The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-25
for the Sunday Standard.

Having read recent article in the
Standard pointing out the vast differ
ence in point of poetic merit between
the present poet laureate of England
and his illustrious predecessor. I i'm
agine that some remarks concerning
Tennyson's Poems on Classical Sub
jects'' may be of interest to such read
ers of the Standard as take delight in
the critical study of the English
poets.
OF all the modern English poets who
have given poetic treatment to subjects
drawn from the literature of Greece
and Rome, Tennyson was unquestion-
ably the most successful. Keats, in
deed, because Of the peculiarly Hellenic
character of his genius would have
stood unrivaled in this class of literary
work had his knowledge of the forms
of classical expression equaled his in
sight into the spirit OF the compositions
themselves. But the "resurrected
Greek as he was called, labored under
the disadvantage of not being con-
versant with Greek or Latin and his
knowledge of the masterpieces of an
cent literature was consequently de-
rived from tranSlations alone
When this drawback is considered,
Keats achievements along this line,
viz, "Endymon,' ode to a Grecian
Urn ode to Psyche" and above all
that magnificent fragment, .'Hyperi-
ons," are wonderful in the mastery
grasp they display of the salient char
acteristics of Greek poetic thought. In
Keats, however. it is the form of the
thought and not of the expression
which is Greek.
Swineburne, notwithstanding his pro-
found scholarship, wondrous verse
melody and the frequent occurrence in
his choral odes of passages of great
lyrical beauty has. in my opinion.
failed to produce any work of this kind
capable of ranking with Keats best
and his "Erectheus' and 'Atalanta in
Corydon," despite their many sterling
merits are, on the whole rather dull
and uninspiring and lacking in the
symmetrical strength and ideal beauty
of Greek poetry.
Lord Tennyson's Studies of CLASH
cal Poetry consist of "OenOne.'
Ulysses, 'Tithonus, 'Tresias." Per
haps in the whole range of literature
there are no poems of their kind which
will stand comparison with the first
three named. They actually scintillate
with the profusion of their poetic jew
elry and. as we shall see, the poet is
equally happy in catching the spirit of
the ancient poets and the very turn of
their expression.
a beautiful idyl about the love of the
nymph of that name for Paris y who
had Tilted her for Helen" Though the
entire poem is deserving of quotation,
! shall take such lines only as may
serve to illustrate the felicity with
which Tennyson has caught the spirit
and manner of the Grecian muse.
''Hither came at noon
MOurnful Oenone, wandering forlorn
OF Paris, once her playmate on the hills
Her cheek had lost the rose. and round
her neck
Floated her hair or seemed to float in
She leaning on a fragment twined with
vine
Sang to the stiffness till the mountain
shade
Soped downward to her seat from the
upper cliff.
In this passage the student cannot
fail to notice the Greek construction
"forlorn of Paris It is literal trans
lation of "Paridos creme
The recurring lines:
30 mother Ida. many fountain'd Ida
Dear mother Ida, harken ere | die
are Tennysons adaptation of the in
tercalary line" and the epithet many
fountain ed" applied to Ida in a liberal
translation of Homer's ''PolypidAx,
The ''ntercalary line" was invented
and brought to its highest perfection
by the Greek pastoral poet, Theocritus
He was a similar Greek. His poems
We're called by him '1dyllia.' and We're
written inwhat is called the "Syracusar
Doric." The manner in which this dia-
lect the most melodious vehicle that
ever conveyed a poets ideas. is made tC
render up all it's subtlest sweetness I'M
der the master hand of Theocritus can
not be comprehended by anyone unac
uuainted with the magical harmony OF
his numbers The following passage
from the poem under consideration is
however, the nearest approach ! know
of to the liquid music of the Dorian
reed"
20, mother. hear me yet before I die,
They came, they cut away my TALES
pines,
My tall, dark pines. that plumed the
craggy ledge
High over the blue gorge. and all be
tween
The snowy peak and snow-white cat
Foster'd the callow eaglet from De
meath
Whose thick, mysterious boughs in IN
dark morn
The panthers roar came mutf1ed Will
] sat
Low in the valley Never. never NOR
shall lone Oenone see the morning mis-
Sweep thro' them, never see them over
laid
With narrow moon-lit slips of silve
cloud
Between the loud stream and tn
trembling stars
This subject was handled by Ovid. III
Latin poet in his Epstolae Hero
dunn" and Tennyson has taken man
forms of expression from him also.
In Ulysses Tennyson represents II
hero as dissatisfied with the mOnoton
of his life at Ithaca, after his retul
from the Trojan war and pictures hi
as determined to spend his remainir
wears as he had his manhood, in t
pursuit of glorious adventure.
Much have | seen and known; citl'
of men,
And manners, climates, councils, go
ernmentS
Myself not least. but honor'd of the