The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-07-08
POETS AND COUNTRY LIFE.
Number Who Have Lived Mid Green
Fields and Rural Scenes.

London Times.
In a letter which We printed yester-
day the poet laureate very good hum
oredly took US to task for suggesting
that Wordsworth is perhaps the only
English poet who preferred and lived
| of free choice, the simple country life
Mr.. Austin summons formidable ar
ray of our great poets from Chaucer
to Tennyson for our discontinue, and
insists that with rare and doubtful ex-
ceptions they all of them preferred the
life CT the country to that of the town
Nevertheless, his logic seems to us to
be little at fault. No one denied
certainly we did not, that the aspects
and moods of nature are among the
most powerful and pregnant sources
of modern poetic inspiration. But
that is not by any means to say that
the poet who draws his brightest in
spirations from these sources is nsces-
sarily devoted to the simple country
life Wordsworth, it is certain, did
for the most part lead the simple
country life; but even Mr.. Austin has
to admit that this undoubted fact is
"the source of his limitations" that
Wordsworth's mistake arose from his
"'Averting his eyes, as Matthew Ar
mold says of him, from half of human
! fate" Does not this go far to prove
that Wordsworth's case is essentially
different from that of most if not all OF
| the other poets who have loved nature
and partaken of her inspiration? He
was more of peasant, or at least Of
dalesman, than they were. 'I once
said to Matthew Arnold" says LORD
Moreley in his Life Of Gladstone
that I'd rather have been Words
worth than anybody (not exactly a
modest ambition); and Arnold, who
knew him we'll in the Grasmere coun.
ty, said, oh, no, you would not; yor
would wish you we're dining with me
at the Athenaeum. He was too much
of a peasant for you" Now tha,
seams to us to- mark one of the great
differences, perhaps the greatest diff.
ference of all between Wordsworth
and the other poets of nature. He die
really love the simple country life be,
yond all others. Matthew Arnold die
not, though he lived in the country
loved the country, and sang Of il
sweetly, as the poet laureate himself
does. But with Arnold there was al.
ways the Athenaeum in the back.
! ground, the nights and suppers of the
gods, the society Of wits and othel
congenial souls. 1t will be noted, too
that Mr.. Austin makes no mention o.
Browning, although he might have
cited "Oh, to be in England now tha
Aprils there!" and many another
sweet and convincing note of Brown
ing's true love of nature. Yet no ont
would attribute specially to Browning
a love of the simple country life.
The truth is that the love of othe
poets for nature and their susceptible
ity to its inspiration is quite differen
thing from Wordsworth's innate pre-
dilection for the simple country life
1t was there that Wordsworth's tru
genius found ITSELF In that he is uni
que. 1t is not there that the genius o
other poets mostly finds itself; it i
. rather in the larger, wider, and witha
more IeXacting field of human life an
: human nature at large, as indeed MI
Austin himself acknowledges. Sopho
cles signs with surprising sweetnes
Of the charms of his native Colonus
but We do not on that account per
suade ourselves that it was there tha
his genius found itself. 'Chaucer,
says Mr.. Austin, ''lets us see that b
was for the most part leading the sim
pie country life among lanes, mead
| ovs, and bowers;" but he had alread
: acknowledged that in Chaucer's tim
|, neither poet nor peasant had any 9th
er life to lead. Of Spencer the poe
laureate is more doubtful, though b
pleads. not very cogently, perhaps
that NEARLY all the action of tn
| "t'aery Queen takes place down i
dale hard by the forest side" A