New-York tribune., 1910-11-30


quarter of a century later. and on
another continent, another man of irreg-
rlar genius and lamentable life ad-
vanced substantially the same idea. L
hold" said Edgar Allan Poe, that
long poem does not exist. 1 maintain
that the phrase, a long poem,' is simply
a fat contradiction In terms. L
would define in brief the poetry of words
as The rhythmical creation of beauty
It's sole arbiter is taste. With the intel
lect or with the conscience it has only
collateral relations, and, unless Incl
dentally, it has no concern whatever
either with duty or with truth"
With one part of this ghastly creed
Bvron sometimes appeared in accord.
His pen did at such times seem TO nave
no concern whatever either with duty or
with truth He abandoned his country
and the public duty to which he was
born. as we'll as his circle OF private
duties. He prefaced the first canto OF
"Childe Harold" with a French extract
To the effect that II hated my country
All the impertinences of divers peoples
among whom I have lived have recon
ciled me to it." He could even picture
his native land to foreign eyes as
of those true sons the Mother, :.
Who butchered half the earth and pulled
tother
And still there was no approval ne so
hungered for as that of his old circle
and his native land. From the superb
IN S(NhfIdQ
Harold" the vision of Venice sitting in
state, throned on her hundred fsles, ne
turned almost at once, as so often pe-
fore, toshis personal griefs, but with this
significant admission:
My hopes of being remembered In my line
With my lands language
He even came again to boast Of his
English birthright: and his dreams al
most seemed to turn to Westminster Abb
hey as his final home.
Yet was 1 born where men are proud to BE-
and should l leave behind
The invlolate island of the sage and free,
And seek me out home by remoter sea-
Perhaps 1 loved it we'll and should lay
My ashes in soil which Is not mine,
My spirit shall resume tiff we may
Embodied choose sanctuary
If my fame should be, as my fortunes are
OF hasty growth, and blight and dull OBJ
livion bar
MY name from out the temple where the
dead
Are honor'd by the nations-let 1t be
And light the laurels on a loftfer head
+ Byron's real inspiration was apt to be
personal or political rather than poetic;
and also apt to be in favor of some re-
volt against existing order. 1t is p1t1ful
to note how much even Of his finest verse
is occupied with his family troubles and
personal griefs; with his firm determi-
nation to bear them in silence and with
the melodious voIubtity in which he con-
tinues, just the same, to pour them
forth-meanwhile revelling in ridfcule of
the conventions which he defies. IN poll
tics his very first appearance IN the
House of Lords was in generous ana
humane appeal for men here In his own
county. engaged in a lawless strike
which no one would now justify, against
the use of machinery In your Noting
ham industries. The earliest effect OF
his travel was discomfort with his coun-
try's course in Portugal. Then came
hostility to the established order In
Italy, dissatisfaction with government IN
Spain, hostility to Turkey and to Aus
trta. and a resolute effort to arouse the
the language in which he thought to de-
scribe his own principles,
plain, sworn, downright detesta-
OF every despotisn in every nation,
famed out at every opportunity through
out his work. His sympathies with Ire
land led him into wild outbursts against
Castlereagh. With Greece they carried
him sometimes into bitter attacks on
Lord Elgin, for the crime Of bringing the
Elgin marbles to the British Museum;
oftener into stinging reproaches to the
Greeks themselves; or, again, into en-
during laments like this:
A thousand years scarce serve to form a
State;
An hour may lay 1t in the dust; and when
Can man its shattered splendor renovate,
Recall its virtues back, and vanquish Time
and Fate?
And yet how lovely is thine age of woe,
Land Of lost gods and godlike men, art
thou!
But Greece was always the object for
which he kindled quickest. Many Of his
finest passages throb with enthusiasm
for her history and her art; with love
and hope for the land itself. He sus-
tanned the cause of Modern Greece with
his fortune as well as his genius and his
fame; and at last laid down his life in a
wild but nobIy disinterested and sener-
Gus effort in her service.
/ have ventured to speak Of "Childe
Harold" as the high-water mark of his
genius. We should lose much if no
other work of Byrons We're preserved,
but his fame might rest securely on that
alone. In its splendid close Italy was
largely its field, and a hundred Italian
gems in it will occur to every student of
the poet-the wonderful picture of Venice
with which it opens; the apostrophe to
Rome, my country! city of the sour';
the exquisite descriptions of natural
scenery. as of Clitumnus, or of art, as
of ST. Peters, or of the Venus de Medici.
drunk with beauty; the reflections on
the Imperial Mount:
Admire exult despise, laugh, weep-for
here
There is such matter for all feeling Man {,
Thou pendulum betwiXt a smile and tear,
Ages and realms are crowded in this span.
The lot of Venice is whimsically de-
scribed as shameful to the nations, most
of all to Albion: