The morning call., 1893-11-30
ENGLISH POETS.
Three Versifiers of the
Last Century.
THOMSON, COLLINS, GRAY.
Seasons, Churchyard EIegy and
Odes.
TWO DEFINITIONS OF NATURE.
The Beauties and Faults of Three
Writers, Some of Whose Works
Have Become Immortal.

The seventh lecture of the extremely
popular University course on the poets
and dramatists of the eighteenth century
was delivered by Professor Louis du Pont
Syle yesterday afternoon in the Hopkins
Art Institute.
In spite of the inclemency of the weather
the room was filled with an audience COM
posed mostly of ladies who had braved
the storm rather than lose single lecture
of the course which has proved itself to be
so full of interest and SO valuable to all
students of literature.
The subject for the afternoon was a
triple one, the lives of the three poets
Thomson, Collins and Gray being briefly
reviewed and their best works compared
and criticized.
OF Thomson, Professor Syle said that
when he went 10 London from his country
home in 1725 hoping. after the manner of
young poets. to make his fortune in the
great city, he managed, by reason of hav-
ing Influential friends. to escape the usual
starvation in garnet PERIOD" through
which many of his brethren of the pen were
forced to pass.
His winter" published in 1726, brought
him twenty guineas and popularity
which ensured his future success. In
winter" Thomson Is at bis best, as in
his later works he never attained the
height which he reached in this poem, al
though he was always remarkable for his
keen observation of nature. his sympathy
with its sights and sounds, and the
melodious roll OF his verse. He was the
poet of naturalism, the mean between
realism and idealism, but nature, which to
Pope meant human nature almost exclu-
sively, meant to Thomson and others of
his school the sum total of things exclu-
sive of man, and all such things as impress
themselves effectively on man. Thorn
sons description of snowstorm was read
to show his true, firm and yet delicate
touch. but being contrasted with a similar
description from Whittier's Snow bound"
was shown to lack the human sympathy
and Imagination characteristic IF the later
poet
Thomson's chief fault was stated to be
his heavy way Of saying things, ''his
elephantine way of crushing an egg
she'll" Po9e's influence was to blame for
this, as also was the fact that Thomson
modelled his work after the Mlltonic style,
thus becoming ponderous and pedantic
and stilted in his phraseology.
st is always dangerous for a man of
talent to try to initiate one of genius" de-
clared the professor. and this attempt on
the part Of Thomson resulted in some of
his least satisfactory lines.
THE Castle of Incidence" is a poem in
which Thomson's real self found happy
expression. He was good-natured. easy
going creature-''the LATEST man in Eng
land" his critic said. and the theme suited
him admirably, while in the Spenserian
style in which 1t is written the exigencies
of the meter forced him to a nicer choice
of words than was habitual to him.
Collins, the first OF the Romanticsts, was
absolutely unified to battle with life, and
his existence in London, whittier he went
after his fathers death had left him de-
pendent on his own eXertiOos. was very
wretched one. He had nothing to offer the
public but very chaste and beautiful
imagination, which was not particularly
marketable at that time, and be did hack
Work Tor mere subsistence and spent
much of his time in prison for debt. HIS
uncle's death left him in comfortable cir
cumstances, but bis inheritance came too
late to make him the man that he might
have been, and he died insane al a COM
paratively early age. The chief character
istic OF his verse was its idyllic quality and
his capacity for expressing emotions In a
lyric form. His poems were generally on
distractions, and are cold and clear like
lcicles. He is "a poets poet" but was
never over popular with the world at
large.
Gray was that rare combination, great
critic and a great poet The critical
faculty nearly always destroys the Great
i've wherever found. and the possession of
the capacity for keen criticism was, Pro
lessor Syle declared. more likely TO be the
reason for the little work which he did
than the often alleged excuse that he lived
In al unappreciative age. Gray's aim in
poetry was to attain cOnciseness of ex-
preston which should also be clear and
musical, and this he often succeeded in ac-
comprising. although he professed to be-
lieve that he never did. His extreme
artistic conscientiousneS was remarkable,
and no poem OF his was ever given to the
world until after it had been toiled over
aud elaborated to the utmost. Gray was
a man of education and culture and al
ways in easy circumstances, so 1t seems
somewhat strange that he never wrote
more than he did, bul all that he did do
was done carefully and laboriously. The
"Elegy in Country Churchyard," which
is so well known, owes its fame to the fact
that while the philosophy therein is
homely and the reflections are neither
startling nor new. it expresses for us
things that we have often thought but
never put into words for ourselves.
The next lecture of the course will be
n al