The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-10-03


lines shorter than the average, OF
only AZ per cent. of it.
In his essay on the principles o.
composition Il think IL WasI Poe saiC
that no poem should be too long tC
be read at one sitting. His reason
for this was that an exalted state OF
mind could not possibly be sustained
more than half an hour. His reason
Is obviously sound one. But The
Ring and the Book escape the result
ing condemnation In tvo'ways- In the
first place. il is really twelve poems;
and the effect Is no wise lost, height
ened, If anything, by the lapse O.
twenty -four hours or more between
the eantos. In the second place. ths
longest canto would require about a.
hour and forty minutes to read
While this Is a triple the limit set oy
Poe, these one hundred minutes are
not intended to be one hundred min
utes of continuous exaltatio1. Brown
ing continually gives Us mementaTs
hats: violent ioits into the common
place, if you will, they may be; but
they serve in the long run to set on
his moods OF exaltation with con-
trast almost infolerable in its power;
and Browning was long-wtpded
enough to make q long run; and took
enough time TO accomplish his ex-
traordinary effects. He proceeds in
this manner in every canto, and also
in the whole poem as well; for Books
/, ii. III, ", VIII, * and XII are
themselves chiefly lower In tone than
the others.
Half Rome could have said his say,
as reported by the poet, in an hour,
Is this so long as to lose all natural
ness? We allow many privileges TO
our poets, as 1t is. Their persons
speak blank verse, and often leave
the room with q jingle or rhymes.
But for how many minutes shall We
permit them to talk uninterrupted!
The answer we receive from this book
Is fifteen minutes. Half Rome seems
to be interrupted thirteen times: at
lines /, 2, 152. $50, 341. 522, sos. SIG.
9S9, 1906, 1852, 1864 and 1875 The
greatest uninterrupted stretch Is 313
lines; the smallest line; the average
III lines. Tennyson's Maud Is only
1OS lines shorter than Half Rome; the
speaker is never interrupted: and the
poem sometimes changes but never
lowers it's exalted tone. Maud Is in
deed d strain on the feelings, and, I
think, for this reason: that TennySon
wrought his poem part by part. while
Browning observed and reconstructed
his as a whole. For this is the great
fact we must never lose sight OF while
we read Browning-that everything
he puts into a poem Is intended to
perform only g eontributory service,
to enhance. illustrate or prove the
principal object, never to serve for
mere eNtraneous ornament and isolat-
ed beauty, To forget this is to mis-
read him wilfully. To conclude this
great subject hastily but with some
show OF definiteness. l would Incline
to hold that the structural theory OF
The Ring and the Book is admirable;
that the arrangement Of speakers is
beyond criticism. and indeed OF far
deeper moral significance than Is
usually sUspected--but OF this another
time: and that in general the poet is
able alternately to rouse and quiet
our feelings with a mastery rivalling
Othello itself; but that he should
have done all this in something like
two-thirds TO one-half Of the space.
But what is the grand general i'm
port of this second book? Artisucai-
ly, 1t is the real introduction to the
poem, wherein, the plot motive hav-
ing already been given US, We first
hear the spirit motive Of the piece.
Out of the mist of centuries, out of
the mass OF men then living, emergeS
the first voice TO be heard distinctly
above the confusing clamor In which
the poem began. Dramatically, the
characters begin to hold the 6thge.
the prologue over now, and the cur
tain up Morally, its import Is ter
rihIe. We already know the tragedy
of this true story OF Italian life-the
double dealings, wounded Vanitieg and
ruined lives-and the blood bespat-
tered wallis of the<coantry villa VIII
this first main canto, then, be tragic
and terrible? On the contrary, the
one species of horror we find is exact
" that one species for which we are
not prepared. We find Half Rome's
narrative untrue. egotistical, vain.
petty, like a desert, unrelieved and
hideous. Therasis thrust upon our
moral perceptions the same indie
scribable sensation OF futility and
exile which the poem Of Childe Ro-
land conveyed to US by means OF
merely physical images We begin
to feel at once the most mournfui
and desolate OF all sentiments This
shallow, paltTy, preJudiced man, JUG
Ing OF things he does not understand
of people he does not understand
This book speaks Immediately with
out reserve the poems great central
message. W e see uOhH a SAldll nl4S-
take, an innocent deception, may
grow the curse of those who prac-
ticed it; may grow the double curse
of these, and others sucked into It's
depths. We see the true man and
woman, loyal TO their ideals, compTo-
missed by their miserable fortunes,
already put in Judgment before the
bar of coarse or vapid worldltnes-
And these woFldlings assuming to
pronounce judgment without the au-
thority of any law, human or divine!
A fitting flrst scene for the poem;
since the poem is the great English
epic of misunderstanding; in which
Pompiiia and the Priest are asSailed
by Prejudiee-by the prejudice or
hostile social order, by the prejudice
OF astfgmatio hypooritieal friendship,
bv the prejudice of Indifference. OF
eeotism, OF unlucky circumstances.
Half RoTne's horrible moral inappre-
hensiveness Is piece OF the most
chastity and accurate realism But
out of this and because OF this real
ETE