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Show t. ' If Our JR. - Liter atry Table. ; ST. MARY'S ACADEMY. 221 TO A YOUNG STUDENT OX PURCHASING A VOLUME OF .TEXXYSOX. Do you know what you have in that poet's book? Do you call it all yours because you have paid The paltry price which the seller took As its worth in the scale of the bookman's trade ? Do you know what a casket of priceless gems From the mines of thought you are holding there; ' X'ot all the world's richest diadems With their luster and beauty can ever compare! You've a legacy grand, a vast estate. A kingdom through which vou may roam at will: Its glorious companions do but Avait Your pleasure each hour with riches to fill. . Oh. pity it were should you miss the rare prize, This best of a poet's life, mind, heart! But you must have poet's soul, cars aud eyes, Of this heritage fair to enjoy any part. From "Vota Mariae." OXE OF T 1 1 E I M M 0 RT A L S J When a man has proved his birthright as the . heir of genius, he has a passport to the heart of humanity; the world and all future ages claim him, f orjie is immortal. Such a one is Alfred Tennyson, who, though he has "crossed the bar," still lives, , and shall live, as long as the English language has. a reader. By the magic power of his lines, by the beauty of his songs, by the nobility of his thoughts, he lives for such things cannot die. . "Noble! he sang and. the sweet sound ran Through palace and cottage door; For he touched on the whole sad planet of man, The' kings and the rich and the poor." We read that Somersby, in Lincolnshire, where he was born in 180!), and where his early childhood child-hood was spent, is the center of a locality exceptionally excep-tionally favored by nature; and the beauty of its scenes made jm indelible impression on the sensi; . tive mind of the poet-elect. Ilis father, a clergyman, clergy-man, charged himself with the instruction of his boys until they were ready for college; and to his fostering care and the association of two brothers of kindred tasts are usually' ascribed the first buds of promise on the poet's tree of fame. How we should like to see that slate which his childish hand once covered with blank verse i.-n the subject "Flowers," an inspiration which he is said to have drawn from Thomson's "Seasons." It was in those early years, too, that he wrote an elegy on his grandmother, grand-mother, receiving therefor a remuneration of ten shillings from his grandfather, who, however, proved himself a false prophet in predicting that this would be the poet's last earning with the pen. If .Thomson was the poet of his boyhood, it is clear that Byron held sway over his early manhood; man-hood; for besides, the evidence to this effect found in the poems he produced at that period, lie himself him-self expressly acknowledged it. When he heard of hte death of Byron, lie "thought the whole world was at an end;" and, oppressed with the magnitude of the loss, he walked out alone and carved "Byron is dead" in the sandstone. The first verses he published independently of his brothers were severely criticised, and here we meet with one of the finest lessons to be learned from his life. He made no retort to the reviewers, but profited by their remarks, correcting his work accordingly ; then betaking himself to a stud ious retirement of ten silent, years, he-fitted himself to produce poety of the highest order. , An event which stirred the depths of his being occurred early in this decade the death of his boon companion, Arthur Henry Hallam. To him an. irreparable bereavement, to the world of let- j ters it may be deemed ai "bona ventura," leading as it did to the composition of the grandest of all elegies, "In Memorian." This was published in 1850, three years after "The. Princess," and the same year was memorable as the date of his marriage mar-riage and his succession to Wordsworth in the laureateship. Xine years later he gave to the world his "Idylls of the King," in which Tie reached theV.'ac.ine :of liis drt; for,-although' he produced a greut many poems iater, none equaled the Idylls either in popularity popu-larity or intrinsic merit. As to the personality of Tennyson, we gather otir appreciation of him, not so much from tin; record of his years as from the pages into which he put his life work and its message. His lofty ideal of the profession , to which he aspired from his very childhood is set forth in one of the poems of his first publication; and in the light of his after achievements we see how happily he realized his poetic ideal. In Tenn.vsons view, the poet is no ordinary mortal; mor-tal; "in a golden clime he was born, with golden stars above." His heritage is not such as the sordid sor-did prize; for it has not material value; being "the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love." Gifted with a special sight, the human heart is to him an open book. The multiplication of truth upon earth is the sr.cred office of the poet, and he has ever been the precursor of freedom. ,In a poem written much-later, when Fame was beginning to smile upon him, Tennyson shows his superiority to the petty jealousies that may infect even the devotees of the Muse. To someone evincing evinc-ing .such a disposition, he replied: "Oh, little bard, is your lot so hard, If men neglect your pages? I think not much of yours or of mine; I hear the roll of ages. "Brief, brief is the summer leaf, But this is the time of hollies; ! Oh. hollies and ivies and evergreen-, How I hate the spites and follies!" I With Tennyson's portrait we are all familiar; but it is far too staid and severe to suit many of t-hose' delightful moods and sentiments that are so familiar to us through his tender lyrics. Having been raised to the peerage some years before his death, which occurred Oct. 7. 1f:?. be was entitled to a place of rest among the sages, poets, kings and princes in Westminster Abbey, yet "The man remains, and whatsoe'er He wrought of good or brave. Will mould him through the cycle-year That dawns beyond the grave." FLORENCE O'NEILL, '06. |
