Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices
Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale ?"
Surely the soul of the hero rejoices,

And rides on the wind o'er his own Highland vale.

A bold apostrophe to the perished chieftains. The expression is lofty, and sustained. The combination 'night-rolling breath of the gale' is not easy to the understanding, but has emotional keeping. The second half is well-worded, if not very original.

Round Loch na Garr while the stormy mist gathers,
Winter presides in his cold icy car:

Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers;

They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Garr.

Here we have the defect of scenic incoherence. The stormy mist is not confined to winter: 'cold icy car' is pleonastic and common. The place given to the forms of his fathers is too dubious to stir our feelings.

The next stanza is a historical contradiction to the 'chieftains long perished': it takes us no farther back than Culloden, half a century before.

I quote the conclusion

England! thy beauties are tame and domestic

To one who has roved on the mountains afar:
Oh for the crags that are wild and majestic!

The steep frowning glories of dark Loch na Garr!

Too

The language is good in itself, but unsuited to the scenery whether of England or of Scotland. The word 'domestic' is forced by the rhyme to 'majestic,' rather than suggested by the fact. much is made of the crags and steep frowning glories of Loch na Garr. There is one bold precipice, on which a Nature poet would have expended his energy, but Byron had not caught the actual features of the scene that he professes to have revelled in; or else his memory had failed to reproduce the strong points as they would have been given by Scott.

The poet has made a beginning in the command of poetic diction, as well as metre; his great want is coherence and truth. Moreover, his originality is as yet in abeyance; it needed the stimulus of Jeffrey's attack in the Edinburgh Review.

The poem has the very great virtue of lucidity, which distinguishes the author's compositions throughout.

The next example is from Keats's description of Hyperion in his palace, reigning unsubdued, yet insecure, after all the other Titans are overthrown:

His palace bright,

Bastion'd with pyramids of glowing gold,

And touch'd with shade of bronzèd obelisks,

Glared a blood-red through all its thousand courts,

KEATS'S DESCRIPTION OF HYPERION.

117

Arches, and domes, and fiery galleries;
And all its curtains of Aurorian clouds

Flush'd angerly: while sometimes eagles' wings,
Unseen before by gods or wondering men,

Darken'd the place; and neighing steeds were heard,
Not heard before by gods or wondering men.
Also, when he would taste the spicy wreaths
Of incense, breath'd aloft from sacred hills,
Instead of sweets, his ample palate took
Savour of poisonous brass and metal sick:
And so, when harbour'd in the sleepy west,
After the full completion of fair day,
For rest divine upon exalted couch,
And slumber in the arms of melody,
He paced away the pleasant hours of ease
With stride colossal, on from hall to hall;
While far within each aisle and deep recess
His winged minions in close clusters stood,
Amazed and full of fear; like anxious men
Who on wide plains gather in panting troops,

When earthquakes jar their battlements and towers.

In this passage, the giant nature of Hyperion is assumed, and everything is intended to harmonize with it. His gigantic body is implied in his 'stride colossal' and his 'ample palate'; and his greatness of mind is expressed in the massive passion depicted. The vast palace is described, not so that we can conceive it, but with terms of vague splendour and awe. The first three lines do not contain a picture; they serve mainly to give emotional impression; which is kept up by the thousand courts, arches, and domes and fiery galleries,' its curtains of Aurorian clouds,' its aisles and deep recesses.

[ocr errors]

But the main object of the passage is to realize the idea of vague fear, expressed in massive forms that should correspond to the greatness of Hyperion himself. Unaccountable omens therefore are introduced-the blood-red glare through the palace, the angry flush on the curtains, the flap of eagles' wings, the sound of neighing steeds, the poisonous air exhaled for perfume. The mystery is increased by the apparent want of relation to the circumstances in these incidents. Further, the impression is deepened by the sleeplessness produced in Hyperion himself, notwithstanding his strong defiance of all opposition; and this feeling of awe is seen extending also to his dependents.

Thus the impression of the passage rests on the combined ideas of vastness and mystery. These two conceptions are well fitted to harmonize. The chief criticism would be that there is room to doubt whether some of these omens of fear, such as the eagles and the steeds, are on a large enough scale to be suitable for so gigantic a nature.

