New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-10-19
T He TRIBU NE.
1tterarp Notices.
Tvs LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW. Sc,

The lover OF creek literature will lind IN THIS
number of the London Quarterly valuable paper
or the Orestea,of Eschy!us, in continuation ola Sc
res Of articles on Eschylus and his Trilogies 1t
presents very excellent critical history OF the foels
o,be Chorus, to whichthe writer gives far higher
antiquity than Roman critics. A detailed exami-
nation Of the separate plays of the great dramats'
then follows Another valuable paper Is the re-
view of TsssYsos's Poems; it is discriminating,
SYMPATHETIC. and written with lofty strength
Tho rev;ewer maintains in the introduction that
tho nresent Age is without poet; that there
mas been no one who has given shape to its ener-
ses and presented poetic picture of its real life.
The examination Of Tennyson's Poems is ex-
,remely close and judicious. The following pas
SAGE in the article, concerning WORDSWORTH
Though the IT, S. Monthly Review strangely I'M
derstands i. of Tennyson) i. powerful and inte-
resting
Every thoughtful reader OF the poems which
We have thus glanced through will be led to COM
mare them with others on similar themes, of pre-
cent human existence in the country, by the most
profoundly reflective of our living poets, Mr..
Wordsworth Michael The Brothers,, the
.tors of Margaret in the beginning of The Elk
custom 'Rutt'-these also are English Idylls,
drawn from the well-springs of Nature, and fin
ished with the painful of great artist
How naked and bare they all are in their solemn
stiffness! Nor is it only in these poems, but even
il works of lighter and gladden. movements that
ne are compelled to listen TO tile bard as to
grave teacher Of moral truth, whom the spirit OF
spontaneous enjoyment, and even the sympathy
With whatever is pathetic or grand in man,
net hurry beynsd the school Of his compassionate
but aus,eve stoicisn. Ignorance only, or lunacy,
could deny him deep Internal power Of true po-
suy. But even this, and not merely the manly
passions and the soft affections, even the shaping
and inspired Imagination itself, is always subject
TO the considerable dominion of the moral idea
Emotion the most general and obvious, the ne
ce.sary impulse Of all poetry in every age, is re-
.lqiaed in all his writings by the awful presence
ii selfconcentrated Will. The feelings are de-
,sribed rather than shared; the tragic passions are
summoned up only TO be rebuked by q more SOL
emn COMPUTATION than their own; the free enjoy
asntof life and netGrs approved only "rithin the
bounds OF unrclaxing caution; and loye-the
uame dubbed by every wave of Hippocrene and
Numbered in all the foods and storms of the main
ocean of our being-is here a grave ritual sound
spoken over the still waters drawa from the we'll
Of Truth for a penitential baptism
DC course il would be far from our design to
chatge this great writer with want Of feeling.
meet without feeling Fire without warmth, and
heart without pglsaioh BIT il is clear fhat MS
feelings are always strictly Watched by his media.
live Conscience too strictly not for wisdom, but for
rapture. Not a prophet in the wilderness lifting
uphis testimony against an evil generatien for
the heart of the seer must be red and fierce Us
molten ron--not hermit in his cave retired from
human joys, for the anchorte floats above his
rocky floor, forgetful Of laws and reiributlons, In
an ecstacy of selCdenying love, thst supplies the
psce of ,.ecalogue and dutics-but like the pro-
phe and the monk, this poet turns aside from the
busy ways of life to speculate, in sage and some
times awful rhetoric, on the righteousness Of eX
isence and the care with which we must tend the
purity Of its fountain in the heart. There is ne
isee so lovely, no acl so gushing over with keen
life, that it can kndle at once the minstrel into
song, hprrying him beyond all thought OF wrong
Gnd right, and having warrant enough in the zeal
Gus heat which it inspires Only in communion
with the stars, the mountains and the sea, the
flowers of spring and autumn leaves, and all the
simple mysteries Of natural things, does his heart
pour without pause, stream of melodious glad
ness, and fear no danger in its own happy costa
clos, Even in these solemn elevations of soul he
does not forget to impose scheme of tolls on hu-
man ife Among streams and rocks he begins
With discourse Of virtue; and when he has risen
On the ladder OF his vision to the stars, we stlll
hear him singing from the solar way, that Ii Is by
empeyasce, soberncss, and chastity OF soul ne
has so climbed, ard that the praise of this heroic
discipline is his last message to mankind. no
Die temper of heart A truly great man tie
has strangely welded his philosophical lose to the
sweetness of poetry. But the poetry would have
Snamed ont in freer gush, and flushed the
heart with ampler Joy, had the moral been less
ob'radcd as its constant aim.
OF Tennyson, the reviewer in conclusion thus
peaks:
In the younger Of these two idyllio writer's, on
lae whole the most genial poet Of the English ru-
raj life that We know-for Burns was of another
aaguage and country, ne less than school-there
isa very different stamp of soul. In his works
there has been art enough required and used to
give such clear aud graceful roundness; but all
kill of labor, all intellectual purpose, kept DE-
had the sweet aid :crvid impulse of the heart
Thus all that we call affection, Imagination, intel
lcct mets out as one long happy sigh into union
With the visibiy beautiful, aud with every glowing
breaia Of human life. In all his better poems
there is this same character-this fusion Of hl:
own fresh feeling with the delightful affections
bataed OF blessed, of o,hers-and with the failest
'nases OF the real world titles before US ell to-
day. To this same tendency all legend and mys,
terry are subordinstc--to this the understanding,
lneosssng and dogma,izing, yet ever ministers, a
loyal giant 10 fairy mistress. In his better and
later works the fantastic and ingenious brain,
aboundlns IN gold ,dps, and diamond powder, and
The playmate OF sphlnSes and hieloglyphic beasts,
pours out lis wealth, and yokes its monsters only
tor the service OF that homely northern nature,
whou, whose smile all wealth is for Us but dead
stones, and all mysteries bat weary task-like puz-
sies.