THE TWIN STARS OF POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 502, 8 May 1909, Page 9

THE TWIN STARS OF POETRY.

• It was a cunmis myth that gave the brothers of Helen, those young-eyed stars, an immortality of alternato'days.- Like the sons of men,' they wero buried' in corruption, but . every/other day. they ; roso again and gleamed upon the heavens or rods their, snow-white steeds in :the forefront of battle; By anotner story, tlcath had dominion over only oho and f;his brbth'ej, on alternate'days, unablo longer to endure the, scparatipri, .desconded into this "uivseen workl. until the morrow's sun.Mail's . • yearning for'the 'dead suggested"that beauti:ful 'Variation'; in the worship/ but-obviously ■ it was but a fond desire, I'or there, before

all ;.oyes;r .whenever tho twin stars gleaatcc upon tho heavens, : they wcro together, ant in tho forefront of tho hattlo l thoso white horses galloped sido by side.. ■ |'A ;hundrea.: years'ago Byron and Shelley thoso young-eyed stars: of England, had nol passed through-mortality, ,hor;taken- -<heii place abovo tho horizon in our sky. Shollej . was-still at Eton; Byron, : just, of ago, - was making ready for his first, voyage to, Greece But thon; # mis3 an .opportunity' in ;thii year of oentenaries, the Greek Societies la si week. began, celebrating. that first . journey which was to - mean so' much, for' Greece; ant this .week suddenly Messrs. .'Burns' and• Oatei ! issue a book which .will recall all thought! ■to' Shelley.!lt," is. no iiiero ■ vcoincidcnco Though dimmed to sight at time 3, or halfforgfttten in tho charm of later: worships, their; white stars shine together upon the heavens'of our 'literature, , "and in tho forefront' of■ .our'- battlo their gleaming , horses charge'like. one. ; l tnie- no two poets could be » more different.! ,Tnerb w!as a time when young men, growing, • as : Mr, -Stephen'Paget, has said! more" like Shelley fevery 'minute, would 1 av< fainted , to. hear- tno god of their idolatrj named in the same breath as Byron. Suchn halo " of iridescence' was . thrown round the •name -that people '.who ; valued sanity _' were obliged to withdraw from it for a .while as from a "lunar influence. When - Matthew ■Arnold spoke.pf .Slielloy. as "a beautiful and ineffectual angel,"beating in the void his luminous, wings in; vain, ~it was. at; this shadoiiyy' arid; iridescent phantom that, ho was striking. --'But,-lUcia'Hamlet's .friends striking at tho ghost with partisans,, lie did it ivroug, being so angelical, to offbr it the show oi violence.:-It -was'-'the beauty of youth's heart. which.' composed and saw that lovelj ghost.' In Shelley -tho heart of' youth at .last perceived; a Vision of tho ' being_ it so -much ,ae'sired.',. Let professors arid- puritans chattel about' Harriet, and exclaim,; "What; a .set !" as they read of tho men. and wbmen' who onc< had the glory 'of knowing Shelley in the flesh, Youth had a vision-ofra spirit that coiild no! ;be touched ;by. tho .defilement of earth—"o ;l>a_rd-Jiko?. spirit,beautiful -and swift"—a spirit 'plumed/with .strong -'desire, floating above the earth - like', a 'flame,; uttering' the sweetest'.'voice..that ;everi used our language, impassioned for tho cause of.-, ; man, confident of human..victory; andApssessed .by intuitions of'eternal * things. j And>'that • spirit ; had oncc been enclosed ; 'in ;«a :; 'brillia!iit-eycd }■ • form ; of singuliif beauty': : and;'attjactiveness;. I .had lived is thoughyout'sido and puddles of this.world; -had loved: whoever was loyable'.ivith'.high. andi-iuncalculatingipassion, and had died!; too','fitting - death,' still: Vo'ung l in Nature's 'ari&/ , isecuf6.froins;the''cohtagiori of tho world's slow, stain: . .tho;;heartv!<^ It was, tho true! Shelley.'bf ; whoiri;. youth had a''-nrisi«i:' : irllic]i' undo. The ..rest 'did not •'cbunt;; , ' i ';lf ,'a. igreat icritic called an.