The effect of mystery alone may be well studied in the speech

of Eliphaz in the Book of Job (Chap. IV.): 'In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up; it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying-.'

The mystery is here aided by the impression of fear, the vague sense of a presence, the inability to distinguish the form, and the voice proceeding from this ghostly visitant. Mystery is not suitable in itself to produce any powerful impression; but it will often give considerable aid to some other effect, by raising a vague idea of things beyond what have been shown. Here it is employed to impress the thought of the words that follow by representing them as a voice from the spirit world; and we have seen how it supports the idea of vastness. It serves also to temper the impressions of fear, and to aid the effects of plot interest.

The subjective type of the Sublime may be studied in Wordsworth's famous Sonnet :

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours
And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.-Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,—
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

The Strength of this Sonnet comes from several distinct sources. There is, first, the elevated thought of the whole. Observe here that while the basis of thought is subjective, the weakening impression of subjectivity is to some extent removed by the objective contrasts in the middle and at the end. Secondly, there is lofty scorn expressed. This is first given quietly in lines 4 and 8; and then it comes out in a powerful burst of indignation. Lastly, a considerable part of the power depends upon the choice treatment of the concrete examples already referred to.

The Sonnet not only exemplifies the Sublimity of great thoughts, but also shows the need, in the treatment of these, for having regard to Objectivity and Concreteness. Without the aid of the lines thus characterized, the impression of the whole would be very much weakened.

FEELING.

The emotion called Tender Feeling, Love, Affection, the Heart-constituting the amicable side of our nature is the basis of a distinct class of sensibilities, pleasurable and painful.

These, in their actual exercise, make up a large amount of life interest; while, in the ideal representation, through Poetry and the other arts, their sphere is still further extended.

The word 'feeling' has a restricted application to Tender Feeling, or Tenderness. Love and the warm affections are displays of Tender Feeling. These affections are the great bond of liking and union among human beings; and they are increased by being shared. Their pleasure-causing efficacy is further shown by their power of soothing in misery or depression; a situation to which the term Pathos is more specially applied.

SUBJECTS CLASSIFIED.

THE DOMESTIC GROUP.

1. In this group are included the relationship of the Sexes; the Parental and Filial relationships; the Fraternal relationships.

Love of the Sexes, one of the strongest feelings of the human mind, has, in modern times especially, been found capable of artistic embodiment with the highest effect. It is a compound of various elements, which will have to be viewed in separation.

It

Parental Feeling is a co-equal source of interest in actual life, and also enters largely into Literature, although not in the same manner or degree as the emotion of the sexes. usually constitutes but a minor incident in the working out of a Love plot.

The reciprocal affection of Children to Parents and the attachment between Brothers and Sisters, come under the same general emotion of Tender regard; but they are feebler in the reality, and less capable of ideal embodiment, than either Sexual or Parental feeling. Under peculiar circumstances, they may contribute to powerful situations in Poetry, and some of the grandest creations of the Greek Drama depend upon them. Shakespeare's King Lear' is a modern example.

FRIENDSHIP.

[ocr errors]

2. Friendship is the attachment between persons not of the same family, as determined by community of likings.

In the ancient world, the attachments between men were even more celebrated than the love of the sexes.

Tennyson's In Memoriam carries this relationship, under bereavement, to the loftiest strain yet attempted by any poet.

CO-PATRIOTISM.

3. Between subjects of the same state and members of the same society, there may originate a species of attachment, occasionally rising to passionate intensity, and capable of literary effects.

The mere tender

The sentiment is a complex one. interest is rarely strong; the prominent examples are chiefly the cases of danger from a common enemy, and are such as to call forth the fighting or malevolent interest. In this form, patriotic poetry is both abundant and rousing.

The neighbourly relation of citizens is one of our forms of tender interest. It is an extension of the family situation, and grows warm upon services given and received. Rivalries and jealousies likewise spring up, and give scope for the malign pleasures as well. In the life pictures of romance, both kinds of interest are largely made use of.

BENEVOLENT INTEREST.

4. Pity for the distressed, kindness to dependents, protectorship, general philanthropy, all centre in the Tender Emotion, with aids from Sympathy strictly so called.

« AnteriorContinuar »