vol. iv., Edit. 1827..
(3) Mr. Wordsworth's first '
(4) Consult the noble
~i
W f
orks, vol. v., Preface, Edit. 1827. .
(5) See Virg. En. • 24.
publicationrosp ct us' was 1 93.
of the design,
'

night.—Eliza
• How absurd to be afraid of death, when we are in
the habit of rehearsing it every Cook's Joursaal,
of prizes thesirjamesof
ST. GEORGE'S ScOOOD or MEDICINE, 1, G 11,09-
VENOR-PLACg.pupils
• TreTihcridie.nistottrhoikeb ucpthiloaanicre.
The honorary beer etary,
iroal.rtol"eFttg.rSe4, read the report, which showed the
Dct this school
klsvc,h.po
continued prosperity of the school, there being upwards of
100 attending pupils. The prizes were awarded as follows,
appropriate remarks being made to each student, by the
Chairman, as the prizes or certificates were presented :••-•
Senior Anatomy : gold medal, Mr. H. Bullock; silver me-
dal, Mr. F. Turner ; Certificate, Mr. W. Bloxam. Junior
Anatomy : bronze medals, Mr. Benson and Mr. A. Um-
phelby ; certificates, Mr. H. Lawrence and Mr. Waters.
Medicine : prize, Mr. 11. Bullo,k certificates, Mr. Brown,
Mr. Dyer• Surgery:• Mr. H. Bulloc, certificate,
•
Mr. Brown. Midwifery ; prize, Mr. H. Wilkin. Chemistry:
prize, Mr. Waters; certificate, Mr. Benson. Clinical Sur-
gery : prize, Mr. H. Bullock. Botany : prize, Mr. A. Tal-
bot; certificates, Mr. H. Lane, Mr. Halford, and Mr. Foun-
tain. Medical Jurisprudence; prize, Mr. Brown ; certificate,
Mr. A. Talbot. Practical Chemistry: prize, Mr. Brown;
certificates, Mr. H. Lane, Mr. Baker, Mr. Fountain, Mr. H.
Lawrence, and Mr. 11. Bluck. Votes of thanks were given
to the Chairman and Mr. Ferguson for txzming the clinical
surgery reports, and also to the lecturers, proposed and se-
conded by the students.
In Spain condemned criminals are put to death
by an iron screw being fixed between the cervical vertebra,
the criminal haying his neck ring.