Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-07-04
POETRY,
A college Break1asl Party.
A NEW POEM By ssoReE EIuOr.

A College Breakfast Party.
NEW PORN By GEORGE ELIoT. ~
George Eliot's new metaphysical essay in
blank verse appeared last week in Harpers
Bazaar. At an Oxford breakfast assemble
these guests: .i 5..,.7 - 81
Young Hamlet, not the hesitating Dane,
But one named after him, who lately strove
For honors at our English Wittenberg-
Blonde, metaphysical, and sensuous,
Questioning all things, and yet half convinced,
Credubty were better; held inert -
'Twixt destinations Of all opposites,
And half suspectiDg that the mightiest soul
perhaps his own y was union Of extremes,
Having no choice but choice of everything;
As, drinking deep to-day for love of wine, %
Tomorrow half Brahmi3, scorning life
As mere illusion, yearning for that True
Which has no qualities; another day
Finding the fount of grace in sacraments,
And purest reflex of the light divine
In gem bossed pyx and broidered chasuble,
Resolved to wear no stockings and TO fast
With arms extended, waiting ecstacy,
But getting cramps instead, and needing
A would be Pagan next - 2
. Young Hamlet sat
A guest with five of somewhat riper age
At breakfast with Horatio, friend --
With few opinions, but faithful heart,
Qnick to detect the fibrous spreading roots
OF characters that feed mems theories,
Yet cloakiDg weaknesses with charity,
And ready in all service to save rebuke,
With ebb of breakfast and the cider cup
Came high debate the others seated there
Were Osric, spinner of fine sentences,
A delicate insect creeping over life,
Feeding on molecules of floral breath,
And weaving gossamer to trap the sun; .
Laertes, ardent, rash, and radical;
Discurslve RosencranZ, grave Guildenstern,
And he for whom the social meal was made
The polished Priest, tolerant listener,
Disposed to give hearing to the lost, -
And breakfast with them ere they went be-
low cTG -a .--.. ~ -....-l.--- " r.
Here is promise of ''brave voices" and they
fulfill it. -, ,-
From Alpine metaphysic glaciers first ~---
The talk sprang copious; the themes were old,
But so its human breath, so infant eyes,
The daily nurslings of creative light.
Small words held mighty meanings Matter,
Force,
Self, Not-self, Being, Seeming, Space, and
Time
Plebeian toilers on the dusty road
OF daily traffic turned to Genii
And cloudy giants darkening sun and moon.
What consideration and what answer each
guest gives to "what" and wherefore" may
be conjectured from the character or taste
ascribed to him. At last Hamlet says:
gcmH For you will grant
The Ideal has discoveries which ask at
No test, no faith, save that we joy in them;
A new found continent, with spreading lands
Where pleasure charters all, where virtue,
rank, 80 q .-.
Use, right, and truth have but one name,
Delight.
Thus Arts creations, when etherealized
To least admixture of the grosser fact,
Delight may stamp as highest"
"Possible!"
Said Guildenstern, with touch of WEAKNESS,
''But then we might dispute of what is gross,
What high, what low."
'sNay," said Laertes, task
The mightiest makers who have reigned, still
reign,
Within the ideal realm. See if their thought
Be drained of prsctice and the thick warm
OF hearts that beat in action various
Through the wide drama of the struggling
world.
Good by, Horatio."
Each now said ''Good BY"
Snch breakfast, such beginning of the day,
Is more than half the whole. The sun was
hot
On southwark branches of the meadow elms
The shadows slowly further crept and veered
Like changing memories and Hamlet strolled
Alone and dubious on the enpurpled path
Between the waving grasses of new June,
Close by the stream where well contacted
boats
Were moored, or moving with lazy creak
To the soft dip of oars. All sounds were light
As tiny silver bells upon the robes
OF lowering silence Birds made twitterings
That seemed but silence's self o'erfull of love.
Twas invitation all to sweet repose
And Hamlet, dlowsy with the mingled
draughts
OF cider and conflicting sentiments,
Chose green couch, and watched with half
closed eyes
The meadow road, the stream, and dreamy
Until they merged themselves in sequence
strange
ith undulating ether, time, the soul,
The will supreme, the individual claim,
he social Ought, the lyrist's liberty,
Democritus, Pythagoras, in talk
With Anselm, Darwin, COmte and Schopen-
hauer,
The poets rising slow from out their tombs
Summoned as arbters-that border world
Of doing, ere the sense is fully locked.
And then he dreamed dream SO luminous
He woke Che says) convinced; but what it
taught -
Withholds as yet. Perhaps those graver
shades
Admonished him that visions told in haste
Part with their virtues to the squandering
And leave the soul in wider emptiness.