The sun., 1880-12-12
Tennyson's Latest Poems.

Are there any readers now who look for
ward with such eageru ,ss to new volume from
Tennyson az they did who we're first awakened
to the power and beauty OF poetry by tho author
of The Princess" and In Memoram2" Is
1t truo OF tho last decade as 1t was OF tho ten
years between 1850 and 1860. that the first voice
to rouse tho English speaking lad or girl to
sense of tho specific charm OF poets point OF
view ana poct's treatment is the voice OF Al
fred Tennyson? 1t seems to MS that in this in
stance. the crude test Of sales is peculiarly un-
trustworthy as n measure Of influence and es-
teom. The audience which the veteran singer
still commands Ia largely We suspect. made up
Of elements which could scarcely be controlled
by any OF his recent compositions were they
ANONYMOUSLY published. Those who owe
debt to Tennyson listen to him with
a grave. courteous. sympathetic attention.
In which gratitude counts for something.
habit for a good deal. but from which the
old keen zest and impulsive homage seem to
have departed. What is this but to say that
while humanity grows the men who bear most
deeply the stamp OF a given generation cannot.
from the nature OF things. grow with 1t: that
they are rather waymarks than participants in
tho ongoing OF the race; that the wisdom gar
nered in the old time has few points OF contact
with the yearninRs OF the new. and that he who
sang to their grandsires cannot expect to keep
his heart young for half a century and utter
with equal truth and equal spontaneity the
thoughts and aspirations of the youth OF to-day
What is true OF Tennyson is true In some de-
gree of his greater coeva Victor Hugo. and
would have been no less true oftheir radiantco
temporary Alfred de Musset viewed merely us
lyric poet, had II been his lot to journey with
his brother minstres to the end Men rend
them. and men honor them but the fact cannot
be gainsaid that both have survived the pleDi-
tude and splendor OF their fame.
There was time when tho spirit OF Tenny-
sons verse seemed predminentiy congvniai.
and when its form was artisticaly the most per-
feet with which his readers were acquainted.
Whether considered in the function OF bard and
seer or in the capacity of artist. he has been SUI
perseded or eclipsed The point OF view taken
by In Mcmoriam" has been abandoned; the
moods reflected in that poem. so far as its scope
contemplates anything but private grief were
expectant and fugitive; its philosophy. il the
term be applicable at all. was a philosophy Of
transition. Tho poets attitude. which repro
ddced faithfully enough the position OF English
thought and culture at the epoch. was one Of
vacillatlon and unrest. from which the past
WAS regarded with regret. and the future with
foreboding. His posture was that OF one cling
ing to the fragments OF wreck. and watching
with strained gaze blank horizon; his voice.
as he himself has recognized. was that OF one
crying In a wilderness and with no language
but cry. The author of In Memoriam." like
tho audience he addressed. had partially alb
jured an old creed. but had not found a new :
his generation had not passed from the tu-
mutt OF harassing. reluctant skeptcism to
the calm which certain thinkers aver Is to
be found In candid. resigned agnosticism
The exciting conditions Of his verse
were nearly identical with those which
inspired De Musset a difference OF individual
character and experience accounting for the
different accent In the strains OF the French
lyrist. So far as the two are lyrical exponents
OF their day the surprising temporary lustre
OF their names and their subsequent obscura-
tion are explicable on the Same grounds
There was time when Rolla" and I'm Me-
moriam" were in everybody's hands. because
every one had the key TO them. II we have
ceased to ponder them with the same poignant
eagerness. II is because the key Is no longer
cared for. Regarded as disclosures OF current
| feeling and aspiration they do not now wear
the look OF contemporary outpourngs; they
| have become historical documents. In Eng
land. at all events. later singers have struck q
note more perfectly in unison with the temper
OF the hour. So far as the agnostic philosophy
| tends toward sensuous egoism II has been
most effectively interpreted by William Morris
| In The Earthly Paradise;" while on its ethical
and sentimental side Matthew Arnold utters
| the voice Of its wistful and unsatis0ed aspira-
tions. Indeed. no poet has yet arisen to depict
| the benignant play OF those atruistic impulses
in which Herbert Spencer the philosopher OF
the school. secs sufflclng substitute for re-
| ligion and the hope of civilization.
Alfred de Musset is still great. not only be-
cause his exquisite artistic aptitudes have not
been paralleled By any Of his successors but
! because he was dramatic as well as lyric
poet. That Tennyson is distinctly wanting in
| the faculty OF dramatic creation. OF voluntary
metempsychosis. OF self-transportation into
mutiform personalities and amid uutried sur
roundings, will not now be gansad by the
most friendly critic. This deficiency. which
was scarcely sensible so long as he uttered a
wldefelt yearning and repinng. must become
more and more a cause OF dissatisfaction to
those for whom his ZeitOeist will be m enigma
or an archaism. III Browning's lot has been
| tho converse of Tennyson's. II his repu-
tation has slowly and steadily waxed in
| stead OF waning, it is because the one
possesses in superatiye degree the quality
absent In the other. 1t was just because
Browning could not show himself moro sensi.
tive to tho impact and atmosphere OF one age
than OF another, because his eye and thought
| seemed rs Hucn NJ nome IN tho AtnenS OF Eurl-
| pides the Lombardy Of Sordello or tho mid.
night OF mediGval Germany. as In tho cross.
lights and turmoil Of the modern world, be.
cause. in word. his mind was. 30 to speak
cosmopolitan and cosmochronical. that no mea,
surably failed to win the enr of contemporaries
preoccupied with echoes Of their own musings
and mlsGivings. 1t was natural that the orb o
Tennysons genius should transcend Brown
inGs to tho popular eye whie its rays were re-
fractcd through haze OF intense though eva
nescent sympathy. But it might have been pro
dcted thht the skies once cleared Brownng's
would outshine tho other.
In his role OF artist. nlso. Tennyson has beer
relegated ID a secondary place. Thers was
time when even those who imputed d want 0
fibre 10 his poetry. anG protessed to have out
grown sympathy with It's spirit, still acknowl
edged his Incompatible GRASP Oh tne mocha
nism OF verse. and his curious felicity ot phrRs
and epthct. In the clements Of technical per
fecton be eviI ced n marked superiority, 4 no
at all points to Shelley, yot certainly to hi
ether teachers. Wordsworth Cosridge. an,
Keats As for Byron. whose star was still il
tha AgceI dant during II, nnvaon'a vOrth I'm