The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-06-22

sweetness of temper he has paid ma
ny beautiful and loving tributes
The durability as we'll as the inten
sity Of his domestic happiness is re
flected in those beautiful lines
"she was q phantom of delight,
A spirit, yet woman too
A perfect woman nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command
With something of an angel light.
After changing his residence sew
eral times he at last settled perma
nently at Rydal Mount, and was ap
pointed Distributor of Stamps TO
the county of Westmoreland, the re
ceipts of which Office rendered hin
independent. In 1914 appeared tn,
Excursion" which was followed tn,
next year by the white Doe o
Keystone"
His "Sonnets" and sEcclesiastic
al sketches" were next given to tn,
world and were received with greater
favor than many of his former pro
auctions. He read the Eneid agar
and again, and translated the frs
three books. In ",aodamia" ano
many of his shorter poems the influ
ence of Virgil can be plainly traced
He travelled extensively from 1923 tt
1887, visiting Holland, and Wales
Belgium, Ireland, Scotland Italy.
His fame increased slowly but sure
ly, and in 1888 the University o.
Dublin conferred upon him the de-
gree of DEE; Oxford did the same
the year following, and five years la
ter he was appointed Poet Laureate
He survived nearly all his contem
poraries, and at last passed peaceful
ly away on tho 23rd of April, 1850
in his eightieth year. He reposes,
according to his expressed wish. be
meath the green turf Of Grasmere, by
the side of murmuring stream
amid the mountains which he loved
Wordsworth's greatest poem, and
one OF the most remarkable in the
language, is the Excursion" 1t is
a philosophical poem, dealing with
the moral qualities and du-
ties of man, his relation to his fel.
low man and TO God. 1t consists
of nine books and was intended as
the second part of an immense work
to be called the "Recluse," designed
to give an account of the growth of
his mind. and to develop and explain
all the peculiarities of his system
of thought.
The first part, entitled the Pre-
lude," was not published until after
the authors death, and the third
part was never written. In speaking
of his various works he compared
the Excursion" to Gothic church,
the prelude to the ante-chapel of
that church and his shorter poems
and sonnets to the little cells, ora
tories, and sepulchral recesses with
which such edifices usually abound.
The plan, which is taken from a two or
three days walk among the noun
tains, is characterized by insignifi-
canoe and consequent lack of inter
est. While we are compelled to crit
else him for the lack of taste dis
played in the selection of his charac-
tiers, yet we cannot but wonder at
the beautiful fabric he has woven
with this poor material. The poet
meets with anIold Scotch peddler, who
is called the "Wanderer,' and who
represents shrewd natural sense. He
is conducted by this character to a
distant and secluded valley where
dwells a strange enthusiast known
as the Solitary, who represents one
in whom faith is dead, and who, on
account of disappointed hope and the
despair of sorrow, has been driven
into exile. The subject Of the poem
is the contrast between the Wander
er and the Solitary, between cheer
fulness and misanthropy. The Pas
tor is at length introduced. repre-
senting culture, religion, and Chris
tian philosophy The remainder Of
the poem is occupied with the efforts
Of the Pastor, and the Wanderer to
rescue the Solitary from his hopeless
sorrow and unbelief.
The theme is a grand one and
worthy of the noblest treatment.
Jeffrey, whose exalted position as
a critic was undisputed, stigmatized
some of its sublimest passages as
'unintelligible rawlings 1t must be
acknowledged that the tone of the
poem is not always sustained, and
that it sometimes becomes heavy and
labored, yet it contains many pas
sages of grandeur and beauty.
A critical analysis, however, will
show that the movement is irregular
and undulatory, unlike the verse of
Milton, which rolls on in a mighty
river of thought, rising into grand
eur and moving with a fullness ma
jestic and sublime.
While this is true, it contains
many magnificent passages, and a
beauty all its own. He never suffers
the material world to cncroach on
the spiritual, and teaches that "The
universe, this material universe, is
a shell from which the ear of
Faith can hear mysterious murmur-
ings of the Deity" When we con-
slider it as a philosophical poem in
it's entirety, it is tedious, disconnect-
ed, and poorly executed; when we
examine it in fragments we discover
the most exquisite passages to which
any poetic mind ever gave express
sion. Its reputation as a poem de-
ponds not upon its philosophy, its ex
uberance of fancy, or its wealth of
description, but upon its rigid NOR
ality, and the depth and delicacy of
its sentiment.
Says Taine, ''In the Excursion"
we forget the poverty of the getting
up to admire the purity and eleya-
tion of thought.
In power of intellect" says Haz-
lit, sin lofty conception, in the depth
of feeling, at once simple and sub
lime, which pervade every part of it,
and which gives to every object an
almost preter-natural and preter-hu-
man interest, this work has seldom
been surpassed
The "White Doe of Rylstone" was
considered by the poet, in concep-
ton, the highest work he had ever
produced.
jeffrey pronounced it "the worst
poem ever printed in a quarto vol
y