The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-27

Prof. Knight on Tepnyson
Prof. Knight contributes to the Aug
gust number OF Blackwood's an article
on Tennyson which contains many re-
miniscences and anecdotes Of the poet.
Here is a portrait of Tennyson as he
appeared in 1890:
His aged look impressed me. There
the keen eagle eye; and, although the
glow of youth was gone. the strength
of age was in its place. The lines OF
his face were like the burrows in the
stem OF a wrfnkled oak tree: but his
whole bearing disclosed a latent
strength and nobility, a reserve Of
power, combined with a most courte-
GUS grace Of manner. I was also struck
by the neglige air Of the man, so dit.
ferent from hiatt Of Browning and Ar.
mold or Lowell. He soon threw aside
his picturesque cloak, and laid down
his broad-brimmed hat upon the table.
At that same meeting lit was at Far.
ringford) took place the following con-
versat1on on the craze of publishing
the ~5uvenilia and suppressed work of
great writer's:
He spoke Of the diseased craving to
have all the trifles Of a man of genius
preserved, and Of the positive crime of
publishing what a poet had himself de-
lfberately suppressed. If all the con-
tents of a poets waste-basket were
taken out and printed, and issued in a
volume, one result would be tina the
things which he had disowned would
be e by many to whom the good
things he had written would b. un-
known. He said that he himself had
suffered in that way. I told him Of a
poem which Wordsworth wrote when
he lived at Alfoxden-an unworthy re-
cord of a revolving crime-which he
had the good sense never to publish.
I had seen the original, but only a copy,
which I threw in the fire as soon as I
read it Tennyson vas greatly pleased
and said, 1T was the kindest thing you
could have DONE" He then spoke of
folly Of fancying that all hat a poet
says in his verses must have some local
meaning or a person reference. There
are some curious creatures who go
about fishing for the people, and
searching for the places which they
fancy must have given rise to our
poems. They don't understand, or be-
lieve, that we have any imagination
of our own, to create the people or the
places. OF course, we often describe,
but we generally let that be known
easily enough"
Tennyson told Professor Knight some
anecdotes Of a visit to his Scotland:
After he had left IN inn in the island
of Skye, the landlord was asked, did
he know who had been staying at his
house? 1t was the poet Tennyson."
He replied, "Lor'-to think O. that! and
sur L thought he was a shentleman!"
Near Stirling the same remark was
made to the keeper of the hotel where
he had stayed. do you ken who you
but he was a pleasant shentleman."
cit was Tennyson the poet" An wha
may he be-" "Oh. he is a writer O.
verses, SIGH as We see i the papers"
moo, to think o that! jeest a pooblic
writer, an I gied him ma best bed
room!' OF Mrs. Tennyson, however,
the landlord remarked, ooh! but she
was an angel"
Estimating Tennyson'S powers as a
conversationalists, Professor Knight
writes:
I have said hat the conversational
power of TennySon struck me quite as
much as his poetry had done for forty
years. To explain this, I must compare
it with some of his contemporaries. It
was not like the meteOric flashes and
fireworks of Carlyle's talk which some
times dazzled as much as it instructed;
and it had not that torrent rush In
which Carlyle so often INDUCED. 1t
was far more restrained. It had Meth
er the cOntinuOuSneSS nor the range of
Browning'S many-Sided conversation;
nor did it possess the charm of the
ethereal v~isionariness of Newman's. 1t
lacked the fulness and the consumate
sweep of Mr.. Ruskin's talk; and it had
neither the historic range and brilliance
of Dean Stanley'S nor the fascinating
su~btletty-the elevation and the depth
combined-Of that Of the late F. D.
Maurice. But it was clear as crystal,
and calm as we'll as clear. 1t was terse
and exact, precise and luminous, Not
a word was wasted, and every phrase
was suggestive. Tennyson did not
monopouize conversation. He wished
to know what other people thought, "
His appreciation Of other workers
belonging to his time was remarkable.
Neither he nor Browning d~isparaged
their contemporaries, as Carlyle so Of
ten did, when he spotted their weak
nesses, and put them in the pillOry.
From first to last, TennySOn seemed
to looked sympathetically on all good
work, and he had a special generation
for the strong silent thinkers and
workers.
Finally we give a bit of Tennyson's
remarks on Immortality:
He then spoke Of Darwin, and of the
great truth in evolution; but it was
only one side Of a truth that had two
Sides. "All things are double one
against another" He also spoke of
Bruno, with whom he had much SYM
pathy. From this we passed to the
subject Of immortality. I ventured to
say that it was a more pressing prob
lem in our time than even that Of
theism, and that agnosticism had un-
dermined it in many quarters. He said
he did not require argumentative
proof Of a future life, and referred me
to I'm Memoriam." He a nothing
further to say; and, though his faith
was not stated dogmatically in that
poem, every one could see that he be-
lieved in h survival of the Individual.
rehabilitation was impossible, and in
conceivable. We are parts Of the Inf
nte World"
The Ideal Panacea.
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