Show I t i li I I I I GOLDEN AGES OF LITERATURE r AGE OF OP ENGLISH ENG H V POETRY VV V Continued V V BY THOMAS T OM S M RC PARROTT PHD The Second Spring of Revolution In Shelley and Byron Bron we find once more moren a full fun and fierce outpouring of o oI that spirit of revolution opposed by Scott and ignored by Keats This Thia is intimately connected with the progress of the great movement of the revolution revolution tion ties The military despotism of Na Napoleon Napoleon hau ha been overthrown not by any combination tion at of kings or r statesmen but by a general uprising of the na nations nations nations of Europe against the imposition of a foreign yoke This spirit of national na national national freedom was akin to yet differ different different ent from the early spirit of the French revolution It was less visionary and theoretical it sought first the downfall of a foreign tyr ny and then the es establishment tabli of an orderly and regu regulated regulated regulated V freedom under the aegis of na I i and constitutional monarchs But I this spirit of loyal liberty was basely b sely I betrayed by the th rulers whom it had saved The Holy Alliance sought to 1 turn back the clock of history and es en establish establish seventeenth century absolutism I The spirit of nationality was outraged by b a remarking of the map of Europe I without the slightest regard for the I wishes of the peoples involved In Eng England England England land the vilest of the Georges succeed succeeded ed his imbecile father Castlereagh the most despicable of ministers conducted the foreign affairs of the country At home every cry for a much needed re rS reform reform form was treated as treason by the all powerful spirit of reaction Such was the atmosphere which surrounded By Byron Byron Byron ron and Shelley and such were the powers of darkness against whom these theo the o oI sons of 01 the morning lifted up voices of prophetic denunciation Byron and Shelley have often been V contrasted and seldom has a critic done justice to both In fact the two were utterly dissimilar in character and genius united only by their common love of liberty They are like the two steeds of Platos allegory the one cleanly made and white a lover of honor modesty and temperance the theother theother theother other of dark color with gray and bloodshot eyes the mate of insolence and pride But both drew on the chariot of the soul It is unwise e and uncritical to glorify one by assailing the other It is better to join the no noblest noblest noblest blest words of those who have spoken best of each In a symphony of praise It has been well weIl said that Shelley She ey lived and worked in two worlds one the world of mankind and anti its hopes the other of his own heart Both these those V V I V Lord Byron worlds as reflected in his verse are ideal He is the tho least tangible and con concrete concrete concrete crete of our poets Whether he sings of at the golden age to come or of his own love and sorrow there is something in his verse almost too high and ether ethereal ethereal ethereal eal for human natures daily dally food The coursers of his verse are fed with the lightning and they drink of the whirl whirlwind whirlwind whirlwind wind And this gives to his work the aloofness which all critics recognize and for which the sterner sort condemn him as a beautiful ineffectual angel In It I early youth he found his intellectual food in the philosophers that preceded pre eded the French revolution and in Goodwin their English representative Later on he became a devoted Platonist From the tIme first he drew his conception of ot the he of mankind from the second his conception of nature as a 0 partial and fragmentary revelation of archetypal pal beauty Glorious dreams both dreams which have Inspired his verse but with an unearthly loveliness i When Shelley descends to what we call I practical politics as in the Tyrant or Peter Bell he Is at his I worst and weakest He is at his best when he hymns the victory of ideal Idea humanity over insolent oppression or II rises to the contemplation of the th one Spirit Which wields the th world with never n V r wearied love j t i Sustains It from beneath and kindles Jt lt above V VV VV V V VV The same ideal quality pervades all Shelleys personal poems We have in them a wonderful record of his emo emotions emotions emotions but there la is nothing in them of the strong humanity of ot Burns of the sen sensuous sensuous delight of Keats or of the stormy stonny agony of Byron Shelley is a lover of Ideal beauty a worshiper of Venus Urania Like the hero of his life was sas spent in a vain quest q est tor toi tora toia Ol Ola a human realization of this thin beauty hd this V love His conception of f t the pas as asI s st I 3 t slon sIon of o love jove has ha in it something supra natural I atur l It is V V The desire of the moth for the star Of the night for the morrow V The devotion de V to something afar From the sphere of out our sorrow sorro V And as he is the time poet of o Ideal passion po co he is the poet of ideal id al regret Shel Shelley Shelly ley ly 1 is the saddest of our poets an in infinite infinite infinite finite sorrow thrills through ugh his lyrics a longing for the unattainable a la Ia lamentation for the of oft things t l g V V V VV V V Out Ont of the day and amma night nightA A joy has taken flight V Yet it would be a false conception of Shelley which pictured red