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    Dec 7, 1850.] ©#* StCH&ef. 881

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    Mrs. Browning's Poems. Poems. By Elizabe...

    she stands eminent above almost all of them ; compared with her peers—the real poets—in the great kingdom of fame—her position is insecure from the meagreness of her material . We insist on this point to explain the fervour of our admiration of her genius , and the coldness of our criticism when her substantive value is to be estimated ; and the high standard by which we try her should be kept in view . Before quoting some samples of her power , one objection must be made . Certain mannerisms of

    style have been touched upon by others ; and indeed are too obvious to escape remark . There is one , however , which amounts to a vulgarism , and must not be overlooked—we mean the laxity of pronunciation implied in such rhymes as " smiKw < 7 and while in "" enfoldinff and told him , " " coming and human . " We are no great sticklers for rigour in rhyme , but smilin ' , enfoldin ' , and comin * , are vulgarisms of pronunciation . In a subsequent edition these should be removed .

    " The Drama of Exile , which opens the collection , contains abundant examples of that power of poetic expression we just claimed for her ; but it is meagre in plan , and quite characterless . Space forbids analysis ; we hasten to quote beauties . The least poetic reader will feel the force of this scene—especially the image by which Lucifer paints his own condition : — " Luc . { after a pause ) . Dost thou remember , Adam , when the curse Took us in Eden ? On a mountain-peak , Half-sheathed ill primal woods and glittering In spasms of awful sunshine , at that hour A lion couched , —part raised upon his paws , With his calm , massive face turned full on thine , And his mane listening . When the ended curse Left silence in the world , right suddenly He sprang up rampant , and stood straight and stiff , As if the new reality of death "Were dashed against his eyea , and roared so fierce—( Such thick carnivorous passion in his throat Tearing a passage through the wrath and fear)—And roared so wild , and smote from all the hills Such fast , keen echoes crumbling- down the vales Precipitately , lhat the forest beasts , One after one , did mutter a response In savage and in sorrowful complaint Which trailed along the gorges . Then , at once . He fell back , and rolled crashing from the height , Hid by the dark-orbed pines . Adam . It might have been . I heard the curse alone . Earth Spirits . I wail , I wail ! Luc . That lion is the type of what I am ! And as he fixed thee with his full-faced hate . And roared , O Adam !—comprehending doom , — So , gazing on the face of the Unseen , I cry out here , between the heavens and earth , ]\ 1 y conscience of this gin , this woe , this wrath , "Which damn me to this depth ! Earth Spirits . I wail , I wail ! Eve . I wail—O God ! Luc . I scorn you that ye wail , Who use your petty griefs for pedestals To stand on , beckoning pity from without , And deal in pathos of antithesis Of what ye were forsooth , and what ye are;—I scorn you like an angel ! Yet , one cry , I , too , would drive up , like a column erect , Marble to marble , from my heart to Heaven , A monument of anguish , to transpierce And overtop your vapoury complaints Expressed from feeble woes ! Earth Spirits . I wail , I wail ! Luc . For , O ye heavens , ye are my witnesses , That / , struck out from nature in a blot , The outcast , and the mildew of things good . The leper of angels , the excepted dust Under the common rain of daily gifts , — I , the snake ; I , the tempter ; I , the cursed , — To whom the highest and the lowest alike Say , ' Go from us—we have no need of thee , '" Was made by God like others , Good and fair . He did create me!—ask Him , if not fair ; Ask , if I caught not fair and silverly His blessing for chief angels , on my head , Until it grew tht're , a crown crystallized ! Ask , if He never called me by my name . Lucifer—kindly said as ' Gabriel 'Lucifei—soft as Michael' ! while , serene , J , standing in the glory of the lamps , Answered , My Father , ' innocent of shame And of the sense of thunder . Ha ! ye think , "White nngels in your niches , 1 repent , And would trend down my own offences , back To service at the footstool ' I That 's read wrong : I cry as the beast did , that I may cry—Expansive , not appealing ! Fallen so deep Against the sides of this prodigious pit , 1 cry— cry—dashing out the hands of wail , On each side , to meet anguish everywhere , And to attest it in the ecstasy And exaltation ofa woe sustained Because provoked and chosen . Pass along Your wilderness , vain mortals ! Puny griefs , In transitory shapes , be henceforth dwarfed To your own conscience , by the dread extremes

