Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-02-10
NEW CENTURY CLUB LECTURE.

Monday night Mr. Henry @. spauld
ing COMPLETED his course OF lectures
with "I hilde iIaroId's Pilgrimage,
which was illustrated by handsome
s,ereoptic1n views Of PAGES described
in the last two cantos When in ISL
Lord Byron put thu story OF his wan
derings into spencerlan measure ~ the
first ana second cantos OF tGls work he
awoks 10 find himself suddenly made
famous. Thera is net another instance
Of such sudden popularity ln tue ms
tory Of English literature. Tue sensa'
ton they created was repeated when
several years later the third and fourth
cantos appeared. Ihe popularity OF
this poem is easily Understood. II was
written long before the days nj illus
tiatod lectures. long before travel was
so easy, aud cheap, and universal as
NOW. and it YES full NJ word pictures
OF the spots around which romance and
Imagination clustered. Another cause
III Byron popularity was that lie never
wrote over the heaas Uf his readers; he
was just up TO the level OF their eyes.
lie was not tito greatest poet of his
century, nor was he the most thought
iul. bu; he was born poet, gifted with
marvellous powers Of imagination. lie
knew how to describe what be saw aud
lcgVH out the nOn essentials, How
simply aud graphically bis concentrated
sentences show US the dying gladiator:
see before me the gladiator lie,
He leaus upon his hand. lis manly brow
Consents to death, but conque;s agony.
10 the ous sentence, Butchered to
make Roman holiday, he has put in
q sentence tho worlds condemnation OF
Roman brutality.
The question has been raised rs to
Byrnn's present popularity. Charles
Dudley Warner claims that his poems
are read more nov than they were %
years ago think this mistake. |
doubt whether any puctry 10 read as
much as ii USED 10 be, am sure, 10.
deed, that much more of it was read
in our youth, or by our fathers and
mothers than is read to-day. Still
persons who do not caro- fpr Byron like
drowning anu Iennyson and Ruuysrd
kipling. Ono test of poets value il
In the NUM- Der of familiar quotations
from his works, thoughts that seize
upon our minds and linger there.
Judged by ills he stands fourth on the
acknowledgements immeasurably FIRST,
then Milton, Pope and Byrun-Of those
who have contributed to our common
speech SO many jrWeGl sentences that
| shine with inperlshable lUstre ON the
outstTatchpd finger of time"
BE cure that Byron poems are worthy
Of your attention, though they are fan.
tastically sad. Tie was always com
planning and had nothing to complain
~. lie bad genius, youth, beauty
rank, wealth and fame; all the gifts
man neeh desire. When be ameuts
himself We have right to laugh in his
face III he found the worlu false il
was because he was false. and cynic.
The journey with Childe Hurold be-
gan at brussels with pictures of the
| town whore There was a sound OF
revelry by night" on the eve OF Water
loo. linen were shown the "chieiless
castles" of the Rhine, ''all tenantless
save to the craunying wind. with gray
bur leafy walls, who're ruin greenly
dwells. " The magnificent ruin OF
Rheinstein. the castlad crag oil
Drachenfels, 1" and "Ehrenbreitstein,
the tower of victory were the finest
of those. The viewH of the Bemese
Obtrlnnd, and tho Iungfrau, tinted
with tho afterglow, wers greeted with
applause. In this poetica guide boob
Byron gives the mood Of the moment
| that happened to be aroused by VIVA
he saw as when he says:
Clear, placid Tenant Thy cnntrasLc,. lake
With the wide world dwelt in, is n thin,
Which warns me- with its stiffness. TO foTsak,
Earths troubled waters for piircr spring
But it was easier to write it than t,
do it. and this shows the cheapneRs o
emotional expression as contraated Will
an earnest effort to amend one's life. A
beautiful picture Of Clarens shovel
where,
The very glaciers have loves colors caught
And sunset into rOse.hues sees them wrought
We next "stuod in Venics on tn
Bridge OF Sighs," which William ID
liowells asserta ia pathetic swindle a
the tUrtures were not inflicted here bu
in the palace below. We we're showr
the dazzling cathedral of ST. Mark Is
with III maguiticence Of color and form
byron was ignorant of architecture q
child ana attempts no description o
this. He was impressed by tho mere
tricioua Medicean Venus, "the GOODIES
who loves in stone and fills the al
around with beauty" hut has no wore
for the transtigured womantoDd Of Iii,
VonHs Of Milo. AT Rome, 1.-THE mothc
OF dead empireH the NiObe of nations =
he moralizes over the Coliseum, hu
has only paltitudes 10 utter about st
PetOr's. Far finer is Emnrson's dc
scription of how Tho hand tina
rounded Peter q domen wrought in
sad sincerity" A. S.