him as the poet of philosophical abstractions and un unattainable unattainable UnattaInable attainable ideals If he were that alone he would never have obtained the pow power er he has over the hearts of men As AsIn Asin Asin In his lifetime men of such different na natures natures natures tures as Hogg and Hunt H nt and Trelawney and Byron gathered round him and loved him so since his death such wide I V I IV V V V H V I L V PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY S HELLEY V VV V V I ly varying characters rs as Browning and Symonds anti and have del ht ed to bear testimony to his hold unon UDon their hearts And this power of Shel Shelley Shelley ley Icy is due to his passion He lie penetrates and kindles the abstractions of philos philosophy philosophy ophy with his own own perfervid spirit he h realizes and incarnates In the Ideal he be loves to dwell Jwell liponi pon No finer example of this power exists In all literature than han the Adonais where the Dreams the Desires the V Urania and Spring and Echo are to fall faIl as real realand realand realand and lifelike as ag the brother poets that gather round the dead singer It is Is passion which gives to the lyric poetry of Shelley its peculiar power It is un unwise unwise Unwise wise perhaps to assert that he is the greatest of our English poets it is quite juite safe to say that there is none like him Mm There is a graver joy in Words werth a richer music in Keats but neither in them nor elsewhere do we hear so plainly the lyrical cry the V spontaneous and overpowering utter uttel utterance utterance ance of overpowering emotion Finally the greatness of Shelley is due to the permanence of his Ideals In his hla finest work he conceived the world V sub specie rent asunder by bythe bythe bythe the mighty conflict between good and evil We catch the echoes of this warin warin war var varin in the Revolt of Islam in the Cen Cenci cf ct above all in Prometheus Un Unbound Unbound Unbound bound And nd throughout Shelley is on the side of the angels he stands for love against hatred for truth against hypocrisy for liberty against oppression oppression oppression sion And the noblest moral quality in Shelley Is his undying faith in the final victory of good Good is one and eter eternal eternal eternal nal evil a thing timing of many shapes and names and The One remains the many change V and pass V Heavens m v ns light forever shines earths V V shadows fly flyT V T When Shelley died his work was almost al almost a most outside the little circle of ot his friends fr end Byron at his death wa was robbly the most famous man m Eu Europe rope rOI e Yet since that time the hatters fame fam has been overcast while Shelleys gOry glory gory burns with an ever clearer luster This decline of Byrons fame f me Is due In part to a reaction re against the extravagant extravagant extravagant gant praise he received from his con As the generation after his hla death learned gradually to rank at their true worth the th nobler oets of his day Bxron B ron was neglected and even de derided Nor was vas the age over which he dominated the idyllic art of Tennyson and the dramatic subtlety of ot Browning likelier r to do him justice The very traits that endeared him to the age of the dandies his rank his personal I beauty b uty his bis daring scorn s orn of f the conven conventions conventions tons lowered him in the soberer and more dramatic days that followed And there was a 0 weightier reason This 1 generation perhaps more than any oth other other other er in m our history demanded of a poet an i Intellectual power and moral earnest earnestness earnestness earnestness ness which are absolutely wanting in I Byron When he begins to t tI ig is I a child said Goethe and the most I noticeable though not the truest char characteristic characteristic I of Byrons masterpiece is its t immoral Immor l levity Only of the last few years has ha the pendulum begun to swing I i I II back bak There Is a Byron revival in the theair theair theair air and it is not impossible that we may have before long a critical esti estimate estimate estimate mate of the man and his work that will definitely settle settIe his place in English literature To acquire a right feeling for Byron and his poetry says Dowden is a din dis discipline in equity Strength and weak weakness weakness ness pens sincerity and affectation are not merely mingled In his work they are re reI inextricably intertwined It is impossible ble to sift the chaff from the wheat Arnolds volume of selections from By Byr Byrn r rin rn n is as glaring a failure as the tle com corn companion comPanion panion volume from Wordsworth is a anoble anoble noble Io le success The Thel reason fo this lies in the fact that Byron was of all great poets oets the poorest artist His ear for forter meter Lmeter ter was of Ot f the dullest his critical nt absurd his patience for plan ding Ing and correcting nonexistent non And just because the is wanting In Byron his work more than another an poets represents presents r the man himself It Itis ItIs Itis is the man himself that strange com coin compound compound pound of f good and ann evil cd I that is so o pern interesting and a book of ele dc elegant le legant gant extracts from his Ms poems no more represents him than would a lL life Ufe in which mention was made only of his good deeds eeds We want the whole Note his study will be concluded con tomorrow V V V V Q |