Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-04-13
THE LATER VICTORIAN POETS"


weygandt Before the Primary TeacherA'
ASSOCIATION at No. o School.
Monday afternoon. Cornelius Wey::
gandt, NJ. A., OF the University OF
Pennsylvania, lectured before the Pri-
mary Teachers Association at No.
School. The subject of tho lecture
was 1.-THE Later Victorian Poets"
Every age has been told that it was
deteriorating in morality, in literature,
in art. There has always been a lament
and cry for the good old times; each
generation signs for the things OF its
youth. 1t cannot appreciate the ideals
of the younger generation. So preya-
lent cry of decadence was enough to
brand the times. But since tho union
of the English race hope hus revived
and poetry has possessed sunlight, air
and health. Tho late war proved our
confidence in our own institutions.
national literature will grow in our
country of new intensity, and we
will realize that the English are the
same all the world over, and that in
the Anglo-Saxon race lies the worlds
hope.
Since 1888 has arisen the ''School of
Virility," of which Henley, Davidson
and Kipling arc the leading poets.
though they are not the first to find
poetry in modern life. Whitman and
Meredith gave birth to the more
specifically virile poetry. Henley,
Davidson and Kipling love romance.
Henley can find it in the Edinburgh
Hospital and in London streets; David
son can find glory and green in tho
everyday life of London, and Kipling
can throw a glamour about Tommy
Atkins and the barrack rooms. All
three possess lyric cry, natural accent,
masculinity. force and heat of passion,
| intellectual grasp, intense interest and
| warm sympathy with life. They pos
sess "blood and brain and spirit, !"
where in Keats, Shelley and Rossetti
we find the faint of morbidity. This
comparison is used rs distinction,
not a valuation. Outside of the lyrical
ballad, except in few instances
tDayton's "Agincourt, Macaulay's
Last Buccaneer' and the Elizabethan
dramatists), We find no poetry OF 'tblood
and brain and spirit" till Browning.
The school of virility arose in Brown
ing and Meredith and Whitman at a
time with the Pre- Raphaelites. 1t was
the outcome of modern civilization.
Instead Of seeking retreat or refuge
from life they have found hope ant
sweetness in it. They use old word:
! and symbols which prevents theil
poetry from always being recognized
as modern. The Anglo Saxon rae,
, understand symbolism better than an.
other people.
Second in Importance to the "Schoo
of Virility" is the 'Celtic Group,
who seek to imprison in English SOM
! the folk tales of the Celtic people. TIL
principals of the group are William
Butler Yeats, Fiona Macleod, Nor
? Hopper, William Sharp, Neil Monro
] and Earnest Reese of Wales.
There is group Of moderns who sti
, follow the ideals of Browning an
t Tennyson-th Wordsworthian School
: The chief of these is William Watson
who should be laureate, and VIII
always writes worthy verse. Their
b is another group which follow
, Coventry Patmore, composed primo
Q these is Francis Thompson, VIII
i starved in the streets of London unit
K discovered by his cousin, Mrs. Maynel
y His Daisy is the greatest etheret
: lyric since Coleridge
Q Tennyson is not among the forbeai
e of the present school, because ha ";
If not true lover OF the fight. Our RAJ
If is dominant one. 1t first fights
i people and then brings in a refinir
10 Influence. Walt Whitman had gre
le influence because he made subiec
to poetic which before had not been CO
% sidered as such. Meredith holds
TO considerable place because of his att
tude of pity toward humanity and
O. tone of stimulation and reconcillatit
es with nature. Kingsley is imrorta
r for his attack on Puritan asceticism.
IN Henley, by his courage in maintai
gs ing his magazine. prepared the publ
st for Kipling and Davidson. When t
n "Barrack Room Ballads appeared,
ip 1892, people began to think that
IT. new movement had started in poeti
b. Henley, though for 38 years fighti
no tuberculosis, has passed from stoicis
nd to optimism. He urges that life
%. worth the living, and to enjoy I
ng pleasures of the present, and condem
regret for the past.
ng Davidson sees the things of modern
*, under tho old symbols. His great
gift is dramatic force, and he posses
he widness of imagination and freshn
.ty of expression. Life to him is as II
he and wonderful as to child or
be Elizabethan dramatist.
10 hlpiiuS Ine Iour BTehthst tilil
'or in the world are women, horses, po'
he and war. Though student Of the
by ballads, he has taken very little fir
ext any one. He has the ability to app
to many people. He writes gener;
ing of things which interest men, {
red hence is appreciated more by til
IN than by women. He does not Of
or strike note OF love or spiritual
of He is the laureate of the open sea
to more lately of the idea of the AM
Saxon union. Kipling bids fair
develop He sings with primal pass
of the commonplace things of lif,
the language of the wharf or mari
ton We must realize that great poetr
ng- being written now, and will be wri
by tomorrow. Dominant English pc
It'll is viriie and clean in thought
on. spirit.
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