New-York tribune., 1882-02-17
NEW PUBLICATIONS.


TENDER AND TRUE. pocms Of Love Selected asdr, ~
the Editcr of Quiet Hours" ""sushine In the Scn,
etc. Boston: George II. Ellis. 1882. IAttls Classic
size. PIP. 1907
There are two ways of looking at a book like tins
the tender way and the true way. We begin with
the first 1t is collection Of love poems selected from
the writings of ffty-eight known writers, EngiiSh'
American, and foreign, and the writings OF seven
teen members of the large family OF the Ahohy-
nous There arc IN all one hundred and forty
different poems tso-called in one hundred ana
ty-four pages, the average being one poem
and the eleven -hundrcdth OF poem TO page.
There are great names here-Michael Angelo lin the
translations of Wordsworth, Taylor, and Hartley
Coeridgel Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert
Browning, Byron, Carew, George Eliot Ralph
Waldo Emerson, Herrick, Hood. Jonson, Kingsley,
Iovelace Longfellow, Lowell Lord Houghton,
Montrose. Petrarch. Scott. Shakespeare. Shelley,
Sidney Spenser Tennyson Thackeray, Waller, and
Wordsworth OF the exquisite beauty OF many OF
the twenty-siX poets that we have named, ana OF
the utter mpossibilty of emitting the least of them
from n book of this kind. there can be no question.
They are rightly here. We have, ueleve, been
tender so far in our notice, at any rate we have
tried to be tender.
Now let us he true, and in order to bo so we will
make a few triHing enumerations of the number OF
lines occupied by some of the ftty-eght authors
that we have alluded to. Place dar danes. Mrs.
Browning fills one hundred and sixty-seven lines,
Robert Brow ming two hundred and five lines, Barns
two hundred and four lines. Byron eighteen lines,
Carew twelve lines, Clough seventy-nine lines,
Crashaw sixty-three lines Cunningham thrty-two
lines Emerson six lines, Montrose forty lines,
Herrick twenty lines, Hood twenty lines, Jonson
thirty lines, Kingsley twelve lines, Longfellow
fity-six lines, Loveace tOrty-siX lines, Lowell
seventy-two lines, Houghton thirty-two lines, Pat
more two hundred and thirty lines, Adelaide Proctor
one hundred lines Christina RosSetti ffty-one
lines, Scott sixteen lines Shakespeare one hundred
and twenty y-three lines, Shelley seventyfve lines,
Spenser one hundred and seventy nine lines Ten
Dyson two hundred and fOrty-one lines Thack-
cray thirty lines, Waller twelve lines and Words
worth forty-two lines Clearly something is rad
ically wrong in book which represents Emerson by
six lines. Wordsworth by forty-two lines, Shake
speare 10y one hundred and twenty-three lines
and Patmore by two hundred and thirty lines! Let
us now reverse this process of enumeration upon
the populace. That prolific poet Anonymous has de-
voted to his and her productions five hundred and
thirty-two lines Edwin Arnold to his productions
thrty-two lines, Bernard Barton twenty lines,
Dobson sixteen lines, Glider sixty-siX lines, Mis-
Kemble thirty-two lines, Mcdonald ffty-fOur lines
Munby fOrty-eight lines Payne ffty-three lines
Lady John Scott eighteen lines. and Sarah Williams
eighteen lines Clearly something is wrong again.
We run through the Index of Authors, which ap
pears to be- and ought TO be- full and accurate and
what do we fldi That the editor of /" Sunshine in
the Soul" is in Cimmeran darkness as regards the
birth of Edwin Arnold (which in 1881, the
birth and death of Gilbert Cooper (which were re-
spectively in 1928 and 1860, the birth of George
Eliot (which was probably in 1910, the birth of
H. ii. (which was in 1S31l the birth of George Nc
Donald (which was in 1920 the birth of John
Payne (which was in lS43D, the birth of Christina
ROssett (which was in $780, and the death of
Bayard Taylor (which was in 1873, as nobody who
pretends to make a volume of poetical selections
ought to be told. Let what has hap
pened TO some of the poems of some of the fifty
eight poets in question: under the gentle pressure OF
the author of "Quiet Hours" Brownings "0@o
Word More has lost forty-seven lines; Ci;shaw's
"Wishes for the supposed Mistress nas lost sixty
three lines; LcngfellOws changing OF the Crane "
has lost one hundred ard seventy -four lines; Love
laces " To Althea, from Prison" {" "When love with
unconfined wings"l has lost sixteen lines aud his
"Io Lucasta" {" If to be absent we're to be " has
lost six lines; Shellev's Invitation" " {" Best and
brightest come away y has lost eighteen lincs and
Spenser's "Epithalamion " has lost just two hun
dred and ten lines There is not sign which in
dicates that Crashaw's poem has lost line, that
Lovelace's "To Lucasta" has lost a line, that
Shelleys Invitation" has lost line! We are
warned by string of seven periods running
through the middle of " To Althea from Prison"
that something Is gone, and, If we remember the
poem, We instantly recall the missing second and
third stanzas. We are enlightened, however. when
we come to Browning's One Word More" through |
which dart two streaks of asteroids and when we
come TO Longfellows Hanging of the Crane
through which runs a desperate dash Of comets,
and lastly oh, that lastlyY when to
Sponsors "Epthalamion,D through whicn blaze
along four tremendous rushes of consultations,
All these trifes have story to tell and we will
relate il briefly because it will teach the readers of
these paragraphs the open secret of easy book |
making, and how editors fOflCw each other like a
flock of silly sheep over fence and are sometimes
brought up all standing against something impene
trable. Crashaws poem points directly to Mr..
Francis Turner Palgraves "Golden Treasury"
(lS63), where the author of "Tender and True
found it, and dragged ii into the light more
with all Mr. Palgrave's imperfectiOns its head.
IL is Palgravian version of Crashaw that have
and not the true Crashaw, who has been shOrn OF
half his locks and has had the remaining half
blown about in all directions. Not a word of this
In Palgrave, good easy man, who has the temerty |
to omit two stanzas from Hoods exquisite Death |
Bed Il" We watched her breathing through the |
night "" on the delightful plea that they are in |
genous. and not in accordance with pathos the |
spectacle of Palgraye sitting jury upon Hood >. |
and has the SURPRISING impudence to print solitary
strophe from Ben JonsOns Incompatible Ode To |
the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that |
Noble Pair Sir Lucus Cary and Sir Henry Mor |
SON" and to call that strophe (" 1t is not growing
like q tree" a hgh-tOned and lovely madrigal, and |
that only in his patronzing Notes. 1t Will not do
10 pass quiet hours in the poetic society of this
self satisfied man. for so passed they are not CON
ducive to sunshine in the soul. Nor is it well for
our tender and true person TO consult anthoogies
like his own or her own they are wOfully mis- |