The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-02-21
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

When q new poem OF exCraordlnaI
merit flows from a fresh fount, there II
usually u cowardice In criticism which
withholds from 1t, for q while, the ful
recognition of its place In literature
There have been published In mauy places
during the last month, reviews of NAL
morda, a Metrical Romance" by Mr.
Joseph /. G. Clarke, all Of which have
been warmly apprecIative. bat none of
which has seemed to fully recognize that
here something altogether beyond and
above the average of poetic effort has
been given to the world.
Yet this appears to Us to be most I'm
mistakably the case. 1t Is impossible,
we think, to read the lines, at once glow.
ing and majestic, of this noble WORK, with
out feeling ones senses respond to the
thrill of true inspiration.
Malmorla is a Celtic Chieftain holding
sway in the mountainous region OF Ire
land which lies to the south Of Dublin.
He is supposed to flourish In the period
between $50 and 300 A. D., when the
Danes had just consolidated their hold
upon Dublin. and the seacoasts were des-
olate with the ravages Of barbarous inva-
sion. Malmorda and his kerns, In the
sacking of a shipwrecked Danish vessel,
have captured as a prisoner the lady
T~orcala-the accent is on the first sylla-
ble-whose
''littrs ripe form in shimmsry clinging white
Rose queenlike, and her red gold hair fell
waved -
About her neck and DER her half hid breast;
But most her eyes that blue to violet burned
Did fix"
the heart of the wild Celtic prince upon
her whom he chose as his only spoil from
the rich treasure of the Morse ship laden
with booty from the Mediterranean and
the ports of Gaul and England.
The lady was the wife of Asculp, 1.-THE
gray old pirate with the arm of Steel"
whose absence OF a scouting expedition
saved him from the disaster OF his vessel,
but him she never loved, save as a
father" Her captivity speedily ripened
into a bondage Of the heart. and her cap
tor equally became her bondsman.
:" But ugly murmurs were about and rife;
AA0 VO1ACh SASoSCo 80 SAS "SAs
by"
The priests frowned on the enchantress
from a foreign land" and the bards and
rhymers made light verses.
We cannot in the brief space of a news
paper notice do justice to the art with
which the fatality Of events Is linked TO-
gether in this marvellous story, any more
than we can to the pure and perfect
beauty Of some passages or the tumulT
and passion of others. Tainted love,
though ~spiritualizsd in its way. leads on
to bloodshed and sacrilege, and at last,
the narrative reaches the point where
Malmorda and his clansmen are pitted
face to face in the dark hours Of the early
morning against Asculp and his Morse
men, returning from a foray through the
uplands of the principally,
Malmorda crowns the victory of his
men by staying his rival and enemy in
single combat. With a burst of generos-
rant of the Danish force to bear their
captain back to his fortress, and, then, a
victor, swelling with hope and love, he
begins q wild and awful midnight ride
through the passes of the hills to his
stronghold, where he pictures tho lady
Torcala awaiting him, now freed from
the chains OF loveless bridal. and eager to
become his wife in the sight OF his people
and in compliance with the stern code OF
his faith.
This wild and terrible ride with its al
formations Of hope and omen OF the
awful tragedy in which it culmin ates,
has hardly, il ever. been surpassed in its
line. There is nothing in the Idylls of the
King which can be compared with it for
passionate intensity or tragic force. There
is only one work Of art which it occurs to
us to liken to it, that tremendous render
ing of the ancient Celtic legend into the
language of modern music which We find
in Wagner's Tristan n Isolde" and 1t
may be said that il that immortal work
excels the present one In the element OF
pure abstract beauty, and In the pathos
of immutable destiny working out the
consequences of wrong, the story of
MalmordR equally exceeds the great
Wagnerian Musik-D Drama in the yshe-
mence of It's tragic passion, in the rush OF
dramatic action, and in the sublimity OF
the final catastrophe.
Out of these pages, which tell the final
incidents OF the story, n might select
almost any line or any sentence to Illus
trate the inspiration aud the art of the
whole, aud yet so much depends upon the
fatalistic progress. SO consummately is
the effect enhanced by the contrast of the
glowing creations of the hero's miad
with the signs of woe and disaster that
gather thicker and thicker about him,
that it would be comparatively fat aud
sbortive to place any one before the
reader. There is one admirable passage,
however. which may be quoted without
injustice aud without sacrifice. This is
the lyric, after the style OF the Sagas,
which the enraptured and infatuated
Chleftain addresses to his horse:-
.tWeu thou ansqgerest, steed;; tceu thou anslperest
Keeping time to thu hoofs beats nu heart beats
7rampimg louder as faster the sparks fly.
Gauop on like a Valkyr, still oaLiop On.
HoHov thunder thou mak,st on the turJland;
As q jauelin zoe speed by the timber;
In the open thu h~oof-trGnsps beat louder.
| While the dust rises up to the sntoke-cloud.
| Eaoer, oh, eager my soul and my stallion;
n...h b.,t tbe .orfb nc tbo n, en,,y-ns sf n. slnIiftinn