-angel ineffectual; ; well,\there were plenty of efficient persons to carry on the Education Office the critic. If virtuous people charged an . angel with indifference tto the laws of- virtue, well, "there was a good deal of" virtue' in every street, and plenty of: indifference colder than tlhelley's. / .Secure in tho heart of ; the. matter, why,; .time' ■ gossiping! about- .the 'husks aind'.oxbrescehces ?■ 'It. is ithe same ,with.. that book which .we said had recalled us to Sholloj this /.week—a "'brief; 'republished essay. : bj ono.'of .the few of. Shelley's successors who can be named beside Vim for. a certain : assurance . and;!' splfendoui of_ . symbolic thought—a'! >power A'oh.vperceivingl'. under!£ -,tho,!:. many-coloured ''. ..dome of;'life the white {radianco of!eternity., : The whole .essay is of. interest as a criticism "on Shelley, but of far greater interest as a criticism.'upon Francis Thompson himself. are passages upon the .Church,4h'd ; sin;_and personal immortality ..of; tho writer's soul; r- Butfthey have little -,' more ..concern with''}tKeVe^riM^bf ; ;Shelley.'...'. than has- a ..of « what - life means "to ajivurihappy,'. pbet,y;whom the; author calls but.draws from tho memory of his own .wretchodnoss; ■ •.. '•■ • against'.the over-carefulness of so' significant-,!; iii.'. a popfc.'whoso'.danger .was difficult and! perverso elabbration-^hisJprotest, against>„oiH\, jselfciDpcibUs.'.simplicity,'.too, and! o'flr. .'hiilSit *of sentimentalising; over, whereas Slielloy!. was the eternal- and uncorruptcd chil^fhis,. analysis of the poet's ohiliUike natur6';cttbie''t<) see a'world in a grain; of sand, fofdejiL- with abstractions , as simple and vis"'and to hope .continuallyjithat in the next object of his love he will assuredly find;.'the* perfect satisfaction' of. unlimited and; penetrating all this criticism- is 1; And with what splendour of' language it is; expressed, exoept only when fe.,writer! yields !to.- the. fantastic! and tells us of "the. established canons; that had been spikcxl by poet after poet I" For the strength of the essay, and • for '.its' weakness -. equally, we may. give '.the filial summary i "Enchanted ' . . ; wrote',. "born; into'' a :' 1 world, -"unchildlike; spoiled, darling 'of- Nature,' playmate of her elemental! daughters; 'pard-like; spirit; beautiful' and swift,' laired ainidst the 'burning fastnesses ; of his own; fervid, miiid; bold.foot along the .verges .'of precipitous :dream • light lea,per ,'from;. crag to , crag'. ;of, . inaccessible fancies; towering genius, whose soul rose like a'ladder. between heaven and earth, with the angels of song ascending and descending it: .—he is .shrimkeni into, flie}little vessel of 13<»tfy and'Bbaledrwjth tho-iinshatterableseal of doom, ;and'.cast -down deep below,the roll-of'-Time, .Mighty meat for little gueste,, when the heart' bf .Shelley was laid in the cemetery 'of'-Cains.' Ccstinsl" . .' What' a' paltry thought in consummation of sentences so superb! ;• Francis Thompson speaks of the.'deepest 'depth"of'agony'!.that could find consolation. in the immortality promised iii! the .familiar.lines'of "Adonais," begmning - .— .. ; ; • i ; ■ "He is a portion of that loveliness ■, iWhich once.he made more lovely." We .inay: admit that the consolation is w>ld, hpwe>ve'r. beautiful ;>yet, compared withlthat thought' of' ineat for little guests," how radaint with glorj - . aro those last, lines of the great elegy:— ; , '!,. . "Whilst burning, through .the inmost , veil of Heaven, - -. ■ - '' The soul-of Adonais, like a star,! '; 1 ". oBeacons from the abedo where the Eternal are." -.- ;/.•■. "... , Leaving-this exquisite spirit, "half angel and half.-Jbird," if. ever poefc was, how shall wo pass to his twin ;star!in that constellation which'guided sailors through tho gloom ;and storm of a century ago? 'We must quit'the moony -boats ,of the air, the. rainbow arcs, tho paths-of-, tempest;* the building .. of itho clouds, : the!spirit of'night upon' the .western wave, and the fairy transformations of, a world. 