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Leader (1850-1860), 5th May 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      Hay 5, I860.] The Leader And Saturday An...

      Hay 5 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 425

      Poems Before Congress. By Elizabeth. Baj...

      POEMS BEFORE CONGRESS . BY ELIZABETH . BAJBEETT BBOWNINO . IN the days of the War of Independence , when Germany rang to the clank of the sword and the rhythm of Korner ' s melodies ; when every voice was raised to swell the chorus of execration against Napoleon and Napoleon ' s country , the greatest and wisest of German poets alone was silent . A cry of treachery to his Fatherland was raised against him , and elicited no answer . It was only long years afterwards , when Goethe was sinking into his grave , full of days and full of honours , that he thus explained his silence : — " I never wavered in my love to this dear German land of mine ; but I loved then and love now so truly , all that is great and noble in France ; I feel so deeply that French and German are all members of one family , that I could not join my voice to those who set one heart to write

      country against the other . It was not in my patriotic war songs , and therefore I was silent , and bore blame silently . " Writing as we do , at a distance from books and libraries , we know not if we quote correctly the words of this speech , which are to be found in the " Conversations of Eckermann ; " but the sense thereof we remember well . Somewhat after this fashion , we think , would be the justification of ajrue English poet , who has lately sinned in like manner against her country's creed . In this day , when all England is arming against France , when every county and every town is full of volunteer corps and amateur militiamen , when in Parliament , in the pulpit , and in the press , one voice is raised against the greed of France and the designs of another Napoleon , when Poet Laureates write war songs to order , and even Martin Tuppers blow a blast upon their penny trumpets , when every one who utters a word in palliation of the Imperial policy is accused of

      want of patriotism—at such a tune , "I cry aloud in my poet passion , Viewing my England o ' er alp and sea ; I loved her more in her ancient fashion—She carries her rifles too thick for me . " So sino-s the authoress of " Aurora Leigh , " and the burden of her son" - throughout is that France is right and England wrong . Ihe Confession is a bold one , and requires a bold spirit for its utterance . The German poet was wiser than the English ^ ne . He knew , in Ins own words , that those wJio ¦¦ .. .. " " . - " Thuricht prenug ihr voiles Herz nicht wahrten J ) em Tobel ihr . Gefiihl , ihr Schauen offenbarten , .

      Hat man von je gelcreiizigt und verbrannt , and kept silence in his own heart . Gut of the fulness of her heart Mrs . Browning has spoken * and must answer for her speech . ' * Still , before we condemn utterly the " Poems before Congress , before we write them down in the Index J ? . vpnrgatdrius , in \< l consign their writer to moral flames , let us hear what she has to say . We have few . real poets enough amongst us to abjure at once communion with one who can write even as this little book is written . Stop one moment , reader of ours / volunteer though you be , and mark the wondrous beauty of this passage .. There is nothing in it to offend your patriotic principles ; and having road it , you will judge perhaps more kindly of the authoress : — — liiJufcJL ' taly ^ jnyJEii Uy ^^ . ^ Can it last this gleam—Can she lire and be strong , Or is it another dream Like the rest we have dreamed so long ? And shall it be , must it be , That after the battle-cloud has broken She will die off again Like the rain , Or like a poet ' s song Sung of her—sad at the end , Because her name is Italy—Die and count no friend ? Is it true , may it be spoken , That sho who hns lain so still , With a wound in her breast And a flower in her ' hand , And a gravestone underher . head , While every nation at will Bosiilc her has dared to stand And flout her with pity and scorn , . Saying , ' She is at rest , . She is fair , she is dead , And leaving room in her stead To ud , who are later born : s This is certainly best . ' Saying , alas ! ' she is fair , Very fair , but doad , And bo wo have room for the race . « • • • t Is it true That sho has not moved in a trance , A 8 in Forty-eight , When her eyes wtiro troubled with blood Till » ho knew not friend from foe . Till her hand was caught in a strait Of her oorement , and buttled so JFroro doing the » l .. ed Bhc would — And her weak foot stumbled across The grave of ft king , And dawn 8 ho dn >|> t at heavy losa , And wo gloomily covered her fuce , and siud , ' Wo have dr « anicil'thothinK — Sho is not alive , but doad . "' Suoh words could not bo wiilten savo by one to whom Ituly wns something more living than a name , something dourer than a sentiment . It in ao , wo believe , with Airs . Browning . Though her heart is sound English still , yet Italy hus been for many years the land of her adoption , Having" thus two countries , she fools , wo

