Richard Herne Shepherd

“ In the first song a lover, standing on the slope of a hill, perceives the window of his mistress, shining like a jewel in the distance. In a beautiful and melodious soliloquy he calls upon the lights and shadows, the winds and clouds, which are all pursuing one direction the house of his love. ”

“ A genuine poet has deep responsibilities to his country and the world, to the present and future generations, to earth and heaven. He, of all men, should have distinct and worthy objects before him, and consecrate himself to their promotion. It is thus that he best consults the glory of his art, and his own lasting fame. Mr. Tennyson has a dangerous quality in that facility of impersonation on which we have remarked, and by which he enters so thoroughly into the most strange and wayward idiosyncrasies of other men. ”

“ I have just been reading the new poems of Tennyson. Much has he thought, much suffered, since the first ecstasy of so fine an organization clothed all the world in rosy light. He has not suffered himself to become a mere intellectual voluptuary, nor the songster of fancy and passion, but has earnestly revolved the problems of life, and his conclusions are calmly noble. In these later verses is a still, deep sweetness ”

“ The allusion appeared to indicate a deep and probably recent study of the Sonnets of Shakespeare.
On examining these poems anew, which I did with great minuteness and attention, I found my supposition fully corroborated. I discovered a large number of coincidences of idea and even of expression not exactly to be called imitations, and still less plagiarisms, in the later, but which seemed to me to prove that his mind was at the time so imbued with the spirit of the elder poet as to render some unconscious echoes almost unavoidable. ”

“ There is no weak Miltonic or Wordsworthian echo in his blank verse: it is all his own, or, indeed, if he ever reminds us of anybody, it is of Shakespeare. Some of his lines hare the true ring of the master. [1]
Although, however, rhyme is, as Milton insisted, no necessary adjunct of good poetry, it may be a very pleasing ornament. Wordsworth notices somewhere in his preface to the "Lyrical Ballads," the exquisite pleasure derived from rhyme when a poem has all the logical and orderly sequence of prose. Perhaps no poet has ever been more happy in his rhymes than Tennyson. ”

“ A few months after Arthur Hallam's death, Milnes published a small volume of poems in the dedication of which "To Henry Hallam, Esq.," we find the following tribute to Arthur's memory: "If I have ever entertained pleasurable anticipations connected with the publication of any production of my mind, they have owed not a little to the thought that I should thus be enabled to give, in my humble way, an open testimony to the affectionate admiration with which I regarded one whom I loved with the truth of early friendship, and you with a parent's passion. ”

“ Andrews, in a little book on "Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible," has collected together all the passages from his writings in which allusions are made to Holy Scripture. A not less interesting collection might be made from the works of Tennyson; and in these days, when men are quarrelling in no very Christian mood about the letters of a book of which they too often forget the spirit, it might be instructive to remark the kind of interpretation our greatest living poet gives us of it. ”

“ His fame spread rapidly to America, where his poems were reprinted. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lowell, Margaret Fuller, and Edgar Poe added their tribute of admiration, "I am not sure," says the last-named, "that Tennyson is not the greatest of poets. The uncertainty attending the public conception of the term 'poet' alone prevents me from demonstrating that he is. Other bards produce effects which are, now and then, otherwise produced than by what we call poems, but Tennyson an effect which only a poem does. ”

“ There is no finer ear, nor more command of the keys of language."
Tennyson's early command of blank-verse, as evinced in "Timbuctoo" and in "The Lover's Tale," is indeed wonderful: blank verse being perhaps the most difficult and unmanageable of all measures. The poet having no longer the factitious aid of rhyme, must depend for effect upon the variety of his cadences and pauses. His verse must read like good prose, and yet be without baldness. ”