1 We' 'shall' hear no more the song of the dancing stars' and "daedal earth. ..'Wo shall drop to a city much like London, and find ourselves moving .beside>-a spirit half .coxcomb and half god. ! -Let us listen again to the.great critic, and hear him upbraid Byron with faults of negligence, diffuseness, Repetition, .' vulgarity,!; and affectation;.; -The . censure, is all .true enough; and it is a long way to travel to such a man from a luminous angel, however'.ineffectual.'! But- that last stanza.Of "Adonais" itself suggests-the- pas? sage:. ■. -. - \ -• ■■ ".My spirit's bark is driven Far from the/shore, far from the trembling throng: "■!',.■■■'..!'!'.' Whose sails were to the tempest given." Unlike jn ;almost. every! quality of spirit* and expression, Shelley- and Byron ,/wero., twin brothers ;in !sailing far from .the shoro, far from ' the-A trembling!, throng,:-Side by sido they fd&red; tho-tempest !' , aoross ' untrodden ways; and side by. side they charged in tho forefront.of tho battlo of freedom :— "Yet freedom, yet, thy. banner torn but flying, Streams, like. a ; thunderstorm against the wind." ;' .. ~ So Byron cried, and in that thunderstorm of freedom, tho twin constellation shone. We cannot say . what that age had dono or what bur ago has left undono that their war. for freedom have been illumined by two stich. star's,! !,ahd ours by none to compare. Certainly, ;it was,an age when the world was upheaving like dough round working leaven. In the "Kevolt'of Islam," Shelley could woll writo, "Methiiiks thoso who now live have survived .an ago.of, despair." ' Byron in. his letters,coiijd write, "I have! simplified my politics into; an;'"utter- detestation of all existing governments." Certainly the disturbing leaven"offreedom vvas working well. But at the present'moment it- is set upon work equally wholesome and disturbing, and if that ago had -its French Revolution and the shattering , of ; empires, let us think'what llu3sia is doing now, and .what 'the Turks,

and how all tho people of the world aro stirring against the dullness of oppression and uninspired habit. In that ago the west wind was, through Shelley's lips to unwakened earth, tho trumpet of .a prophecy. "Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not,. Who would bo freo, themselves must strike the blow?" cried Byron to the captivo nationality for which lie died, it is not, for want of occasion that no two such poets to-day either wako tho earth with tho trumpet of prophccy- or inspiro tho nations themselves to strike tho blow. What exuberance the two men had, what careless fertility, - profuso and .beneficent as the world's! What unwavoring' courage and vital personality 1 And they died at an; ago when our'best writers aro scarcely beginning.' As wo think of them, we feel again the awe that fell on Europe when tho news come from Missolonghi. There lay the man adored;in every land. , Each word- ho spoke echoed through overy' tongue. The wholo world, lived in his thought, and was lighted by tho easy splendour of liis .wit. Ho had givon tho people tho pictures and emotions for which .they then were longing. In tho midst of rhetoric and self-conscious feelings that 'tho world delighted'to share, ho at times -would produce a verse—a whole series of verses —that appeared to como direct from the hand of somo power, higher than himself. - And now at tho height of his fame he was to die, fighting in freedom's causo for a people whom he knew to be of little worth. Tho world heard-that, as he lay dying, in delirium, ho cried, as though ho were mounting a , breach in an assault, "Forward —forward—Courage—Follow my example!" And : as a thunderstorm burst in .grandeur over that farroff, town, .the Aotolian mountaineers whispered to each, other, "Tho great man is gone!" , It was,, after all, as fine a passage as. his brother,-poet's out of mortal-ity-to the abode, whenco their constellation still beacons. "Jb'or it was in an assault upon tho bondage ;of man's spirit that they lived and fell.—"The, Nation." .