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    tto *> wul be wh ^^ ; . fis ^^ s ^^ sss ' to « , * adicio » s K ^ - ¦ ¦ i-.- - -. ji ,. . ¦ Sichinjttar Lebanon , ¦¦¦ ' i . i . pf * ** dar , tho' thy limbs have here increased , ¦ ' Upoh a pastoral slope as fair , , And looking to the South , and fed # " ^ : - With hcaiey d rain and deficateair , . " ^ « , And haunted by the Btarry head - ., .. ¦ - , Of her whose gentle will has changed my fate , ; . And made my life a perfumed altar-flame ; And bVer whom ttiy darkness must have spread : ¦ ., With such delight as their * of old , thy great . Forefathers of the thornless garden , there Shadowing the snow-liihb'd Eve from whom she came . Here will I lie , while theselong branches sway , . f ; ¦' ¦ ' ¦ And you fair stars that crown a happy day y . Go in and out as if at merry play , - , Who am . no more so all forlorn , AJa when it seem'd far better to be born To labour and the mattoek-harden'd land , - ; - '• ¦ ' Than nursed at ease and brought to understand - ' . "• ' A » d astrology , the boundless pltln "¦• - ¦ '¦ ' - That , ma&es you tyrants in your iron skies , Innumerable , pitiless , passionless eyes , ' ¦¦ - ¦ Cold fires , yet with power to burn and brand . '" ¦ His nothingness . into man . . But now shine on , and what care I , -., ' .... , Who xb this stormy gulf have found a pearl - , , The countercharm of space , and hollow sky , And do . accept , my madness , and would die To save from some slight shame one simple girl . And here for war : —' Aihd : it was but a dream , yet it yielded a dear delight To have look'd , tho r in a dream , upon eyes so fair , That had been in aj wdbry -world my one thing bright ; And it was but a dream , yet it lighten e d my despair When I thought that a war would arise in defence of the right , That an iron tyranny now should bend or cease , The glory of manhood stand on his ancient height , Nor Brttain * s one sole God be the millionaire : No more shall commerce be all in all , and Peace Pipe on hei ^ pastoral hillock a languid note , And watch her harvest ripen , her herd increase , Nor the cannon -bullet rust on a slothful shore , And the cobweb woven across the cannon's throat , Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more . And as nWnths ran on and rumour of battle grew , u . is time , it is time , O passionate heart , * " said I ( For I cleaved to a cause that I felt to be pure and true ) , " It is time , O passionate heart and morbid eye , That old hysterical mock-disease should die . " And I stood on a giant deck and mix'd my breath : With a loyal people shouting a battle cry , Y Tilllsajir the , dreary phantom arise and- fly -r , ' Far into the NpH ^ and . battle ,, and ? eaa of death . -0 . V ; - Let it go or stay , so I wake to the higher aims !¦;;' :- < ¦¦ Of « land that has lost ibr a little her lust of gold , , * *¦ ¦ ¦• ' ••¦ ¦ i ¦ ¦' ' And love of a peace that was full of -vrrongs and shames , Jl " ' ' ^ Horrible , hateful , monstrous , not to be told ; And hail once more to the banner of battle unroll'd ! ; Tho * many a light shall darken , and many shall weep " ^ . ' .: ' - For those that are crush'd in the clash of jarring claims , ** Yet God ' s just doom shall be wreaked on a giant liar ; And many a darkness into the light shall leap , - ¦¦ " ¦ ¦ And Bhine iri the sudden making of splendid names , : i . ' < 'And noble thought be freer under the . sun , ; . ( t , ; ~ ¦ And the heart of a people beat with one desire ; .-v . For the'long , long canker of peace is over and dene . .. ¦ . And now by the side of the Black and the Baltic deep , -, ti . ¦"• • -. And deathful-grinning mouths of the fortress , flames fyi \ - > . . :.- The blood-red blossom of war with a heart of fire .

