The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-10-20
Byron's Rank as a Poet.

Scarce page of his verse even aspires
to perfection; hardly stanza will bear
the minute word-by-word dissection
which only brings into clearer view the
delicate touches of Keats or Tennyson;
his pictures with big brush were never
meant for the microscope. Here the
contrast between his theoretic worship of
his idol and his own practice reaches
climax. If, as he professed to believe,
the best poet is he who best executes
his work, then he is hardly a poet
at all; He is habitually rapid and
slovenl y; an improvisatore on the spot
where his fancy is kindled, writing cur
rente calanao, and disdaining the " art to
blot. can never recast anything. I
am like the tiger; if I miss the first
spring, 60 grumbling back to nv Jun
gle" He said to Medwin, BLANK verse
is the most difficult, because every line
must be good" Consequently his own
blank verse is always defective-some-
times execrable. No one else-except,
perhaps Wordsworth-who could write
so well, could also write so i'll. This
tact IN Byron's case seems due not to
mere carelessness, but to incapacity.
Something seems to stand behind him
like the slave in the chariot, to check the
current of his highest thought. The
glory of his fancy fades with the sudden
ness OF southern sunset. His best in
SEPARATIONS are spoilt by the interruption
OF lncongruous commonplace. He had
none of the guardian delicacy of taste,
or thirst after completeness, which mark
the consummate artist. He is more
nearly dwarf Shakespeare than a giant
Pope. This defect was most mischievous
where he was weakest, in his dramas and
his lyrics, least so where he was strong
est, In his mature satires. 1t is almost
transmitted into an excellence in the
greatest of these, which is by design and
IN detail a temple of incongruity.
If we turn from his manner to his mat
ter we cannot claim for Byron any abgo-
Lutte originality. His sources have been
found in Rousseau, Voltaire, Chateau
brand, Beaumarchais, Lauzun, Gibbon.
Bayle, st. Pierre, Alferi, CAST, Culver
La Bruyere, Wieland, Swift, Sterne. LIE
sage, Goethe, scraps of the classics and
the Book of Job. Absolute originality
IN late age is only possible to the her
init, the lunatic, or the sensation move
list. Byron, like the rovers before
Minos, was not ashamed of his piracy
lie transferred the random prose of his
own letters and journals to his dramas
and with the same complacency made
use OF the notes jotted down from other
writers as he sailed on the Lake Of
Geneva. But he made them his own bv
Iecasting the rough ore into bell metal
lie brewed cauldron like that of Mac
beths witches and from it arose the
images Of crowned kings. IF he did not
bring new idea into the world. he
quadrupled the force of existing IDEAS
and scattered them far and wide. South
ern critics have maintained that he had
southern nature, and was in his true
element on the Lido or under an An
dalusian night Others dwell ON the
English pride that went along with his
Italian habits and Greek gympatbies
The truth is he had the power Of max
ing himself POLITICALLY everywhere at
home; and this, along with the fact Of
all his writings being perfectly inteliipi-