THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS Longfellow writes in his diary of how he wrote the ballad on the "Wreck of the Hesperus, on the reef of Norman's Woe, in the great storm of a fortnight ago." He says: "I sat till twelve o'clock by my fire smoking, when suddenly it came into my mind to write the Ballad of the Schooner Hes. perus; which I accordingly did. Then I went to bed, but could not sleep. New thoughts were running in my mind, and I got up to add them to the ballad. It was three by the clock. I then went to bed and fell asleep. I feel pleased with the ballad. It hardly cost me an effort. It did not come into my mind by lines, but by stanzas." LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI (Page 30) The idea of the poem seems to have been suggested by the name of an old translation that Keats had run across in his reading. But it was the name only that attracted Keats, for the older poem has nothing in common with his. It is not a poem to analyze in a search for "meaning," but one to read again and again for the haunting weirdness of its tone. EARL MARCH LOOK'D ON HIS DYING CHILD (Page 32) This is one of the most condensed stories to be found in our literature. Note how much is told and implied in the first stanza alone, and then observe how much of the subsequent story is read between the lines of condensed, rapid action. THE PRIDE OF YOUTH One of Madge Wildfire's songs in the Heart of Midlothians of this song Palgrave says: "Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wild-wood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted:—the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the mere presentment of the situ ation." ROSABELLE The ballad sung by Harold in the sixth canto of The Lay of the Last Minstrel. The superstitious premonitions of danger are familiar features of old ballad literature, but through the poem, and especially in the descriptive stanzas near the end, there is a quality of diction and meter that marks the modern artist. In stanza three, inch is a Scotch word for "island." The game referred to in the sixth stanza is of course that of catching a suspended ring upon the sword-point as one rides by at full gallop. SHORT NARRATIVE POEMS LOVE (Page 36) This poem, with a few stanzas added at beginning and end, and with a few changes, was first published as the Introduction of a longer poem, begun but never completed, that was to be entitled The Ballad of the Dark Ladie. HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM GHENT TO AIX (Page 42) The sense of galloping speed that this poem produces is due not alone to the strong anapestic meter, but to an impression of the landscape, which comes in a series of rapidly flashed pictures, as they would be seen by a preoccupied rider from the back of a fast moving horse. The poem has no historical foundation: Browning wrote it, as he says, "under the bulwark of a vessel, off the African coast, after I had been at sea long enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back of a certain good horse, York,' then in my stable at home." LAODAMÍA (Page 44) "Written at Rydal Mount. The incident of the trees growing and withering put the subject into my thoughts, and I wrote with the hope of giving it a loftier tone than, so far as I know, has been given to it by any of the ancients who have treated of it. It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal length I have ever written."Wordsworth's note. This poem stands apart from the body of Wordsworth's work, as an attempt to express a story of classic origin in the spirit of Greek life. The ideal of calm self-possession, of dignified restraint when under emotional stress, is felt not only in the incident chosen, but in the manner of the telling— the simple diction, with its few, well-chosen adjectives, the even, melodious verse. The spirit that we think of as peculiarly Greek is admirably summed up in the thirteenth stanza, and in harmony with this is the picture of future happiness, as conceived by the Greeks, in stanzas seventeen and eighteen. The qualities we speak of appear perhaps most clearly when we contrast this poem with one in the spirit of mediæval romance, like The Eve of St. Agnes. THE OUTLAW A song by the leader of the outlaws in the third canto of Rokeby. The introductory words give an idea of the scene: 66 With desperate merriment he sung, Yet mingled with his reckless glee MY LAST DUCHESS (Page 51) The speaker is an Italian nobleman, whose former wifehis last duchess "-has died, and who now is about to ar range details of dowry with the father of the woman he next proposes to marry. In displaying her portrait by a mythical Frà Pandolf—the nobleman brings out indirectly the story of his former marriage,-the wife's offense in bestow ing her smiles and gratitude on all men alike, and not reserving them for her husband alone; the husband's commands," so grimly suggested in the words, "Then all smiles stopped together." The wife's innocent, gracious personality is indicated in a few telling lines; stronger yet is the impression received of the coldly inhuman nature of the husband. Feeling that his wife, in accepting his "nine-hundredyears-old-name," has therefore surrendered herself, body and soul, to his pleasure, he is unwilling to compromise his dignity by stooping to correct her fault, but prefers to uphold his honor, instead, by the issue of his "commands." The impression of character that this makes is heightened by the fact that the nobleman sees fit to narrate these facts to the father of his next bride, on the eve of her marriage; still more by the indifference with which he turns to speak, in leaving, of a cherished piece of bronze statuary. STORIES OF BATTLE AND WAR INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP The storming of Ratisbon took place in 1809. The incident here narrated is true, except for the fact that the hero was not a boy but a man. HOHENLINDEN The poem gets its title from the name of a village in Bavaria near Munich, where was fought in 1800 a battle between the Austrians and the French. Our sympathies are not directed to one side or the other; the poem is simply the picture of a battle, seen in a few vivid flashes. The abruptness of the changes from stanza to stanza is in the spirit of the old ballads, but very different are the meter and the diction, and the final impression of the poem. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (Page 58) The poem tells an actual incident in the battle of Balaclava, during the Crimean War, the news of which stirred England deeply. It is recorded that the expression "Some one had blundered," occurring in a newspaper dispatch, gave Tennyson the idea of the poem and suggested the swing of the verse. BATTLE OF THE BALTIC 66 This poem signalized one of Lord Nelson's greatest naval victories. The poem contains all that need be known for its complete understanding; the words gallant good applied to Captain Riou in the last stanza were used by Nelson himself when he wrote home his dispatches. HERVÉ RIEL Browning founded his poem on an actual incident from local French history. It is interesting to notice what sort of incidents of heroism Browning chose for his poems, and what aspects of those incidents he liked to dwell upon. The present poem is an instructive example. When it was published, in 1871, Browning sent the sum that he received for it, five hundred pounds, for the relief of the people in Paris suffering as a result of the Franco-German war. THE REVENGE The poem follows closely the recorded incidents of a battle mentioned by Sir Walter Raleigh as having been joined at three o'clock in the afternoon on August 31st, 1591. From the contemporary accounts we learn the bravery of the English sailor; but the strong sense of personalityrugged valor and downright speech-comes from Tennyson's handling. To him too is due the vigorous sense of action in the battle itself. How the free metrical treatment of the poem, with its long, swinging lines here and its abrupt passages there, helps bring about this effect becomes very clear when we give the poem a spirited interpretation in reading aloud. |