The grim poetic sage of Chelsea,
however, had never seen what he describes: not so Mr. Gosse, whose
acquaintance with northern lands and northern literature is special.
We have indeed picked out those stanzas from a quiet personal record
of certain amorous hours of early youth in that quaint arctic land,
Mr. Gosse's description of which, like his pretty poem on Lubeck,
made one think that what the accomplished group of poets to which he
belongs requires is, above all, novelty of motive, of subject.
He takes, indeed, the old themes, and manages them better than their
old masters, with more delicate cadences, more delicate transitions
of thought, through long dwelling on earlier practice. He seems to
possess complete command of the technique of poetry--every form of
what may be called skill of hand in it; and what marks in [112] him
the final achievement of poetic scholarship is the perfect balance
his work presents of so many and varied effects, as regards both
matter and form. The memories of a large range of poetic reading are
blent into one methodical music so perfectly that at times the notes
seem almost simple. Sounding almost all the harmonies of the modern
lyre, he has, perhaps as a matter of course, some of the faults also,
the "spasmodic" and other lapses, which from age to age, in
successive changes of taste, have been the "defects" of excellent
good "qualities.
Pages:
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102