THE STATE OF ENGLISH POETRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 533, 19 June 1909, Page 9

THE STATE OF ENGLISH POETRY.

Tho removal of "the last.but one of.the great Victorians" —by tho way, where does Hardv come in?- —sets one a-thiuking on. I.ho extreme brilliancy of tho period of English literature: that has elapsed sinco the opening of last century. It bas been brilliant not only on account of the eminent personalities it has produced,.and tho mass and quality of their, work, but also because of the rapidity'with which poetic school has succeeded poetic' school. ..The school of Keats arid Shelley galled the kibes of that of Wordsworth and Coleridge; .it was succeeded after a. brief interval-by that of Browning and Tennyson, and that ill turn was succeeded-by, the school of Itosetti' and Swinburne. " It'is not un-, natural that, after a series of vital efforts so immense, tho, nation should pauso a little and take breath. The pessimists are telling us', however,'that it is not a pause but the final close, and are arjjiiing. that the state, of things which Amiel figured underthe metaphor of upo^. us.. Atmosphere antirrainr sald'Amiel,'''are grndtfally washing. tho tops of tho mountains into (iio valleys, so that at one and the same time. the. mountains are being- levelled ana the valleys raised, and the inevitable end of the process is dead level. So in all the provinces of-intellectual activity, in science, in art, and in literature, a like, thing has actually happened, so that what wo find is a high average-level of attainment everywhere and nowhere outstanding personalities., If so, then poetry. is in evil case, for nowhere is Hugli Miller's remark mora. tnie • than in poetry, that a single diamond of -60 carats ■is of more value hundred diamonds of "one, carat. . A'Cabinet of mediocrities may rule a laud as well as a wiso autocrat, but a great poem is tho work of a single great mind,. It is (interesting to remember, however, that in litcraturei'people are always apt to underrate the present, feats, although a whole poetic choir was in .full-throated song around him, deplored "the inhuman dearth of noble natures,"'.'.and' Charlotte Bronto, as the "Dial" has been reminding us, was in 1847 looking wistfully back on the age of Scott. St. John Rh;ers had presented. Jane' Eyre with a copy of! "Marmion." "He laid on tho table ; a new publication—a poem; one, of those genuine'productions'so often vouchto the fortunate public of those days— the Golden Age of .modern literature. Alas I readers, of our era aro less favoured." Much 'talk' in these days runs in this vein, and such instances show'that\>ne may be living rn a groat ago and'Syet not know it. One ,may guess that the laudator temporis acti was piping hi 3 sad trine even in the days' of Poricles.—"Manchester Guardian."