The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-01-22

| and a lover OF form and color. Inc
height Of his achievements In single
! short poems ,e,ins to be Incompatible
No poet has ever had a profounder
| knowledge Of the laws of metrical music
| ANY one can recall at will scores Of lines
which cling to the memory by the charm
of their own exquisite music. Take such
lines as the following from 1.-The Prin-
| cess.
"Myraids Of rivuiets hurrying through
the lawn,
The moan OF doves In immemorial elms.
And naurmurins Of innumerabie bees
In these lines there 10 all the overpow-
ering Imaginative charm and melody OF
which words are capable. Again and
| again he has polished and remolded his
| earlier poems until the melody has grown
more subtle. more penetrsshg. more mag
! ical Tennysons Brook" has fresh
ness and iiquid babble OF selected words
which charm everybody:
chatter over stony ways.
| In little sharps and trebles;
1 bubble into eddying bays.
! ] babble on the pebbles.
| With many a curve my banks I fret
BY many a field and fallow.
| And many a fairy foreland set
With willow weed and mallow.
I chatter, chatter. as l flow
To join the Drumming river,
! For men may come and men may 90,
But l go on for ever.
BY the side OF this who does not at
| once think of the cradle song In THE
| Princess:
Father will come 10 his babe IN the nest
| Silver sails all out OF the west,
Under the silver moon
Sleep my little one, sleep, my pretty one,
sleepl
In poems like these we find the cunning
] melody OF Moore, the rich fulness Of
Keats, and the simplicity Of Wordsworth
But while he accepts their principles he
| seemed to have escaped the snares
which had proved too subtle
for Keats or Wordsworth. Even in his
limitations and earlier poems there are
| Messages combining simplicity and beauty
| in a manner that gives richness. depth ana
majesty OF tone TO his poems. beside
which the pastorals Of hts contempora-
ries appear like the colorings Of the Ro-
| coco age by the side OF the immortal
paintings OF the Italian masters
| The song Of THE Lotos Eaters" ts
| picturesque and melodious assemblage
| OF all images In nature that can suggest
or persuade repose. How exquisitely does
the poem represent the luxurious sleepi-
ness produced by the lotos! How perfect
! ly is the deep quietude. the dreamy haze
! the lulling spell OF the enchanted land
| reflected in the verse:
| There is sweet music here that softer
Than petals from blown roses on the
| grass,
Or night dews on still waters between
| walls
or shadowy granite. in a cleaning pass;
Music that gentler on the spirit lies
| Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
Music that brings sweet sleep down from
/ a IL
| Here are cool MOSES deep,
And through the moss Of ivies creep.
And in the stream the iong-leaved fow-
ers weep.
And from the craggy ledge the poppy
| hangs in sleep.
How skilfully is the languld mood Of
the weary soul given In the following:
How sweet II were. hearing the down.
ward stream
With half-shut eyes. ever to seem
| Failing asleep in a half dreamt
| To hear each others whispered speech
| Eating the lotos day BY day.
| To watch tho crisping ripples on the
beach
And tender curving lines OF creamy
spray;
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
| To the influence Of mild-minded mean
choly;
memory
With those old faces Of our infancy
Heaped over with a mound OF grass
Two handfulls OF white dust shut in an
urn OF brass!
1.-THE May Queen" is a picture OF resig-
nation OF beautiful young girl dying in
her prime before life has lost It's fresh
ness, before decay and sorrow have made
her familiar with the thought OF death.
II hn a
vanities OF her life. the familiar places
she must leave. all the shining world OF
which she was the centre, pass over her
mind like shadows. Gradually she grows
familiar with the thought OF total sepa-
ration from all she knows, and death
appears but as passage TO new lie.
The forrless void takes shape and sub
stance and attracts her whole spirit as
she gazes into it,
oh, lookl the sun begins to rise, the
heavens are in glow;
He shines upon a hundred fields, and all
OF them ! know.
And there l move no longer DOW and
there the ligh, may shine,
Wild flowers in the valley for other
hands than mine.
Oh! sweet and strange IL seems 10 me
that ere this day is done
The voice that now lie speaking may be
beyond the sun.
Forever and forever with those just souls
and true.
And what is life that we shall moan?
Why make we such ado?
Forever and forever. all In blessed
home,
And there to wait little while till you
and Effie come.
To lie within the light OF God as 1 lie
upon your breast.
And the wicked cease from troubling ana
the weary ore at rest.
Now and then he pours forth high
tide of motion with a bllowy splendor
and glorious freedom. as in his first
"Locksley Hail." that song Of progressive
humanity. With The glow Of the prophets
when they spoke Of the age when war
shall be no more. and when the swords
shall be turned into pruning hooks and
lances into ploughshares. Tennyson pic
lures the time when mankind VIII have
attained the ultimate goal. when
the war drum throbb'd no longer and
the battle flags were furled.
I'm the Parliament OF man. the Fedora
,ton Of the world
Where
the common sense of most shall hold .
fretful realm In awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, iapt
In universal law.
In "I>ocksley Hall man rises from
sickness - health eonquertne his sslnsh