New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-25

intensity and pre- phaelite minueness OF detail
he resemble the first writers OF the Victorian era.
He always lacked finish, though often he was
elegant, No poet OF decided power wrote more un-
evenly in fact and his slovealiness was not merely
careless, but too often offensive.
With n freer and less artificial metre than the
hcroics to which he chung, there can be little doubt
that Crabbe might have secured recognition from
the changed taste which Wordsworth and those
who came after him effected mnstcred to.
No modern poet has written with more fire, fancy
and graphic power, and he chose his subjects from
places of life which are of perennial interest
The struggles, suTcrngs temptations and crimes
of the poor the vcissitudes of that middle class
which as he Justly observed offered better ex-
amples of marked indivdualism than either the
highest or thes lowest ranks of society, afforded
him materials for series of mctrlcal narratives
and striking pictures which possessed merit enough
to preserve them from oblivion, but were sunk
by the monotony and rgdity of the medium
through which they were presented. The opln-
ion which the most distinguished among Crabbes
contemporaries entertained concerning his poetry
was too uniformly high not TO command respect
full consideration. The Endorsement or such men
as Burke and Fox, johnson and Reynolds, Clifford,
Jeffrey and Wilson, Sir Walter Scott Byron,
Jane Austen. Wordsworth and Rogers, 1ennys0n
and Cardinal Newman, cannot be disrsgarded All
of these recognized in him, as Mr. kebbel says
the vigorous creative faculty, the power Of ryth-
mcal expression, the command over the passions
add the knowledge of the human heart, which arc
the essential constituents OF n real and great poet
From Johnson TO Tennyson is a long stretch
and the writer who could please many of the best
minds throughout that broad period certainly
must have possessed uncommon gifts
Yet il is true that Crabbe wanted poetical
IMAGINATION. He could not appreciate the beau
ties of a fine landscape, Though an enthusiastic
botanst IN had little love for nature. His best
poems embody marvellously faithful reports OF
what he saw, but they lack spontanclty and that
sympathy with nature which is perhaps the
truest test Of the highest poetry His taste, too,
was treacherous. In the middle OF melodious
passage it permitted him to interlect the most
astonishing yulgarsms and inaniiies- His higher
note was seldom sustained. 1t was always liable
to break at a critical moment. His pathos and
his bathos ran too close together. Nog did he
in his later years take ordinary pains to perfect
his verse. candidly avowing that since his reputa-
ton was established he thought it no longer ncces-
sary to file his line" This carelcssness is no
doubt one of the causes of his rapid decline In
popularity but none the less the main reason
Ing when lie hourished. Yet there are things in
Crabbc which will always live with the few, and
one Of his strongest claims TO rcmem-
brancs is his indubitabie earnestncss. Ills
poems of social life have nothing OF
the vapid affectaton of Indifference which charac
terized so many of his predecessors nor are they
rendered inspid by the veneer Of classicallsm
which has long been in the vogue One cannot
but feel in reading him that he was essentially
man of the people, and in many respects curiousy
modern There is sombre fire In much OF his
verse which reflects the darker phases of his
experience. In his later and less agitated period
there is fneness of character analysis which, rs
Mr. Kcbbel remarks. is more suggestive OF George
Eliot than Of any of Crabbes contemporaries On
the whole, too be maintained the level Of his
verse. With many weak lines and bad couplcts
he published no really bad poems. He retained
his vigor and descriptive power to the last, and
after long and fairly prosperous career he died
full of honor and before his fame had begun
to pale.
Whether he be Justly entitled 10 the distinction
of a great writer is question concerning which
there may reasonably be two opinions; but it
is not TO be disputed that he was real ard
remarkable poet and If actual merit always de-
termne such matters. it would lave 10 be adj
mitted that George Crabbe has n stronger claim
upon the attention of prosperity than many poets
who have been remembered far longer.