FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>   >|  
And be thy law, While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. Away! Take heed-- I will abroad. Call in thy death's-head there. Tie up thy fears. He that forbears To suit and serve his need, Deserves his load." But as I raved, and grew more fierce and wild At every word, Methought I heard one calling "_Child!_" And I replied, "_My Lord!_" Coming now to speak of his art, let me say something first about his use of homeliest imagery for highest thought. This, I think, is in itself enough to class him with the highest _kind_ of poets. If my reader will refer to _The Elixir_, he will see an instance in the third stanza, "You may look at the glass, or at the sky:" "You may regard your action only, or that action as the will of God." Again, let him listen to the pathos and simplicity of this one stanza, from a poem he calls _The Flower_. He has been in trouble; his times have been evil; he has felt a spiritual old age creeping upon him; but he is once more awake. And now in age[99] I bud again; After so many deaths I live and write; I once more smell the dew and rain, And relish versing. O my only light, It cannot be That I am he On whom thy tempests fell all night! Again: Some may dream merrily, but when they wake They dress themselves and come to thee. He has an exquisite feeling of lyrical art. Not only does he keep to one idea in it, but he finishes the poem like a cameo. Here is an instance wherein he outdoes the elaboration of a Norman trouvere; for not merely does each line in each stanza end with the same sound as the corresponding line in every other stanza, but it ends with the very same word. I shall hardly care to defend this if my reader chooses to call it a whim; but I do say that a large degree of the peculiar musical effect of the poem--subservient to the thought, keeping it dimly chiming in the head until it breaks out clear and triumphant like a silver bell in the last--is owing to this use of the same column of words at the line-ends of every stanza. Let him who doubts it, read the poem aloud. AARON. Holiness on the head; Light and perfections on the breast; Harmonious bells below, raising the dead, To lead them unto life and rest-- Thus are true Aarons drest. Profaneness in my h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129  
130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
stanza
 

action

 

reader

 
highest
 

thought

 

instance

 

merrily

 

Norman

 

trouvere

 

elaboration


outdoes

 
finishes
 

exquisite

 
lyrical
 
feeling
 

chooses

 

doubts

 

silver

 

column

 

Holiness


raising

 

perfections

 

breast

 

Harmonious

 

triumphant

 
Aarons
 

Profaneness

 

defend

 

degree

 

chiming


breaks

 

keeping

 
subservient
 

tempests

 

peculiar

 

musical

 

effect

 

calling

 

replied

 

Methought


fierce
 
Coming
 

imagery

 

homeliest

 

abroad

 
wouldst
 

Deserves

 
forbears
 
deaths
 

relish