“ For the story of Enid (the first Idyll) , the poet is indebted to Lady Charlotte Guest's "Mabinogion," [4] the narrative in which he has followed pretty closely, down even to minute details. It is the same and yet how different! It is interesting to trace the homely prose of the old narrative in Tennyson's magnificent setting; and perhaps no more signal instance could be given of a poet's transmutation of all he touches into pure gold. It was in this way that Shakespeare dealt with the old chroniclers and romancists; seldom himself inventing the story—only telling it in his own way. ”

“ We have accustomed ourselves to think, perhaps without any very good reason, that poetry was likely to perish among us for a considerable period after the great generation of poets which is now passing away. The age seems determined to contradict us, and that in the most decided manner; for it has put forth poetry by a young man, and that where we should least expect it—namely, in a prize poem. ”

“ IN MEMORIAM AND SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
"Yet turn thee to the doubtful shore,
Where thy first form was made a man;
I loved thee, Spirit, and love, nor can
The soul of Shakespeare love thee more."
CHAPTER IV.
IN MEMORIAM AND SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS.
It is a remarkable fact that throughout the poems of Tennyson, Shakespeare is mentioned no fewer than six times. [1] First, he is placed among the "choice paintings of wise men" in "The Palace of Art," as—
"Shakespeare bland and mild." ”

“ An essay 'On the Genius of Alfred Tennyson' sent it to the grave. The superhuman—nay, supernatural—pomposity of that one paper incapacitated the whole work for living one day longer in this unceremonious world. The solemnity with which the critic approached the object of his adoration, and the sanctity with which he laid his offerings on the shrine, were too much for our irreligious age. The 'Essay on the Genius of Alfred Tennyson' awoke a general guffaw, and it expired in convulsions. ”

“ And they came to a high road, which they followed till they saw a vast forest, and they went towards it, and they saw four armed horsemen come forth from the forest. When they had beheld them, one of them said to the other, 'Behold, here is a good occasion for us to capture two horses and armour, and a lady likewise; for this we shall have no difficulty in doing against yonder single knight, who hangs his head so pensively and heavily.' And Enid heard this discourse, and she knew not what she should do through fear of Geraint, who had told her to be silent. ”

“ But Tennyson has not made the post a sinecure in his case. While eschewing Birthday Odes, and the like, he has, as we shall see, on various national occasions, produced a series of noble patriotic poems, in his capacity of Laureate, which have given a new significance to the office; while the spectacle of a Court leading a beautiful and pure family life, and setting a bright example to all the families of the nation, has given him opportunity for exercising it without suspicion of adulation or insincerity. ”

“ We are deprived, not only of a beloved friend, of a delightful companion, but of a most wise and influential counsellor in all the serious concerns of existence, of an incomparable critic in all our literary efforts, and of the example of one who was as much before us in everything else, as he is now in the way of life. ”

“ And thereupon Geraint was troubled in his mind, and he called his squire; and when he came to him, 'Go quickly,' said he, 'and prepare my horse and my arms, and make them ready. And do thou arise,' said he to Enid, 'and apparel thyself; and cause thy horse to be accoutred, and clothe thee in the worst riding dress that thou hast in thy possession. And evil betide me,' said he, 'if thou returnest here until thou knowest whether I have lost my strength so completely as thou didst say. ”

“ My dear Sir, I have maintained in these Essays that a Theology which does not correspond to the deepest thoughts and feelings of human beings cannot be a true Theology. Your writings have taught me to enter into many of those thoughts and feelings. ”

“ The delineations of the trustful infant, the praying mother, the dying lamb, are as good as anything of the kind can be; while those of the supposed author's emotions as he gazes on 'Christians with happy countenances,' or stands by the Christian grave, or realizes again, with a mixture of self-admiration and self-reproach, the 'unsunned freshness of his strength,' when he 'went forth in quest of truth,' are of a higher order, and are more powerfully, though no less gracefully finished."—Westminster Review, January, 1831. ”

“ Suffice it to say that the poet is not only fortunate and happy in his family relations, but that, with his large and liberal nature, his sympathies for what is true and noble in humanity, and his depth and tenderness of feeling, he deserves to be so. ”

