New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-17
THREE STAGES OF POETRY.

The three divisions os Mr. Stedmans book
which is to say the three divisions Of
Victorian poetry-form clear ard logical
sequence. At the time of the Queen
accession rot merely her poetic court. but
things generally in her realm. were in an in
choate condition, and the poets prove their in
innate connection with her earlier years by rep
resenting tendencies rather than full-hedged
movements. Mr.. Stedman describes the poets Of
this transitional period as distinctive" finding
in each one a certain unmstakable something
which lifts his work into region Of its own color
ing it with the individuals temperament
and making that temperament one OF the con-
crete elements to be reckoned with in view of
English verse But it is important to remember
that no one OF these poets so imposed his style
and temper upon his contemporaries that his
work may be said to be clear and important re-
Election of his time, part and parcel of the social
development in which he shared. Thus Lander
stands for a classical tendency, but it Is only a
tendency he did not inaugurate school; he
had. on the whole no followers This may be
said Of all the poets who occupy the first stage in
Mr. Stednan's series Of Illustrations As a mat
ter Of fact the things in the air not yet of IT,
and the sum total OF the transitional epoch In Vic
torian poetry is rather nebulous. Here and there
a poet was feeling his way toward some particular
haven. but Landor was the only one who reached
it, and he had come partly along Victorian paths
and partly along Georgian.
The second period OF Victorian poetry Is the
period Of definite movements and achievements
Men identified themselves closely with their time
each one was the mouthpece of certain positive
STRINGS in the whole heart Of the race. The
artistic sense of English literature reawakened
and il made Tennyson with all that he and his
many followers imply. Religious inquiry grew
deeper and subtler than ever before. and made
Arnold New intellectual and metaphysical
rumbngs were heard. and out of their porten-
tous, chaotic. minglings of old prejudices
with new ideals there emerged the burly genius
of Browning Men made emotional discoveries
and the result made manifest in Rossett and
in Swinburne. There was blossoming of Eng
lish thought. a poisoning which could be traced
to the very root Of things. All England is ex-
pressed those chiefs whom we have named
men who matched with their achievements the
strong tidal movements Of the thought and feel
ing OF their time. Mr.. Stedman Classics them
with unerrng tact Read together the men whom
he puts together at the head OF the golden Of
Victorian verse-the Tennysons. Clough Arnold
Coventry Patmore. Myers. Symonds and others
whom cannot pause TO name 1t is seen at
once that their formation into one Composite
idyllic school" is so just and 80 suggestive that
they have together an illustrative character they
hardly had when taken by themselves In the
same way the vein which binds Kingsley with
Sir Francis Doyle and makes Thackeray some
what akin 70 both Is presented In clearer light
as you grasp 1t in Mr. Stednan's arrangement OF
the men concerned. Each small group he de-
taches skilfny and at the same time places with
reference to the whole. Scrutnzing the pages
leai n,it
sees that they make uncommonly compact
mass, the absolutely co-ordinated material for
study Of English verse in the time represented.
When he comes to the close OF the era to the
recent poets Of Great Britain. Mr. Stedman's task
is apparenfy easy enough anG yet In some WAYS