    '• The war feeling ^ is very strbftg in the- ' poem . - Wo gave last week the " Golden Age , " and here is a thrust at Mr . Bright , which , however , v ^ re , fancy that potent reasohe . tr would not have much difficulty in turning ^ 4 $ ide . . ; .. ¦ . , i ,.,.,. ...,,,.. , '¦ - ,. ,,,,-,, , I ^ ast ; week came one to the co «| nty . town , ,, ., / '; ' To preach pur pop ? l ^ ttie army down , \ . .. ' .. ' . ' ,. ' ' Ana , play , thegap [ i «> f the , despot kings , ' ' Tfio ' . the styte has done it and thrice as well : " ' ' , , T ^ ifl . broad-blrinj'dhawkerof jholy ' , Chipgs , ;• ' , ' ,: ' ' ¦ , , y W ' - ¦' . '"' , ' ' ffiffl F ^* ft ? * ° *^ i . ^ W ?^ ? f -ty ? P ? » f ' ' This huc&aipr put down war I can he tell Whottter war be a pause or a consequence ? , J ^ ut down the passion s that mak e ear th Hell ! ¦ ¦ '" ., , ] Qpwn . with amb ^ on , Ayairfce , pi ^ ide , ' " . ' [ J ^ ousy , down I <» t off , frop » the mind , '"" ' feliefitter springs of apger and ' iear ; 1 X ) o'Wn . ' , ' too , down at your pwn fireside , With the evil tongue and the evil efur , ! For each is at war with mankind . ,, l | Ah God , for a w on , with a . heart ,, head , band , Ljkc some of tho simple great ones gone '¦; ' For eyer and ey ^ ir by , '" "' One atill strong roan in a blatant land , a ' ¦ ' ' Whatever they call him , wh * lt care I , n I ArUtbcra't , ' democrat , autocrat—one ? . ¦>'¦ : i Who can rule and dare not He . ¦ ' !< ' ' ' 0 f ' course a poet does not care . But if he were serious we might remind , bjbn tbat he wishea *? noble thought to be freer under the sun , and that

    the only chance of bringing this about ia by holding fast to the hope freedom . . . . ' ¦¦ : .- . .. ¦ , ; .. - ¦ -..:, ,-. " ¦ ., ^ . - - ^ - ; . v- ¦ - . ¦• . , '' ,. ; ' ¦ . ' -. Ms . Tennyson is ever great and beautiful m cynical philosophy : — I keep but a man and a maid , ever ready to slander and steal ; I know it , and smile a hard-set smile , like a atoie , or like A wiser epicurean , and let the world have its way : For nature is , one with rapine , a harm no preacher can heal ; The Itfayfly ifl torn by the swallow , the sparrow spear'd by the shrike , And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of jplunder and prey . We are puppets , Man in his pride , and Beauty fair in her flower ; Do we move , ourselves , or are moved by an unseen hand at a game That pushes us . off" from the board , and others ever succeed ? Ah yet we cannot be kind to each other here for an hour ;

    We whisper , and hint , and chuckle , and grin at a brother s shame ; However we brave it put , we men are a little breed . A monstrous eft was of old the Lord and Master of Earth , For him did his high sun flame , and his river billowing ran , And he felt himself in his force to be Nature ' s crowning race . As nine months go to the shaping an infant ripe for his birth , So many a million of ages have gone to the making of man : He now is first , but ifl he the last ? is he not too base ? The man of science himself is fonder of glory , and vain , An eye well-practised in nature , a spirit bounded and poor ; The passionate heart of the poet is wfiirTd into folly and vice . I would not marvel at either , but keep a temperate brain ; For not to desire or admire , if a man could learn it , were more Than to walk all day like the sultan of old in a garden of spice .