“ Leaving my luggage at one of the two little inns, I walked to the house, with lines from 'Maud' chiming in my mind. 'The dry-tongued laurel' shone glossily in the sun, the cedar 'sighed for Lebanon' on the lawn, and 'the liquid azure bloom of a crescent of sea' glimmered afar. ”

“ We reluctantly close our scanty extracts with another fine simile:
"There be some hearts so airy-fashioned,
That in the death of Love, if e'er they loved,
On that sharp ridge of utmost doom ride highly
Above the perilous seas of Change and Chance;
Nay, more, hold out the lights of cheerfulness ”

“ Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched metre of an antique song:"
Sonnet 17.
Tennyson.
"The herald melodies of spring."
In Memoriam, xxxviii. 2.
Compare this Sonnet with "In Memoriam" lxxv.-lxxvii.
Shakespeare. ”

“ As the hopes which I have expressed in this volume are more likely to be fulfilled to our children than to ourselves, I might perhaps ask you to accept it as a present to one of your name, in whom you have given me a very sacred interest. ”

“ In 'Dora,' 'Locksley Hall,' 'The Two Voices,' 'Morte d'Arthur,' I find my own life, much of it, written truly out." [14]
No great reputation, however, has been without its assailants little spirits who do their best or worst to undermine the fame they can never hope themselves to reach, and Alfred Tennyson was not more fortunate than the rest. ”

“ Those who care to study pedigrees will find, on referring to Burke's "Dictionary of the Landed Gentry," that our Poet can claim descent from a very ancient family—the D'Eyncourts of the Norman times, whose name has, by royal licence, been resumed by an elder branch of the house.
Early in the year 1827 we find Alfred Tennyson and his elder brother Charles together at the Louth grammar-school, and preparing for the press a volume of juvenile poems, written from the age of fifteen upwards. ”

“ In the fifth song is that beautiful comparison with the wrens, which gives its second title to the poem. The lover calls his mistress the Queen of the Wrens, and he wishes to be the King of the Queen of the Wrens.
In the sixth song the lover, after dwelling upon the surpassing excellence of his mistress, debates within himself whether he shall let her know of his love, and make his declaration personally or by letter, and at last decides to adopt the latter course. ”

“ The first flush of popularity cannot be trusted. Admiration is contagious, and means often little more than sympathy with the general feeling—the pleasure of being in the fashion. A book which is praised in all the reviews thousands will not only buy, but be delighted with ”

“ Let a man ask for it two or three times without getting it, he will take to something else; and his curiosity, unless founded on something more substantial than a wish to see what others are looking at, and a disposition to be pleased with what others praise, will die away. If, on the other hand, a new edition be perseveringly demanded, and when it comes, be eagerly bought, we may safely conclude that the work has something in it of abiding interest and permanent value ”

“ The third piece, "A Fragment," in blank verse, and much in the style of "Timbuctoo," has been already referred to in our first chapter.
There is a sonnet by Alfred Tennyson in the same number of "The Englishman's Magazine," which contains Arthur Hallam's review of the "Poems, chiefly Lyrical." The opening lines,
"Check every outflash, every ruder sally
Of thought and speech; speak low, and give up wholly
Thy spirit to mild-minded Melancholy,"
are partly reproduced in the "Choric Song of the Lotos-Eaters":
"To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the influence of mild-minded Melancholy." ”

“ Under the thin disguise of the editorial "we," it is easy to recognize the warmth and enthusiasm of a dear friend. The article is entitled, "On Some of the Characteristics of Modern Poetry, and on the Lyrical Poems of Alfred Tennyson." [9] The latter portion of it, devoted to an analysis and criticism of some of the principal pieces, has unfortunately not been reprinted in Hallam's Remains. [10]
Hitherto the young poet's critics had been friendly, nay, almost reverential in their tone ”