here scuds His raven that hath told Him all!
It was fool's play, this prattling! Ha! The wind
Shoulders the pillared dust, death's house o' the move,
And fast invading fires begin! White blaze--
A tree's head snaps--and there, there, there, there, there,
His thunder follows! Fool to jibe at Him!
Lo! 'Lieth flat and loveth Setebos!
'Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip,
Will let those quails fly, will not eat this month
One little mess of whelks, so he may 'scape!"

_Mr. Sludge, "The Medium"_ is equally remote from both the other poems
in blank verse. It is a humorous and realistic tale of modern
spiritualism, suggested, it is said, by the life and adventures of the
American medium, Home. Like _Bishop Blougram_, it is at once an exposure
and an apologia. As a piece of analytic portraiture it would be
difficult to surpass; and it is certainly a fault on the right side if
the poet has endowed his precious blackguard with a dialectical head
hardly to be expected on such shoulders; if, in short, he has made him
nearly as clever as himself. When the critics complain that the
characters of a novelist are too witty, the characters of a poet too
profound, one cannot but feel thankful that it is once in a while
possible for such strictures to be made. The style of _Mr. Sludge_ is
the very acme of colloquialism. It is not "what is commonly understood
by poetry," certainly: but is it not poetry, all the same? If such a
character as Sludge should be introduced into poetry at all, it is
certain that no more characteristic expression could have been found for
him. But should he be dealt with? We limit our poetry nowadays, to the
length of our own tether; if we are unable to bring beauty out of every
living thing, merely because it is alive, and because nature is
beautiful in every movement, is it our own fault or nature's?
Shakespeare and his age trusted nature, and were justified; in our own
age only Browning has wholly trusted nature.

Scarcely second in importance to the dramatic group, comes the group of
lyrical poems, some of which are indeed, formally dramatic, that is,
the "utterance of so many imaginary persons," but still in general tone
and effect lyrical and even personal. _Abt Vogler_ for instance, and
_Rabbi ben Ezra_, might no doubt be considered instances of "vicarious
thinking" on behalf of the modern German composer and the mediaeval
Jewish philosopher. B