The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-26


metal heaped in the furnace. They melted
there before the strain of the intense
trial; they mingled there in their lava
amidst shocks and explosions, and then
at last the door is opened; a dull stream
OF fire descends into the trough prepared
beforehand heating the circumamblent
air, and its glittering hues scorch the
eyes which persist in looking upon it,
Once more, let Tame be heard: 'Descrip-
ton and monotogue did not suffice Byron,
and ne needed to express his ideal, events
and actions. Only events put TO proof
the force and spring OF the soul; only ac-
lions manifest and measure this force and
spring. Amidst events he sought for the
most powerful amidst others the
strongest His long array Of poems be-
ginning with THE Bride of Abydos" and
ending with THE Prisoner of Chillon,"
illustrate this analysis. He insists that
Byron Is genuine, very great poet, and
that through his swiftly moving, animated
poems truth flows in all. mo: this man
Is not an arranger of effects or an in
ventor of phrases. He has lived amidst
the spectacles he describes; he has ex-
perienced the emotions he relates. He
has been a score of times near DEATH
in the Morea, IN the anguish and solitude
Of fever; at Dull, in a shipwreck at
Malta, IN England. and in Italy, in the
dangers of the duel plots of instruction,
commandments of sudden attacks, at sea,
in arms, on horseback, having seen assas-
sination, wounds, agonies close to him,
and that more than once" You should
read Tom Moores long and most interest
ing Life OF Byron. You will find this given
from the great poet: 4 an living here
exposed to assassination daily, for | have
happened to make a powerful and I'M
principled man my enemy; and l never
sleep the worse for it, or ride in less soil
tary places, because precaution is useless,
and one thinks of it as Of disease which
may or may not strike" If you would
see the splendid courage of the man see
him as Moore gives it near the Gulf of
San Florence. in a terrific sea, his yacht
thrown on the shore. 1t is too long to
quote but is most interesting Byron was
great observer and a most gifted de-
scriber. See Prisoner of Chllon," and
an hundred other places Tame calls
Manfred" the twin brother of the
greatest poem of the age, Goethe's Faust
The critic surveying the two poems, is
moved to write of Byron-"But again.
how all these powers. assembled in a
single being, make him great Into what
mediocirty and platitude sinks the Faust
OF Goethe, compared to Manfred"
After writing thus far, l took down
from one of my cases the first volume of
Maeaulay, one of the most fascinating of
all volumes in the literatures of the world
Turning to the elaborate and very strik-
ing essay on 'Moore's Life of Lord By
rom which l read last In 1892, / was
arrested at almost every page with the
Incompatible style, its freshness, its spirit
and its interpretations of the Byronic life
character, moods, spirit, originality, power
and splendor. 1t is not by any means
fattering or exaggerated view of the great
poet and erratic Englshman. 1t was first
published in 1880, and fills thrty-four
octave pages. The fault is, if there be
any, that 1T is too short 1t Is analytical
somewhat, and in the main presents no
doubt fairly accurate view of Byron,
who had been dead hardly six years. 1t
is much more just, appreciative, and in
teresting than Hazlitt's fierce assault.
Macaulay with prescience foretold that the
estimate of Byron then prevailing would
undergo a marked change, but, he said,
that he had but little doubt that after
the closest scrutiny, there will still re-
main much that can only perish with the
English language" There can be no doubt
CT this. After eliminating absolutely all
that severe. even carping, snappish criti-
cism has rejected and damned, there is
still left stout volume Of lofty, eloquent,
splendidly imaginative poetry equalhng
that of any modern poet save only the
four or five of the acknowledged highest
order. Marlowe, a great genius. wrote
much that is Extensively bad, vicious and
inferior but very choice body of poetry
could be carefully garnered from the
whole, as Matthew Arnold has so admir-
ably done for Wordsworth The body or
volume of genuine poetry of a high grade
that can be obtained by faithful Judi
cious selection from Byron, would be OF
an elevated and splendid type rivalling
any poet since Milton Inless Tennyson be
excepted That the interest in Byron has
very greatly diminished l have stated in
the first part of this discussion-in Mum
Der One That it has been mainly brought
about by indiscriminate, wholesale depre-
citation and personal attack upon the noble
poet is certain, as l opine He excited
more interest in the first years of his poetic
exaltation than ever attended the career
OF any other English poet as has been
mentioned. This is freely admitted even
by his unjust, unfair detractofs. His
gifts were easily marked. He had great
descriptive power. He had intense dis
likes and disgusts. He had manner that
was full of dash, spirit defiance, clarity,
force, saucy independence. Macaulay says
that he excelled also in meditation that
his manner is indeed peculiar, and is al
most unequalled-rapid, sketchy, full of
vigor; the selection happy; the strokes
few and bold" He was never accused Of
prohxity when in his mental prime
Nor had any writer so vast command
of the whole eloquence of scorn, mis-
anthropy and despair" Writing of him
several years ago, / dwelt particularly
upon the marvellous eloquence of the
man. and insisted that of all poets he ex-
celled in this great gift l still hold him
to have been the most truly eloquent poet
from Chaucer to Swinburne. He did not
have high dramatic gifts. although ex-
amples may be found of this noble quality
Maq1nl1V holds 70 10. he,