carry with them a deeper significance) are first of all Melodies and Pictures. With this kind of verse Tennyson began; in it, as his art was developed, he attained a rare mastery; and to it a great deal of his most finely finished work belongs. For this reason the present volume begins with a selection of lyrics of this general class: first, those in which the melodic element, the verbal music, is the main charm; second, those in which the chief delight comes from the pictorial element, the vivid description of things seen. I do not imagine that this distinction can be closely applied, or that all readers would draw it in the same way. But at least I hope that in both groups of this main division a certain order of advance can be seen: a deeper meaning coming into the melodies, a broader human interest coming into the pic tures. II. In the next general division,-Ballads, Idyls, and Character-Pieces, the significance has become more important than the form. The interest of the poems lies in the story which they tell, in the character which they reveal, in the mood of human experience which they depict. The chief value of the melody lies in its vital relation to the mood. The great charm of the bits of natural description lies in their almost invariable harmony with the central thought of the poem. The idyl is a picture coloured by an emotion and containing a human figure, or figures, in the foreground. It lies in the border-land between the lyric and the epic. The character-piece is a monologue in which a person is disclosed in utterance, mainly, if not altogether, from the side of thought, of remembrance, of reflection. It lies in the border-land between the epic and the drama. The dramatic lyric is an emotional self-disclosure, not of the poet himself, but of some chosen character, historical or imaginary. It lies in the border-land between the lyric and the drama. The ballad is a story told in song, briefly and with strong feeling. It may receive a dramatic touch by being told in character. But usually it belongs in the border-land between the epic and the lyric. Turning now to the poems which are brought together in this second division, we find that their controlling purpose is to tell us something about human character and life. They are larger in every way (though not necessarily more perfect) than the Melodies and Pictures, but their theme is still confined to a single event, a single character, or a single mood. They are related to the epic as the short story is to the novel. Their dramatic element is fully expressed only in the person who is speaking; the other characters and the plot of the play are implied. Maud is, I believe, the unique example of a drama presented in successive lyrics,-a lyrical Monodrama. III. The reason why selections from Tennyson's regular dramas have not been given in this volume is stated in another place. The limitations of space have prevented the use of anything more than fragments of his epics. They will be found in the third general division, Selections from Epic Poems, and are to be taken chiefly as illustrations of his manner of dealing with a broader theme. To judge how far he was able to tell a long rich story, how far he understood the architectural principles of epic poetry, one must turn directly to The Princess and Idylls of the King, and study them not in fragments but as complete poems. IV. In the fourth general division, Personal and Philosophic Poems, we hear Tennyson speaking to us more directly, delivering his personal message in regard to problems of life and destiny, giving his own answers to questions of faith and duty. I do not mean that these are the only poems in which his personal convictions are expressed; nor that these poems are always and altogether subjective and confessional. Doubtless in some of them (as, for example “The Ancient Sage") there is a dramatic element. But this is what I mean: the chief element of interest in these poems lies in what Matthew Arnold calls "the criticism of life,"—not abstract, impersonal, indirect criticism, but the immediate utterance of Tennyson's deepest thoughts and feelings. Here we have what he wishes to say to us, (not as preacher or philosopher or politician, but as poet,) about the right love of country, the true service of art, and the real life of the spirit. There is room for difference of opinion in regard to the place of particular poems in these general divisions. But I feel sure that the order of the divisions is that which should be followed in trying to estimate the quality and permanent value of Tennyson's work. The first object of poetry is to impart pleasure through the imagination by the expression of ideas and feelings in metrical language. But there is rank and degree in pleasures. The highest are those in which man's best powers find play: the powers of love and hope and faith which strengthen and ennoble human nature. Thus from the verbal melodies and pictures which have so delicate an enchantment for the æsthetic sense, we pass onward and upward to the human portraits which have a story to tell, and the larger scenes in which the social life of man is illustrated; and from these we rise again to the region where divine philosophy becomes "musical as is Apollo's lute." The singer whose melodies charm us is a true poet. The bard whose message thrills, uplifts, and inspires us is a great poet. VI THE QUALITIES OF TENNYSON'S POETRY "His music was the south-wind's sigh, A cabin hung with curling smoke, Or gleam which use can paint on steel, Princely women hard to please, He came to the green ocean's brim He stood before the tumbling main |