    Of what I am and have been . If ye have fallen , It is a step ' s fall , —the whole ground beneath Strewn woolly soft with promise ; if ye have sinned , Your prayers tread high as angels ! if ye have grieved , Ye are too mortal to be pitiable ; The power to die disproves the right to grieve . Go to ! ye call this ruin ? I half-scorn The ill I did you ! Were ye wronged by me , — Hated and tempted , and undone of me , — Still , what's your hurt to mine , —of doing hurt . Of hating , tempting , and so ruining ? This sword's hilt is the sharpest , and cuts through The hand that wicids it . Go—I curse you all . Hate one another—feebly—as ye can ; I would not certes cut you short in hate—Far be it from me ! Hate on as ye can ! I breathe into your faces , spirits of earth , As wintry blast may breathe on wintry leaves , And , lifting up their brownness , show beneath The branches very bare . —Beseech you , give To Eve , who beggarly entreats your love For her and Adam when they shall be dead , An answer rather fitting to the sin Than to the sorrow—as the heavens , I trow . For justice' sake , gave theirs . I curse you both , Adam and Eve ! Say grace , as after meat . After my curses . May your tears fall hot On all the hissing scorns of the creatures here , —• And yet rejoice . Increase and multiply , Ye and your generations , in all plagues , Corruptions , melancholies , poverties , And hideous forms of life and fears of death ; The thought of death being alway eminent , Immoveable , and dreadful in your life . And deafly and dumbly insignificant Of any hope beyond , —as death itself , — Whichever of you lieth dead the first Shall stem to the survivor—yet rejoice ? My curse catch at you strongly , body and soul . And He find no redemption—nor the wing Of seraph move your way—and yet rejoice ! Hejoice , because ye have not set in you This hate which shall pursue you—this fire-hate Which glares without , because it burns within—Which kills from ashes—this potential hate , Wherein I , angel , in antagonism To God and His reflex beatitudes . Moan ever in the central universe , "With the great woe of striving against Love—And gasp for space amid the Infinite—And toss for rest amid the Desertness—Self-orphaned by my will , and self-elect To kingship of resistant agony Toward the Good round me—hating good and love , And willing to hate good and to hate love , And willing to will on so evermore , Scorning the Past , and damning the To come—Go and rejoice ! I curse you ! [ Lucifer vanishes . " Still finer this scene between Adam and Eve after the " fall" :-" Christ . Speak , Adam . Uless the woman , man—It is thine office . jidam . Mother of the world , Take heed before this Presence . Lo ! my voice , Which , naming erst the creatures , did express-God breathing through my breath—the attributes And instincts of each creature in its name ; Floats to the same afflatus , —floats and heaves Like a water-weed that opens to a wave , — A full-leaved prophecy affecting thee , Out fairly and wide . Henceforward , rise , aspire Unto the calms and magnanimities , The lofty uses and the noble ends , The sanctified devotion and full work , To which thou art elect for evermore , First woman , wife , and mother . ] £ ve . And first in sin . Jidam . And also the sole bearer of the Seed Whereby pin dieth ! liaise the majesties Of thy disconsolate brows , O well-beloved , And front wi th level eyelids the To come , And all the dark o' the world . Rise , woman , rise To thy peculiar and best altitudes Of doing good and of enduring ill , — Of comforting for ill , and teaching good , And reconciling all that ill and good Unto the patience of a constant hope , — Jlise with thy daughters ! If sin came by thee , And by sin , death , —the ransom-righteousness , The heavenly life and compensative rest Shall come by means of thee . If woe by thee Had issue to the world , thou shalt go forth An nngRl of the woo thou didat achieve ; Found acceptable to the world instead Of others of that name , of whose bright stops Thy deed stripped bare the hills . He satisfied ; Something thou hast to bear through womanhood-Peculiar suffering answering to the sin ; Some pang paid down fur each now human life ; Pome weariness in guarding such a life-Some coldness from the guarded ; somo mistrust From those them hast too well served ; from those beloved Too loyally , somo treason : feebleness Within thy heart , —und cruulty without ; And pressures of an alien tyranny , With its dynastic reasons of larger bones And stronger sinews . Jiut , go to ! thy love Shall chant itself its own beatitudes . After its own life-working . A child ' s kiss , Set on thy sighing lips , shall make thee glad ; A poor man , served by thee , shall make thee rich ;