      fancy , much as a mother might who having two children , one of whom was strong , healthy , and prosperous , while the other was poor ,- sickly , and oppressed , though s he might esteem the elderborn the most , yet in her he , art of hearts could pine and yearn after the wayward and the suffering one . However unpleasing the fact may be to us , there is no use denying the simple truth , that Louis Napoleon has made Italy free . The deed , we ourselves say boldly , was a noble one ; and even if we do not agree in her conclusion , we cannot wonder that one who loves Italy so well would fain believe herself , and lead others to believe , that the doer of the noble deed was himself noble also . This conclusion is what the English public will most object to . To speak the plain , honest truth amongst ourselves we , as a nation , do not care much about Italy . If the French retired to-morrow from their self-imposed task , and the Austrians reconquered Italy , we might and should pi-otest ; but most certainly we should not go to war to hinder them . Things might have gone on for centuries as they went on for the last half-century in Italy , and we should have done nothing except recommend moderation to all parties concerned . We did nothing for Italy ; we never should have done anything ; and we don ' t intend to do anything . Poor Cuffey and the Chartists , if they did nothing else , exploded the old imposture of " moral force , " and deserve some gratitude for their services in this respect . We don't really believe that by our moral support we have done much good to Italy , and we should not care much if we had ; and if the French like the credit they deserve it , as they had the work . This , or something like this , is our English feeling ; and we don't know that it is not a right one after all . What we cannot get over is Louis Napoleon . We have made up our minds so completely about him , we have written him down so confidently as a scamp and an adventurer , that we don't like anybody to assert the contrary . Supposing he is not the man we take him for , we have been wrong all along . The mere hypothesis upsets all our received doctrines about constitutional rights , and middle cluss legislation and general respectability . Coups d ' etat and universal suffrage , and wars for an idea , and regard for facts iii preference to laws , ai-e all equally antipathetic to us . Given that the Emperor - Napoleon is a mere vulgar tyraivfc , something more crafty and far more successful than most of his class , then weavre at liberty to pursue our present policy , without hesitationJto arm against him , to make use of him while * can , to discard him when we can get an opportunity , and tojiold him up always to reprobation . If , however—mind , we only say If—this should- all rest on arfalse conception , to speak of no other consequences , we should feel small , sery small indeed . We should feel much as anold Spartan might if some one had shown him that the Helot whom heJiad been used to see reel drunk beforehim was a being of another and a higher order to himself . For our own part , we know not what to say about Mrs . Browning ' s version of the Napoleonic character . We are of our own generation , and our generation has no great faith in the existence of modern heroes or of modern prophets . When Mormonism nreifc came before the world , we all felt an unalterable conviction that the whole thing was a humbug , not from any intrinsic inconsistencies in the revelation , but from the simple fact that the prophet was ssMnAJi Job Smith . " The thing could not ^ be . There was an inherent impossibility in a new faith . Being revealecTby a MiT-J-oseph Smith , which at once settled the question . Just in the same way , we cannot credit a " heaven-born" ruler turning up in the present degenerate times , more especially when he first hails from the slums of Leicester-square . Still we plead guilty to a lurking qualm as to whether the wider may not be also the wiser view . Indeed , we defy any one , laying but for the time his principles and his prejudices aside , to read through Mrs . Browning ' s poems and not feel something of a like qualm , something also of a suspicion that , after all , there may be a higher creed than that of non-interference , and that even the wrongs of a strange people mny bo' worth fighting for . When we read that : — . " He stood sad before the sun ! ( The peoples felt their fate !) ' The world ia many , I am one : My great deud was too great : God ' s fruit of justice ripens slow : Men ' s souls are narrow ; let them grow . My brothers , we must wait !'" — wo cannot but doubt whether our souls may Hot be narrow also . Wo have spoken first of . the political aspect of the book because vt is the most important one , and the one moat liable to censure ,. Mrs . Browning ' s fame is too well established to require us to say much more than that the poetry is worthy of her past . For us , indeed , it juts a peculiar chnrm . We tire somewhat weary of poems about King Arthur , or other idoal persqnages , and feel as if poetry were a new thin" to us when it sings in living passion of n living time , lucre ia every now and then a carelessness about Mrs . Browning ' s rhymes , Biioh m making " passion" rhyme with " domination , " find wo wish tlmt a poem on America at the end of the collection were omitted in another edition , not from nny intrinsic inferiority to the rest ot the volume , but as marring the unity of the work , lhw , however , is all that , as critics , we could suggest . The book , indeed , is tall of beauties . We , Imvo not space to quote more thiut one out ot many passages , which wo hnvo chosen rather as possessing a peculiar charm tor ourselves , than ns bettor than its fellows : — 41 The Pop ' o on Chriatmaa di > y Sits in St . Peter ' a chair ; But tho peoples murmur nnd say : — ' Our souls are siok and forlorn , And who will show ua where # . la the stable where Cliriat was born /

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05051860/page/13/