The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-23

ly varying characters as Browning and
SymOnds and Swinburne have delight
ed to bear testimony to his hold uDon
their hearts. And this power of Shell
ley is due to his passion. He penetfateS
and kindles the distractions of Dhilos-
Ophy with his own perfervid spirit; he\
realizes and incarnates the ideal he
loves to dwell Upon No finer example
of this power exists in all literature
than the "AdOnais," where the Dreams,
the Desires, the Alterations. Urania
and Spring and Echo are to fall as real
and lifelike as the brother poets that
gather round the dead singer 1t is CSis
passion which gives to the lyric poetry
of Shelley its peculiar power, 1t is un-
wise, perhaps, to assert that he is the
greatest of our English poets; it is
quite safe TO say that there is none Ike
him. There is a graHer joy in Words
worth. a richer music in Keats, but
neither in them nor elsewhere do we
hear so plainly the Lyrical cry" the
spontaneous and overpowering utter
ance of OverpoWering emotion.
Finally the greatness of Shelley is
due to the permanence of his ideals. In
his finest work he conceived the world,
sub specie eternitatis, rent asunder by
the mighty conflict between good and
evil. We catch the echoes Of this war
in the Revolt of Islam. in the Cen
CT" above all in 'fPrometheus In
bound" And throughout, Shelley is on
the side of the angels; he stands for
love against hatred. for truth against
hypocrisy, for liberty against oppres-
sion. And the nOblest moral quality in
Shelley is his undying faith in the final
victory Of good. Good is one and eter-
nal; evil a thing of many shapes and
names, and
1.-THE One remains, the many change
and pass;
Heavens light forever shines. earth's
shadows fly
When Shelley died his work was al
most unknown outside the little circle
of his friends; Byron at his death was
/ probably the most famous man in Eu-
| rope. Yet since that time the latter'S
/ fame has been overcast, while Shelley s
glory burns with an ever clearer luster.
| This decline Of Byron's fame is due in
part 20 a reaction against the eXtrava-
! CANT praise he received from his con-
! tempOraries. AS the generation after
! his death learned gradually to rank at
| their true worth the nobler s)oets of his
/ day, Byron was neglected and even de-
rided. Nor was the age over which he
dominated the idyllic art Of TennYsOn
and the dramatic subtlety of Browning,
likelier to do him justice. The very
traits that endeared him to the age OF
the dandies, his rank, his personal
beauty, his daring scOrn of the cOnven-
tons, lowered him in the soberer and
! more dramatic days that followed. And
/ there was a weightier reason. This
generation perhaps more than any 9th
er in our history demanded of poet ar
fn4 90 oct
ness which are absolutely wanting iT
Byron. When he begins to think, he
is child said Goethe; and the mos
noticeable, though not the truest char
acteristic of ByrOn's masterpiece is 1t:
immoral levity Only of the last few
years has the pendulum begun to swins
back. There is a Byron revival in thu
air, and 1t is not impossible that VI
may have before long a critical esti
mate of the man and his work that vii
definitely settle his place in Englisl
literature.
ITO acquire a right feeling for Byron
and his poetry says Dowden, lis a dis
cipline in equity" Strength and weak
ness, sincerity and affectation, are no
merely mingled in his work, they ar
inextricably intertwined. It is impossi
bic to sift the chaff from the wheat
; Arnold's volume of selections from BY
ron is as giaring a failure as the com
paniOn volume from Wordsworth is
noble success. The reason fox this lie
in the fact that Byron was, of all grea
poets. the poorest artist. His ear 70
meter was Of the dullest, his critica
Judgment absurd his patience for plan
! ming and correcting nonresident. An
just because the artist is wanting il
Byron, his work, more than anothe
poets, represents the man himself /
is she man himself that strange com
: pound of good and evil, that is o per
nially interesting, and book of ele
CANT extracts from his poems no NOR
represents him than would life i
which mention was made only Of hi
good deeds. We want the whole.
Il Note.-This study will be conclude
tomorrow.