The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-07-05
Recent Publications.
Mr.. Tennyson's EARLY Poem.

MI, I0nnySOnS early PO6m.
The Lovers Tale: By Alfred Tennyson.
Boston: Houghton & Osgood; Portland: Lor-
ing, Short & Harmony Mr.. Tennyson has
nothing to regret and the public have much
to acknowledge in the republication Of the
poem which he wrote at the age of eighteen.
The youthful work was much admired by the
companions of the young Tennyson who OBJ
tanned printed copies of the Lovers Tale"
and reioiced in the literary success of their
friend. This first edition, printed without
the knowledge of the author, was naturally
unsatisfactory to him; for, beyond the correc-
tion of mere errors of the press, he would have
desired to make changes in the text. The old
italian story seems to have fastened upon the
imagination of Mr.. Tennyson since many years
after he wrote the Lovers Tale, he composed
its sequel, The Golden Supper. Now, seeing
that the public is not minded to lose any liter
airy work of his, Mr.. Tennyson has made such
revisions and omissions as he had planned to
make at the time of the first appearance of his
poem; and, adding to it the sequel, gives the
story to his readers in its entirety.
The tale is exceedingly dramatic and
fitted for varied and effective poetic
treatment. Its origin may be traced as
far back as Boccaccio, and it is not
easy to say from what time or source still far
ther removed. One can readily note the points
of contact where its elements Of idyl and
drama struck the peculiar genius of Mr.. Ten
nyson; and although the youth and literary in
experience of the poet are of course to be seen
in the earlier portion of the work as compared
with the later-it may fairly be said that he
perceived the value of his material, set off its
points with the rapidity and emphasis of a
born artist, and handled it with an effect that
would be amazing and phenomenal ex-
cept for the splendor Of his later poems
to which the public has grown accus-
toned. The Lovers Tale, indeed, COM
ments very powerfully upon the latter per-
lection of Mr.. Tennyson's gift-the marvel
lous ease with which he manages the most del
icate and elaborate traits of poetry, the con-
summate art by which he conceals his art--ex-
cept to the reader who is content to overlook
for awhile the glory and motion of such poetry
as, let us say, the Idyls of the King, for the
sake of studying its technical felicities of
phrase, and the exquisite harmonies of its
music. Any roughness or unaptness any
ltpoC lIOLl tilc ldSO IculcIltilb VI lIOuSul UT
language would strike the reader with as much
surprise in one of Tennyson's poems as would
false. intonaton or limited and inexpensive
phrase from Wilhelmi's violin. But in read
ing the Lovers Tale by the light of the poets
more mature, perfected verse, it is easy to dis
cover the profuse and brilliant blossoming of
the rich fruitage. Some of these young traits,
again, are changed or lost with time; many
bloom, pink in the May air, wanders down
from the bough, and no apple in its place
Shall hang, a golden globe, upon the tree,
When through the vale the mists of autumn glide.
The very first lines of The Lovers Tale con-
tain the peculiar rhythmia cadences and the
lyric quality which are Mr.. Tennysons gift to
blank verse. In this measure the variety and
charm of his work is unexcelled; that is to say,
as regards the singular sweetness and scope of
its idyllic and lyric passages. Here its traits
may be called original with Mr. Tennyson; be-
fore his time, much of the power and beauty
unrhymed verse remained unknown. For the
form of his exquisite unrhymed songs he may
be indebted to the Greek idyllists; but his set
ting of these in our Saxon speech is all his own.
His dramatic blank verse partakes less cf the
lyric quality and has for this cause less distine-
ton.
All these reflections, it may be said, are a
little remote from the present subject-Mr.
Tennyson's early poem. But whether we look
at him In his present position as poet laureate,
or as the boy already glad with the instincts of
a rare and potent genius-we find him fully
abreast with his times, in wholesome and pro-
gressive thought and fine perception. His po-
etic gift has always been healthful one, open
to impressions from without, and rejecting
the sentiment of his age as faithfully as does
the accredited mouthpiece of Great Britain,
the London Times. But Mr.. Tennyson, differ
ing from the ''old lady of Threadneedle street"
in many points, differs notably in this: He is
always abreast of or one step before his time;
he does not fall an inch behind the footstep of
its march. He is an ideal journalist, set to
the Emusic of immortal verse"
When he indulges in thoughtful speculations
like those of In Memoriam, it is the voice of
his century, interpreted masterfully by his own
voice, that is heard. Mr.. Tennyson has no
selfish complaints or yearnings with which to
claim general coincidence; in accepting his Of
flee of Laureate of England he has taken it in
the large meaning as not only the accredited
singer at festivals and times of mourning, but
as the voice of the thought and experience of
his country and his century. 1t is pleasant to
find in his early work the same fresh and live
ly nature. He tells the pathetic story in dra-
matte fashion; with such fervor of words as is
fit; and with the careful arrangement which
has always supported his work. He even paints