The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-07

| poets Tennyson and William Norris, the
| Rev. C. J. Robinson Vicar of Horsham),
the Rev f. Boxcott Vicar of Warnham),
| the Rev A. F. Young. the Rev. J. J. Mar
ten, the Rev. C. NJ. Greenway, the Rev.
stopford A. Brooke, Professor Dowden.
William NJ. Rossetti, Leslie Stephen. An
drew Lang. Lord Coleridge. Sir Frederick
Leighton, the artist; Henry Irving. the
actor. and Archdeacon Farrar, Of the
English church. These names Of men Of
the highest distinction, representing the
leading names in literature, law, art, re-
ligion and scholarship, illustrate the e1-
traordinary revolution that has taken
place in English public opinion
during the seventy years that
have elapsed since Shelley's death.
These admirers of Shelley propose to ap-
peal to all who hold the memory Of the
poet dear to aid them in the erection of .
memorial library and museum to be estab-
lished at his birthplace, Horsham, SUSSEX
county, England.
1t is fact worth noting that Shelley's
ancestors on his fathers side were Ameri-
can; they were born and bred in
New Jersey and settled in England. The
popular immortality of Shelley is due and
will Always be due to his minor poems,
like 1.-The skylark," "The Cloud" 1.-THE
Sensitive Plant" "Arethusa." "Pan,"
lode to the West Wind" "Stanzas Writ
ten in Detection Near Naples" Might"
and last and most Of all 70 his "Adonais."
written in memory Of his friend, the poet
Keats. and Justly regarded as the mobiles.
elegiac poem in the English language.
"The Revolt Of Islam" and Prone
theus Unbound" display lofty poetic
genius, but, like all poetry Of metaphy.i-
cal, psychological, or didactic color, they
will always be caviare to the general.
Shelley, the skylark, winging his flight,
singing and circling his upward way to
the sun, speaks in his minor poems, while
Shelley. the pensive nightingale. wsrbllng
rich and plaintiye notes out Of the calm
dusk and quiet of his tender soul, nobly
voices himself in "Adonais." Not even
Milton in ''Lycidas" touched his harp to
finer strains than Shelley in "Adonais."
Professor Boyesen, Of Columbia college, in
recent estimate of Shelley's poetry, says:
Shelley was q reed shaken By the wind and
gave forth a weird aeolian music He was sadly
lacking in common sense. which did not, how.
ever, prevent bis possessing qualities which are
higher and rarer than common-sense He had
keen and subtitle insight which was accom-.
panied by high-strung nerves, headlong gen.
crosby and q burning sense of justice. He re-
COILS from contact with actual men, and has Q
poor opinion Of the great majority of them. But
humanity he epostrophizes in enrapsured
verse and prophesies for II the grand
est fate and the most exalted future
The restless heart-hurger for an una.tainable
bliss; the breathless chase alter beautiful me-
teoric visions which fade and dissolve at the
first touch OF analysing reason; the quiverng,
painting, pa!pitating expectation which reaches
out TO embrace the god-like and ever clasps the
cloud; the lament, sometimes indignant, some.
times tender and heart-broksn, at the incom-
patibility OF reality with the fe,vid Wis.,
ions OF his soui-this 10 all expressed in
sneileys Lyrical cry" Take. for instance,
"Ihe skylark." with its swift painting rhythm,
rising like the bird itself with ftfuI flight and
then the long, warbling line while IL rests on
wing, pouring forth its profuse strains of I'M
premeditated art" The aspiring, unsatisned
and unsatisnable part of shelIey's personality 10
all In this exquisite lyric The bird Is 70 him
but winged symbol OF divine unrest The
lark has caught the keynote OF the
poets soul and loses its earthly individ.
uaiity. Note how tncorporeal the bird becomes
in shelley's verse. No part OF its natural his.
tory il utilized; not even its color 10 mentioned
The ordinary word that 10 used to portray Shell.
iey's attitude toward reality Is ideslism- His
sorrow, his perpetual lament, was the imper.
lection OF earth-its unwiilingness to b re-
modelled in accordance with the poets fervid
vision Hence the discords which shock, but
often again heighten the musical effect in his
verse. To the end OF his brief life Shelley
stretched out his hands after the unattainable
and shed bitter tears because he could mos
grasp It