Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-04-24
dbe fa,,faster 1ntrlli9cnfer.
LANCASTER. APRIL "a, 1885.
A Laureate's Decadence.

land and, being recently raised to the
.peerage by his gracious queen, now baron
something of somewhere, has felt i'm
PEELED by the force of his position in the
realm Of letters and in the civil state, to
write new poem. 1t is intended to call
the attention of England to the INSULT
cheney Of its fleet, and to upbraid somebody
for its falling off.
It might be suspected that in cabling
( this poem over to us as the production of
tho loftiest, living, literary genius, at this
time Of great national crisis, when Eng
lands weakness is pitifully exposed and |
her prestige on the seas is endangered, |
some Of tile British people were playing a |
trick on the American newspapers or their
own bard But Mr.. Tennyson has done
some such very bad things in this line, and
his attempts to fire the national heart have
80 often been melancholy failures, that we
are reluctantly constrained to believe he
really wrote the balderdash printed over
his familiar name in the London Times of
yesterday. The least captious critic will
readily admit that scarcely any other name
attached to these lines could have
secured for them local publication, let
alone worldwide reading. They are
utterly destitute of poetic sentiment, or
single spark of the divine afflatus; and
will be viewed simply as literary curl
osity, and with wonder that poet of Mr..
Tennyson's reputation could have so
lacked discrimination as to print them
even had he so far fallen from his high es-
tate as to write them.
For, like his recent ode to Freedom in
comparison with that brilliant outburst
''Of old sat Freedom on her heights, - III
like his Charge of The Heavy Bri-
gade" aside vi the earlier, spirited
aAd dashing lines about Balaklava, Mr..
Tennyson's later work shows a mourn
full decadence of his former powers.
It is useless to deny him high place
among the poets of the century or that he
has far better earned the post of laureate
than many who preceded him in it. He has
done much to express and to strengthen
the national spirit of England, and even
his poems for special occasions, when poets
generally fall far short Of their best powers
have contributed no little to the literatur
Of his age. Who has better described the
genius of England's free government thar
his tribute to the august decree" of
"Her throne unshaken still
Broadbased upon her peoples VIII
And compassed by the inviolate
Or where is England s. '.,' feiio"h n'oi'
eloquently praised '.ii'ii III 'le lines
= settled government,
.. Ala of old and just renown
Where Freedom broadens slowly down
From precedent TO precedent"
What soul there is in the lines 'sThy
voice is heard through rolling drums :
and how all England bowed and wept, ant
all the world joined its tears when theN
heard his ode on the death of Wellington
40 good gray head which all men knew
voice from which their omens all men drew
iron nerve to true occasion true
0 fallen ut length that tower of strength
Which stood four square to all the winds o
heaven that blew.
Peace, his triumph will be sung
By some yet unmoulded tongue
Far on In summers that we shall not see
This Tennyson, of "Locksley Hail. ant
In Memoriam," of Mariana - ant
The Princess" whose " Bugle Song ,
comes down the years and sets 6 the wild
echoes flying this is the Tennysor
whom literature will love and cherish
while it will try and forget such effusion
as that which the cable brings us now.