    For the drift of the Maker is dark , an Isis hid by the veil . Who knows the ways of the world , how God will bring them aboat ? Our planet is one , the suns are many , the world is wide . Shall I weep if a Poland fall ? shall I shriek if a Hungary fail ? Or an infant civilisation be ruled with rod or with knout ? - I have not made the world , and He that made it will guide . Most luxurious misanthropy and melodious scorn ! All this and the wartrumpeting will be universally popular at the present moment . But we can guess what some keen moralist will hereafter say contrasting Tennyson with Wordsworth . And easy such a moralist ' s task will be , at least so far as the analysis of character goes , tor Byron himself is not more distinctly painted ia his own poems than Tennyson . Maud , like Tennyson ' s other women , is merely a type of female beauty , and an object of romantic passion . She has no individual character ; but as a type of female beauty she is exquisite , like the rest , and the poet rifles nature of her sweetest sights and sounds to illustrate the lovely image of his

    tanoy . We need scarcely say that the painting , both moral and physical , in each scene of this diorama of passion is beautiful . The most nuestionable picture is that of madness , in section 25 . Surely positive mental disease is a thing over which the veil should be thrown , at least by the poet . Science alone can approach it in a reverent and right spirit . We know that Mr . Tennyson may cite Lear . But L < ear is not a morbid analysis of a madman ' s thoughts ( in which probably no man who has not been mad can succeed ) , but merely the outward description of madness ; and it is so contrived and tempered as to excite only pity , not loathing and horror . Another thing which will perhaps be criticised , not as false ( for it is most true ) , but rather overdone and betraying art too palpably , is the long meditation of the fugitive homicide over a shell on the shore of his exile , in section 23 . It is a mistake , too , to point out , as Mr . Tennyson docs , some stanzas oh , that the touch of nature is a touch of nature .

    A good deal of art is visible , and more perhaps will be discovered by longer familiarity , in the connexion between the different and distant sections of the poem . The evolution of passion is perfectly dramatic , with a good deal of successful tlptavtia . The description of the hollow in which the hero ' s father committed suicide , in the openmg of the poem , recurs to the mind with great force when the duel takes place in the same spot . Ami the battle-song which Maud is heard by her lover singing early in . the poem is the far-off prelude to the call which her spirit gives nim to battle in tho end . The melancholy and misanthropic character of the lover of course intensifies the happiness which is to him not only the triumph of his love , but a resurrection out of the abyss of mental darkness and despondency in which he has been lying : —

    And ye meanwhile far over moor and foil Beat to the noiseless music of the night ! Has our whole earth gone nearer to the glow Of your soft splendours that you look ao bright ? / have clinjb'd nearer out of lonely Hell . Beat , happy atars , timing with things below , Beat with iny heart moro blest than heart can tell , Blest , but for some dark undercurrent woe That seoma to draw—but it shall not bo no : Let all bo well , bo well .

    Of the other poems in the volume the principal is u Tho Brook , ' an idyl —not Tennyson ' s best , for it is deficient in intcresl and distinctpess , though it has set in it some charming songs . The " Daisy" is a brief nnd exquisite description of a tour in tho north of Italy . The Ode on the Duke of Wellington ( altered for the better by the omission of the most prosaic lines ) , and the Lineson the Balnklava Charge ( altered , but -wo doubt whether for the better ) , with three other short poems , including a pretty , and we have no doubt effectual , consolation of Mr . Maurice , on his condemnation by the " College Council , " complete thin volume , so desired by all lovers of poetry , and born to certain fame .

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    LAST YEAR ' S ASIAN CAMPAIGN . A Campaign with the Turks in Asia . By Charles , Duncan , Esq . In Two VolumoH , Smith , Eldor , and Co . Tilfe title which Mr . Duncan lias bestowed upon his book scarcely does it justice . Those who are familiar with military literature will anticipate a military work , strictly confined to the military movements on either side ,

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    : 'W : t' ¦' ' ¦^ 'i ^ ' * -V ' - : " 'O V '"' ¦ : }'¦ ' ''' ' ¦ ' ¦'¦ ¦' " . ¦'•{¦ ' { ' < - ' . '" -y . ¦ ¦' . ¦ : ¦• ' : ¦ ¦¦' :: ' ' . - ¦ ' ¦¦ : '" . - ' ¦ ' ¦ '¦¦ : " y ¦'"' * ¦¦ - ' / ¦ . ¦ '"'; ' : ' ¦ . ¦• " ' ¦'' . ¦' ' ¦ ' ¦ ¦ " ¦ ' " ¦"¦¦' . ¦ ' ¦ ¦'¦ ¦¦ . . .. :. m ' . . - . ' ' ¦

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 748, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2101/page/16/