    A sick man , helped by thee , shall make thee strong ; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest . Such a crown I set upon thy head , —Christ witnessing With looks of prompting love , —to keep thee clear Of all reproach against the sin foregone . From all the generations which succeed . Thy hand which plucked the apple , I clasp close ; Thy lips which spake wrong counsel , I kiss close , — I bless thee in the name of Paradise , And by the memory of Edenicjoys Forfeit and lost;—by that last cypress-tree . Green at the gate , which thrilled as we came out ; And by the blessed nightingale , which threw Its melancholy music after us;—And by the flowers , whose spirits full of smells Did follow eoftly , plucking us behind Back to the gradual banks and vernal bower ? And fourfold river-courses : —by all these , I blees thee to the contraries of these ; I bless thee to the desert and the thorns , To the elemental change and turbulence , And to the roar of the estranged beasts , And to the solemn dignities of grief , To each one of these ends , —and to this END Of Death and the hereafter 1 " Her translation of the " Prometheus Bound" is a magnificent sample of feminine scholarship , and must be accepted as the finest version we have yet had of that difficult work . Microscopic criticism will discover flaws , but the whole commands our homage . As a sample of the flaws we cannot help noticing her rendering of two famous lines— -the one which , in the review of Professor BJackie ' s JEschylus ( vide No . 17 ) , we ventured to translate thus" I gave blind hopes a dwelling in their breasts " ( literally , " I made blind hopes house in them" ) , Mrs . Browning renders I set blind hopes to inhabit in their houses . ' * KocTtpKKrat seems to have misled her into a weaker image than the original . The second is the constantly quoted ' avvjpiOfAov y € \ aarf / . oc . thus rendered : — " Kiverwells and laughter ii \ finito Of yon Bea waves I " The passage is , we are aware , a puzzle to translat ors , but infinite" is clearly the wrong word , and destroys the image ; Blackie ' s " multitudinous laughter " is the best yet given , for ' eanipiOpov brings before the eye the image of the sea wrinkled all over with laughter . But , away with the microscope ! Take up the volume , and be proud of English maidens , when one of them can thus wrestle with the Titan ! " The Vision of Poets" will recal T ennyson ' s " Palace of Art . " Instead of speaking of its plan we will cull a nosegay from it : — " These were poets true Who died for Beauty , as martyrs do For Truth—the ends being scarcely two . God ' s prophets of the Beautiful These poets were—of iron rule , The rugged cilix , serge of wool . Here , Homer , with the broad suspense Of thunderous brows , and lips intense Of garrulous god-innocence . There , Shakespeare ! on whose forehead climb The crowns o' the world . Oh , eyes sublime—With tears and laughters for all time 1 Here , JEschylus , —the women swooned To nee so awful , when he frowned As the gods did , —he tttandeth crowned . Euripides , with close and mild Scholastic lips , —that could be wild , And laugh or sob out like a child , Bight in the classes . Sophocles , With that king ' s look which , down the trees , Followed the dark effigies Of the lost Theban . Ilesiod old . Who , somewhat blind and deaf and cold , Cared most for gods and bulls . And bold Klectric Pindar , quick as fear , With race-duat on his cheeks , and clear , Slant startled eyes that seem to hear The chariot rounding the last goal , To hurtle past it in his soul . And Sappho , crowned with aureole Of ebon curln on calmed brows—A poet-woman ! none forgoes The leap , attaining the repose ! Theocritus , with glittering locks Dropt sideway , as betwixt the rocks Ho watched the visionary Mocks . And Aristophanes , who took The world with mirth , and laughter-struck The hollow caves of Thought and woke The infinite echoes hid in each . And Virgil : shade of Mantuan beech Did help the shade of bay to reach And knit around his forehead high ;—For his gods wore less majesty Than his brown beca hummed deathleesly .

    Dec 7, 1850.] ©#* Stch&Ef. 881

    Dec 7 , 1850 . ] © # * StCH & ef . 881

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 7, 1850, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07121850/page/17/