The Portland daily press., 1894-01-23
THE PRE-RAPHAELITE POETS.
Mr.. John A. Be1Iows's Second Talk on
Modern Literature

The year 1s4S-Mr. Bellows began his
second talk on Modern Literature by
saying-was the year of revolution and
passionate protest against old ideas.
France tried her fortune at being re-
public. Germany was full of agitations
with the watchword, which reminds us
of that of France, Unity, Freedom,
Equality" Italy, under Garibaldi and
Mazzini, whose patriotism found re-
spending thrill in the poetry of Robert
Browning and his wife, began the strug-
gle which later ended in the unification
of the country under Victor Emanuel.
In England the year 1S4S was signalized
by the Chartist riots and the appearance
of Christian socialism under Maurice
and Kingsley. 1t was then that the Pre-
Raphelite school of painting and poetry
arose. led by Dante, Gabriel Rossetti,
Holman Hunt, Millais, and others. It
was return, in painting, to the simplic-
ity, the love of detail. the naivete of
Giotto, Cimabue, and Botticelli. An ex-
animation of such picture as Holman
Hunts Jesus in the Temple reveals
the new freedom, the absence of the con-
ventional, and the desire to represent life
as it really is that marked the school.
All the Pre-Raphaelites were admirers
of Keats's poetry; its pure sensuousness,
its richness of coloring. The opening
lines of Keats's ''Endymion'' give the
poetic mead of these writers, while in
the same spirit Mr.. Walter Pater, in his
'sStudies in the Renaissance" afirms
that the end Of life is to get as many SEN
sations and thrills from our experiences
as may be. Mr.. Mallock, in his New
Republic" most cleverly satirizes this
sensation" theory in the talk of Mr..
Rose, who is supposed to be Mr.. Pater
himself.
The leader of the Pre-Raphaelites was
probably Dante Rossetti. Sometimes
over-subtle, as in the sonnets ca He'd
1.-The House of Life" he can yet write
stirring ballad like. "The Kings Trage-
dy." A poem called my Sisters Sleep
was read to illustrate the simplicity and
the truthfulness to details which are
parts of the -Raphaelite creed. The
poem of ''Woodspurge' shows the scien-
tific feeling creeping in to color even
strong emotion. His sonnet on the tax
ing of the Bastille gives, in thrilling form
the enthusiasm and humanity which
is often a part of the makeup of the
most intellectual and apparently subtle
of men. as is illustrated in Tolstoi's
great story of 1.-THE Man with the White
Hands, Swinburne is master of mu-
steal form, sometimes quite independent
of the sense. The "Atalanta in Caly-
don" is, perhaps, the nearest approach to
the old Greek tragedy that modern
times have seen. From this, two of the
wonderful choruses were read Mr.. Bel
lows also gave part of Mrs. Cavazza's
most clever parody of Browning and
Swinburne, the inimitable "Algernon,
the Footstool Bearer" published many
years ago in the Portland PRESS.
William Morris, in his Earthly Para
disc" strikes note of ;'linked sweet
ness long drawn out, and perhaps aptly
enough describes himself as "the Idle
singer of an empty day." There is
more serious feeling in Lewis Morris's
Epic of Hades, from which an extract
was read, giving, as it were, the moral
of the Story of Andromeda. The lee
turer closed by paying tribute to Oscar
Wilde, who, in spite Of much that was
naturally interpreted as lunacy, had
written some really fine poems, and
prose that was brilliant and effective.
The man who was capable of writing
Easter Day. and ave Imperatrix"
must be admitted to have no ordinary
powers.
Mr.. Bellows's next 'talk' will be on
''Tolstoi and the Great Russian Novel
ists.'