The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-04-26
RnRERT HERRICK.


No one else among lyrists, within the
period defined, has such untailing fresh
ness; 50 much variety within the sphere
pres cribed to hmse {; such closeness to
nature, whether III description or in
| feeling; such easy fitness in language; |;
melody so untorced ana del ghtful. His
| du l pages are much less frequent, he
has more lilies, in his own phrase, "born
of the royal blood;" the
Inflata rore none Achaico verba
are rarer with him; although superb
cially hammered, nature is SO much
nearer to him, That far fewer of his
pieces have lost vitality and interest
| through adherence to forms of feeling or
fashions of thought now obsolete. For
| the men of the Restoration period he
was roo natural, too purely poetical; he
had not the learned polish, the political
allusion, the tone OF the city, the didac-
tic turn, which were then and onward
demanded from poetry.
In the next age, no tradition conse-
Grated his name; while writer's Of a hum
dred years before were then too remote
| for familiarity, and not remote enough
for reverence. Moving on to our own
| time, when some justice has at length
been conceded to him, Herrick has to
meet the great rivalry OF the poets who,
from Burns and Cowper to Ten
nyson, have widened and deepened
the lyrical sphere, making it at once
lon the one hand more intensely per-
sonal, on the other more tree and pic
turesque in the range OF problems dealt
with; While at the same time new and
richer lyrical forms, harmonies more
intricate and seven-.old, have been Gre
ated by them, as in Hellas during her
| nf n nd dauo n
emotions unknown or uneXpressed un-
der the Tudors and StuaTts. 10 this
latter superiority Herrick would, doubt
less, have bowed, as he bowed before
Ben. JOnson's genius. "Rural ditties"
and "Oaten flute" can not bear the COM
petition Of tue lul modern orchestra.
Yet this author need not fearl That
exquisite and lofty pleasure which il is
the first and the last aim of all true art
to give, must, by its own nature, be last
ing also. AS the eyesight tluctuates,
and gives the advantage to different col
ors in turn, 80 TO the varying moods OF
the mind the same beauty does not al
ways seem equally beautiful. Thus
from the "purple light" of our later pO-
etry, there are hours in which we may
look to the dafodil and rose-tnts of
Herrick's old Arcadia, for refreshment
and delight. And rhe pleasure which
he gives is as eminently wholesome as
pleasurable.
| Like the holy river OF Virgil, to the
souls who drink Of him, Herrlck offers
''SeCuTOS ldtiCeS." be Is conspicuously
free from many of the maladles incident
| to his art. Here is 10 oVerstraip, no
spasmodic cry, no wlre-draWn analysis
or sensational rhetoric, no music with
out sense, no mere secondhand literary
Inspiration, no mannered archaism-
above all no sickly sweetness, no subtle,
unhealthy affection.
| Throughout the work, whether when
it is strong, or III the less worthy por-
tions, sanity, sincerity, simplicity, lu-
cidity, are everywhere the characterist-
les of Herrick; in these, not in his pret-
ty Pagan masquerade, he shows the
| note-Jhe only genuine note-of Hell
| lenic descent. Hence, through whatever
| changes and fashions poetry may pass,
her true lovers he is likely to please
now and please for long," His verse, in
the words Of poet greater than him.
self, is of that quality which "Adds sun
light to daylight" which is able tU
SNAKE the happy happier"
lie will, it may be hoped, carry to the
many Englands across the seas, east
and west, pictures OF English life ex-
quisite in truth and grace-to the more
fortunate Inhabitants Gas they must per-
force hold themselves } of the old oouu-
try, her image, as she was two centuries
since, will live in the ''golden apples" of
the west, offered to US by this sweet
singer OF Dsyonshire. We have greater
poets, not few; none more faithful to
nature as he saw her, none more perfect
in his art, none more mpanionaDle.-
f. L. Palgrave IN Macmlllan's Maga-
zine.