The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1915-03-03


lie had put 1t into the hearts Of some
men to write dictionaries a sadly
trlte allusiOn, but how else express
ones gratitude for "TennysOn Con
curdance' macmillan (which extends
to above twelve hundred pages, and
In the making " which the author
Mr.. A. r. Baker, sadly wrote ont
something Ike 10000 slips? There
ARE as many reasons for being CRATE
ful as there are ways Of using such
book BY It's aid, II you are a
scholar, you may reckon up the mum
ber Of words In the vocabulary Of
Tennyson. aud No demonstrate wheth
ed his genius WAS as great AZ that Of
Shakespeare or Milton, You may, II
you ARE Il reviewer, show astonlsh
mrnt at the errors Uf the next writer
who pretends to quote your poet or
II you aspire to be- a real critic, you
may with careless ease set forth the
echoes Of TennysOn IN a dozen later
vcrsfiers And last, II you have the
taste for antholOgies like one stu
dent who counts several hundred
such volumes In his New York apart
ment, you may even read In Mr. Bak,
er's pages for pleasure aud with no
Interior motive at all.
My own first motive was, ! confess,
Of more egOtistic sort Once upon
time there occurred to me the pret
ty thought, which | no doubt printed
somewhere, that Tennysons words
was peculiarly characterized by this
use Of the word wind, and now came
the opportunity Ia prove the truth of
my conjecture / turned, therefore,
first to the heading, and was not
disappointed to find some three col
umns Of quotations listed there from
the Poems. with almost half a col
umn from the Dramas The winds are
~ summer and winter, Of Joy and OF
melancholy yet there Is n curious
pred0minanre " one tune through the
lines. as may I've observed from these
few selections, which | give with the
sources indicated IN Ms to recall the
setting fthe words
ril cold winds woke the gray eyed morn
(harianal
winds Blew his own praises In his eyes
"A ChAraCterl
Gods ordinance Of Desth IA blown In ev
cry wtnd Ito !. ~
like wind, that shrin- All night in
waste land d'Arth
Night slid down one long stream Of sigh
Ing wind Gardeners ~
smile that like wrlnkllng wind on glassy
water tPrlnceas
Yelrd as when the winds Of winter tear
an OAK
tBoadiccul
hear wind Of memory murmurluE
the past In Mem
Thro' the dim land against a rushing wind
Merlin
TIN In the cold wind that foreruns the
morn. tGulneyerel
A quantitiatiye test to be sure,
would rather give the predominauce
to light" for there are more than
five counts under that word from the
Poems alone. But II Is 10 he noted
that light" II word that naturally
occurs with great frequency In verse.
And you will find, moreover, that
Tennyson's lines under this heading,
though they contain almost always a
touch Of the true alchemy ~ poetry,
have not the same stamp OF original
" as that which distinguishes his
use Of the winds nor will you,
think, come upon single phrase with
the shock and moment OF Vaughans
saw Eternity the other night,
Like great Ring OF pure and endess
light
or with the magnitude Of Millions ma,
jestic apostrouphe. At least, as | cast
my eye down the columns OF Ten.
nyson, | seemed to feel nothing more
than the commOnplaces Of sublimity
II the phrase is permissible, and OF
prettiness, until was stopped by
this exclamation: 80 light upon the
wird;" then at once was rapt into
the true Tennysonian world. After
looking up the context IN The Pass
| ing Of Arthur | am In doubt whether
| the line does not rather belong
under the adjective Tight" (the con
trary OF heavy or should be In such
| doubt. were not the less obvious
meaning ~ characteristic Of the au
thor. We think OF the freely gushing
sentiment In Tennyson, Of his maidens
innumerably who pass like light,
aud we grow little dubious about
the reality of the divine glory fol
which his Infants are crying hui
there is another Tennyson than Vic
toria's Laureate, the creator OF I
mood. q world, M remote from common
experience, 10 different from common
experience, 10 different from that
evoked by any other English poet, that
this, his most original power, ls likely
Ia be overlooked II II the land Of
the light upon the wind, NJ the con
junction Of the mystic CLEANS" with
the waste and wandering airs:
Then, ere that last weird battle IN
the west
There came on Arthur sleeping, Gawaiu
kllrd
In Lspc.lot's wer, the ghost Of Gawaln
blown
Along a wandering wind and past his eai
Went ahrillins Hollow, hollow all de-
Hail King tomorrow thou shalt pas