"ALASTOR " & " ENDYAIION."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1533, 31 August 1912, Page 9

"ALASTOR " & " ENDYAIION."

It would bo a pleasant task for one who had '-tho inclination to lay sido by side tot-tho purpose of . comparison Shelley's poqm of "Alastor" and.KeatsVof "Endytn'dn." Neither stands quite in the first rank of its;'author's works, but each is of p. very'high quality, , and. ought' on its publication :to have given the world assurance .that another-poet .of'the great Trace had arisen in England. The central conception of-each is the, same. In both cases'the hero'-falls'in-love with a shape which has appeared to him in a dream, • and* both poems recount tho wanderings in the search for- the original. "Alastor" wis lyritten in-1815 and "Endymion" in 1818, ■ and it is, probable that Keats who' was so sensitive to the influence of other poets, who fell'under the sway successive- . lyof Spenser, Hunt, Dryden, Milton, and, as Mr. llucKail has recently shown, of Dante, was in this instance indebted for B'suggestion to his, great- contemporary. , But more instructive than the'resemblances between the two poems are the contrasts.' There is a contrast of manner. Shelley's is, to an astonishing, extent; subjective. It .is simply.a setting forth :of his own'recent feelings and experiences. His chronic physical sufferings'had just before'readied a crisis, and a medical specialist had taught-him to expeit present death. The crisis' passed, and -the poem embodies his emotions recollected in tranquillity. The solemn noto of thought and feeling that pervades it and enters into the descriptions of the scenery which he Khd .contemplated . during his travels in Switzerland and on the Rhine and during his'sojburn-near Windsor Forest "is an index to the attitude of nijud..w;itli.which he confronted death..'.Tho jbeingj fcire, 'wi'tlftpn -*■-Vvitßfefed. hair' 'and the wild .eves' is'largely Shelley, himself, and the/reflections upon what the. loss of fetich a being ' is..to the. world. are 4 ver7v - much: reflections upon what his own loss would have been. Keats in Bono of his poems iS'so intensely engrossed'in'himself as that—tho "Bright Star" is tho nearest approach—and if into'the character of Endy- : niiori!there enter features, froiji the character of his creator they are not obvious; no'.keeps' his puppet at, arm's'length, arid contemplated Him objectively. There is a - - further- 'obvious 'contrast in the rhythms cf, the poems. AVordsworthian cadences still linger in the ears of Shelley, but he is already in possession of that superb swinging arid elastic period, with. , its clauses and sub-clauses, which sometimes embarrasses, the poet himself, and which carries the. reader, at such a joyous jiaco from page to page that, from time to time lie must check'himself arid turn back lest he should'lose : somo'.'siibtle effect of the welling harmuny or some detail in the composition 1 -: of a' picture. In "Endymion" there are soma odd mispronunciations'and faulty rhythms, and the "Quarterly".,' reviewer's complaint about the botits. rimes';was not unjust, .but we are. conscious 'of' the workmanship of a master prosodist of a different sort. The music is charmingly rich .ajid various, and the pace is that of one who saunters through nn expanso of beautiful meadowland," w'ho has leisure to pause and survey a lovely bit of distance or to pluck a flower .that grows a little olf the. path. ■If one were to follow the contrast into the different treatments of Nature, one would have to noto that in "Alastor,'' less | than elsewhere in Shelley, the universeis the veil, interesting for what is behind it, than the background of the: central, figure; serving,. as .Mrs. Shelley pointed out, as a. foil in its majesty arid luxuriance to his fading life. His .best effects are •in" landscape, accordingly, ■as Iveats's nr6 ill-Ike detail. Hero is a fine sample:— - ... . More dark ifnd'Airk-the shades accumulate. Tho oak, Expanding its immense and knotty arms, Embraces, the, light beech'. Tho pyramids Of tho tail cedar overarching frame. Most solemn domes within, and far below, Like, clouds' suspended in an emerald sky, The'ash and the acacia floating hang Tremulous and :pale. It would<bs idle to. ask whether "Alastor" the, greater" poem. IV.e them.'bqtli., arid they give its different kinds of enjoyment. :No doubt tho former has a greater' "unity, of theme and feeling, but theTO are strong: Keatsians who would qrguo th<it bulk for hulk "Endymion" contains more of the pure element of poetry.—"Manchester : .Guardian."