The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-01-28

of his writings, is vastly significant of
the great personal force that is inherent
in the name and memory of Byron.
1t has been considered necessary to
account for the sadness and gloom of
Byron's poetry by representing him to
have been a criminal afflicted with re-
morse for his many and hideous crimes.
His widow, evidently monomamac,
after long brooding over the remem-
brance of a calamitous married life
brief, but unhappy and terminated in
separation-whlspered against him, and
against his half sister, an atrocious
charge; and this, to the shame and
disgrace of American literature, was
brought forward few years ago by a
distinguished female writer of America,
much noted for her works of fiction,
and especially memorable for this one.
The explanation of the mental distress
exhibited in the poets writings was
thought to be effectually provided in
that disclosure. But, as this disgrace
ful, revolving and inhuman story-dese-
Grating graves, insulting great and
noble genius, and casting intamy upon
the name OF sweet, affectlonate, faith
full and virtuous woman-fell to pieces
the moment it was examined, the student
of Byron's grief stricken nature remained
no wiser than before this fgment OF a
diseased imagination had been d.
vulegd. Surely, however, it ought
not to be considered mysterious tina,
Byron's poetry is often sad. The best
poetry of all the poets is touched with
sadness. "Hamlet" has never been
mistaken for merry production
Macbeth and "King Lear" do not
commonly produce laughter. Shelley
and Keats sing as near to heaven:
gate as anybody, and both of them are
essentially sad. Scott was as brave and
manly and CHEEKY as any poet that ever
lived, and Scott's poetry is at its best il
his dirges. The "Elegy' anG "The
Ancient Mariner" certainly are grea
poems. but neither Of them is festive
Byron often wrote sadly because he
was, naturally, man Of a melancholy
temperament, and because he deeply
felt the pathos of mortal life, the awtu
mystery with which it is surrounded
the pain with which it is usually at
tended, the tragedy with which it com,
monty is accompanied. the frail tenure
with which its loves and hopes are held
and the memorable death with which il
is continually environed and at last
extinguished. And Byron was an un
happy man for the reason that, possess
ing every elemental natural quality ii
excess, his exquisite goodness was con
stantly outraged and tortured by hi.
inordlnate evil. The tempest, the clan
gor, and the agony of his writings art
denotements of the struggle between
good and evil that was rerpetuall,
affecting ms soul. Had he been The
wicked man depicted by his detractor'
he would have lived life of comfortable
depravity and never would have writer
at all. Monsters do not suffer.
The true appreciation OF Byron is no
that of youth but that of manhood
Youth is captured by his pictorial anc
sentimental attributes. Youth behold
him as nautical Adonis, standing
lonely upon barren cliff, and gazing a
stormy sunset over the Egean Sea
Everybody knows that familiar picture
with the wide turnover collar, tht
great eyes, the wild hair, and the ample
neckcloth flowing on the breeze. 1t il
very pretty, but it is not bit like tht
real man. If ever a. any time ne wa
that sentimental guy he speedily out
grew that condition, just as those OBJ
servers of him who truly understand
Byron have long outgrown their juve
nile sympathy with that frail and puny
ideal of great poet. Manhood per
ceives very different individual ant
is captured by very different attrac
ton. 1t is only when the first extrava
CANT and effusive enthusiasm has run it
course, and perhaps ended in revulsion
that we come to know Byron for wha
he is really worth, and to feel the tire
mendous power of his genius. Senti
mental folly has commemorated him Oh
the margin of Hyde Park in London
as in the fancy of many callow you'll
and green girl, with the statue of ;
pretty sailor lad waiting for spark from
heaven, while big Newfoundland dos
dozes at his feet. II is a poor anc
pitiful carlcature. Byron was a man
and a man terribly in earnest and it il
only by earnest men that his mind anC
works are understood. At this distance
of time the scandals of a corrupt age
equally with the frallties of its mos
brilliant and most lllustrious poetica
genius, may we'll be left to rest in the
oblivion of the grave. The generation
that is living at the close of the nine.
teenth century will remember of Byron
only that he was the uncompromisinl
friend of liberty and popular rights
that he did much TO emanclpate the
human mind from every form of bigotr.
and tyranny; that he augmented, as nc
man had done since Dryden, the powe
and hexibiliy of our noble Englisi
tongue, and that he enriched literature
with passages OF poetry which, for sub
Unity, beauty, tenderness and eloquence
have seldom been equalled and have
never been excelled.
WILLIAM WINTER.