Longer Narrative Poems (Nineteenth Century)

Longer Narrative Poems Nineteenth Century SECOND SERIES Edited by George G, Loane, M. A. MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON 1927 COPYRIGHT PRINTED IN GRBZLVT BRITAIN CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. MICHAEL II. MAZEPPAS RIDE III. LAMIA IV. THE HOLY GRAIL - V. THE WRITING ON THE IMAGE - VI. THE SICK KING IN BOKHARA - VII. MULEYKEH .... NOTES QUESTIONS AND SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS HELPS TO FURTHER STUDY INTRODUCTION I. MICHAEL WE have here Wordsworth at his best and most characteristic the simple and expressive language rising at times to poignant eloquence the rustic scene the pathos trenchant but not tender an iron pathos and above all the deep and sympa thetic knowledge of the human heart. In a letter to Charles Fox, Wordsworth speaks of Michael and The Brothers as poems written with a view to show that men who do not wear fine clothes can feel deeply and it is largely owing to him that the sentiment now strikes us as a truism. The personages and the sheepfold are drawn from the life, being near the poets home at Grasmere. II. MAZEPPAS RIDE Resting at night during the retreat from Pultowa, the aged Cossack prince or hetman Mazeppa relates to Charles XII. how he expiated a sin of early youth. A few dry sentences in Voltaires History gave Byrons imagination material for a spirited and impressive poem. The wolves and the wild horses arr finely described, and the sufferings of Mazeppa are made vivid without being disgusting. The swift gallop of the verse slows down suitably hi the reflective passages, which, so far from impeding xhe narrative, help us to realize viii INTRODUCTION the lapse of time. The poem well illustrates Byrons won derful power of vividly conceiving a singleincident, and making us see and feel it too. III. LAMIA In the moving and dignified preface to Endymion, Keats had expressed some hope that while it was dwindling he might be plotting, and fitting himself for verses fit to live. That hope was fulfilled in the famous volume of 1820, con taining Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, Isabella, Hyperion and the great Odes. Both in versification and in narrative power Lcmia is a great advance on the earlier work, and owes much to his study of Drydens Fables. Except for a few lines which maturer judgement would surely have altered, it is with its melodious, lovely and surprising phrases a beautiful poem, even if not quite so beautiful as The Eve of St. Agnes. Lamia in his hands is no vulgar witch but a strange and spiritually accomplished person with whom it may be possible to-sympathize. Of all his additions to the prose original, the greatest is the addition of pity and love. IV. THE HOLY GRAIL Ten years after the publication of the first four Idylls of the King Enid, Vivien, Elaine, Guinevere Tennyson grappled with the subject of the Grail, which had been in his mind from the first. He wrote it rapidly, condensing with great skill the many and discordant legends of antiquity. His son recalled the inspired way he chanted the different parts of the poem as they were composed. He made it tke vehicle of some of his own deepest thoughts One of the most imaginative of my poems, he calls it I have expressed there my strong feeling as to the Reality of the Unseen. INTRODUCTION ix And he quoted three lines near the end as being the spiritually central lines of the Idylls 1 In moments when he feels he cannot die, And knows himself no vision to himself, Northe High God a vision. The rich stores of thought, phrase and picture contrast with the pathetic simplicity of Sir Thomas Malory. V. THE WRITING ON THE IMAGE This poem is one of the twenty-four tales included hi The Earthly Paradise. It is shorter and less varied than most of its companions, and gives no opportunity for those intimate descriptions of scenery in which Morris revelled. But it is told with unusual and masterly conciseness, and the rather tired view of life is characteristic. The great personal energy of Morris is oddly wanting in his writing...