The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-04

S4AItu VI ft4lHB E1fSllSn pCStS, VIII
passed away in his native city Lon
don, on the 10th of April. 1899. FL
died on his birthday aged Y years.
He never married. That S~Winburne
was a genuine poet no one loving
finely finished verse will doubt or
gainsay. That he wrote greater poe
try in his last twenty-five years than
he wrote before, he was thirty Will
hardly be insisted upon. His first
volume called Poems, and Ballads
still hold q high place in the prefer
ences Of his best, most discriminate
ing admirers. In 1853, he published
his second series with the
same FAMILIAR name. Professor
Salisbury discusses Swinburne
with great, freedom and interest,
and While cens,lTing him in certain
particulars does not hesitate to be-
stow on him much lalldatiOn. He does
not think his second volume OF
Poems and Ballads equal to his
first series. but says he is the most
half of the nineteenth century an
England" I suppose that is SOUND
critical judgment. He refers TO his
we'll known astonishing fertility OF
his command OF. language and metre,
the volume variety Of his verbal
music He is perhaps safe in saying
that he never wrote q single piece OF
verse that can be called. bad, or that
does not possess qualities OF poetry
which before his day would have sui
feed to give any mar high poetlcai
rank I think that is strictly within
the bounds Of sound Judgment. What
ever his shortcomings and pe~culiarities
of manner and wonderful resources
style aud powers Of metrical COM
position, it cannot be refused him
that he was par excellence the fore
most verse writer among the English
cS~oo- tool tho rS
seat. He was very unlike Tennyson,
and yet he was rich in cadence and
meritrious feiicitOuS Of diction and eN
preston and impulses and e~loQuence
n had a most wonderful command
of metre in all. of it's complexities and
finish. OF the great "Afalanta' pro-
duction S~aintshury says, that it SIS
stately enough, and certainly not very
frotic in tone. But that q thunde
and charge Of verse! 1t is almost i'm
possible to read it slowly Tennyson
was rich, varied, splendid in his com
mand Of meters ard verification gen
orally.
One Of he most interesting, satisfy
ing discussions OF SWinburne, appear
ed in 1875, and occurs in that finely
engaging volume by q New England
writer, Edmund Clarence Stedman,
entitled The Victorian Poets This
is the most fascinating volume Of 70
etical criticism / remember TO ha We
read. His estimation OF is
high. OF cOurse and acute and salts
flying in the main. 1t may impress
readers OF the new century as being
excessively Mandatory, but it is surely |
not far away in the main points and
general estimate. lie thinks him al
most unequaled by any English poet
even among the best Of the nineteenth
century in the beauty INC splendor
of his lyrical gifts. He praised his
marvellous gift, Of rythIn, his oo-
uand over the unsupported resources
Of l~anguage." He says that "betore |
the advent OF S~Sinburne he did not
the scope OF English verse. In
hands it is like the violin Of Pa I
ganism. The range OF his fantasies,
SOulades, aires, were e1IectS Of meas
and sound. is Incompatible with
hitherto knoNn.
I have not kept up with Swinburne
in his production as his real genius
and sple11dor OF composition demands.
1t is quite a quarter Of a century since
[ gave his olumes the attention their
value and excellence demanded. I
feel how little Qualified I am now to
in%telligently and p~enetratingly
his chief and most exquisite produc-
ions. { write now really from a
sense of appreciation and a desire to
contribute a few lines at his death in
way of opinion more than as a
correct Interpretation. A great mast
II of logical composition deserves the
fullest condemnation, for he leaves no
equal living behind him to claim SO
by his superb logical pro-
and Inspirations. Who is
'eally left now SO richly endowed as
1e was with the logical faculty, so &C
,omplished in that genius that SO be-
suiled, SO enraptured, SO commands
enthusiasm Of the poetic readers
# forty and more years ago. My adj
ice to all generous lovers of logical
and high poetic endoW-
nents, to e SWinburn not once. but
until you are really captured by
lis unriValled gifts as a logic poet,
xyhnCo 1eIa1n6r ca 1n,o 60 Soiy,o tod Slt.