The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-10-07
AGREAr POET Ahp HIS WORK,

When a great poet dies it is to the
world he leaves less of aseparation than
when another man ends his earthly
career. For the poet has already given
SO much of the riches of his soul that
his personality remains hardly less
s.reng than when he was yet in the flesh
and singing new songs. The more
clearly he has spoken. the truer his in
terpretations of life and it's mysteries.
the stronger the sense of his continued
existence, the greater the difficulty OF
realizing that he has himself passed on.
No poet of this century has given more
of himself to the world than has Tenny-
son. Other writer's of verse ave pub
lished more volumes, perhaps, but none
has made his work so much a part of
the literature, has so incorporated it
even into the daily speech Of the people.
1t is the poet who CLOCKS In his heart
and writes" who is quoted. because.
in speaking for himself, he interprcts
humanity, and all men understand.
TennysOn has lived an uneventful,
peaceful life, but he has read tine heart
and run the scale of human emotion. No
sweeter owe poems are in the language
than he has written; joy and hope, grief
and regret. jealousy and hate, wild pas
sion and calm content have been ex-
pressed in lines that meet approval be-
cause of their truth. He has written
verses that are great because of their
philosophical thought. their spiritual
insight and their n d sympathy with
living and %sorrowinR mankind. This
sympathy ia not expressed for mankind
in the mass, but for the individual, thus
fitted one is equally applicable to an-
other. He does not Reneralize. but is
specific. He mourns for his friend in
"In Memoriam," but his grief, gradually
mounting from bitter, unreasoning re-
greet to the height where he sees its les
son and Christening, ~elevating influence,
is the grief of every rational mourner
for the dead.
Regret is dead, but love is more
Than in the um'ner that are flown,
For l myself with these have grown
To something greater than before.
The story of 1.-The Princess" is simply
the everyday story, told as genius and
an interpreter of the heart feminine can
tell it, of other women who give up per-
sonal ambition when love calls. He has
taken the time-worn tales of the Round
Table and vlvified them until Arthur
and LauncelOt, Guinevere and Elaine
and the rest, with their sorrows. and
loves, and temptations, are real. There
is tragedy in the story of Maud, "Queen
rose of the rosebud garden of girls"
tragedy in Enoch Arden, o history
which, in one form and another, is re-
peated in prosaic newspaper record al
most weekly. But to chronicle his
poems that live and will live is to chron-
icle all. No other modern poet has
taken wider range He pleases the
cultured critics of form and finish. and
ne pleases those who care most for
thought and sentiment. His characters
popular fiction. His songs are sung
wherever the English tongue Is spoken.
The heart breaking pathos of the cry
But oh for the touch of a VANISHED hand
And the sound OF a voice that is still,
has touched man. a nearer who never
knew its source beyond the singers lips.
No other poet has given more lyrics that
have been set to music INT have reached
| the multitude who read but little. The
Brook" they all know, and the Fare
welr"-
Flow down. cold rivulet, to the sea
Thy tribute wave deliver;
No more by thee my steps shall be
Forever and forever.
clears, Idle Tears" "The Swallow
Flying South" Love that Hath Us in
the Net" and "There Has Fallen aSplen-
did Tear" rave been heard on the con
cert stage and in village parlOrs the
world over. Young hearts will thrill
responsive to this last song when "tbs
messy marbles rest" on the poets grave:
My dust would hear her and beat
Had I lain for a century dead;
Would start and tremble under her feet
And blossom in purple and red.
He spoke to others than lovers when
he wrot" 1.-The Higher Pantheism:"
Speak to Him, thou. for He hears, and spirit with
spirit Can meet
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than
hands and feet.
He was a great poet, whose work has
become classic in his own time, and of
none will it " he more truly said that
though being dead. he yet speaketh.