On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    POEMS 15EFORE CONGRESS. BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BUOWNING.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    TN the clays of the War of Independence , when Germany rang to X the clank of the sword ' aiid the rhythm of Korner's melodies , when every voice was raised to swell the chorus of execration against Nanoleon 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 : vears afterwards , when Goethe was sinking- into his grave , full of days and full of honours , tliat he thus explained his sijenee : — " 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 country against the other . It was not in my heart to write patriotic war songs , and therefore I was silent , and bore blame silently . " t distance frobooks and libraries know

    " Writing as we do , aa m , we not if we quote correctly the words of this speech , which are to be found in the " Conversations of Eekermann ; " but the sense thereof we remember well . Somewhat after this fashion , we think , would be the justification of a true 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 litters a word in palliation of the Imperial policy is accused of want of patriotism—at such a time , " 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 sine's the authoress of " Aurora Leigh , " the burden of her song throughout is that France is right and England wrong . The confession is a bold one , and requires a bold spirit for its utterance . The German pOet was wiser than the English one . He knew , in his own words , that those who- - ~ r 'Thoricht RenuR ihr voiles" Herz nfchfc wahrten Bern Pobel ihr Gefiihl , ihr Schauen offenbarten , Hat man von je gekreuzigt und verbrannt , " and kept silence in his own heart . Out of the fulness of her Heart Mrs . Browning has spolccnand must answer for her speech *

    , Still ,-before we condemn utterly the " Poems before Congress , ' before we write them down in the Index Exjinrgatorius , and 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 j't to offend your patriotic principles ; and having read it , you will judge perhaps more kindly of the authoress : — ii-iiut-Wttl-y ^ my-lULy ^ — ,., , ¦ . , Can it last this gleani—Can she live 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 ugain Like tho rain , Or like a poet's song Sung of her—sad at the end , Because her name is Italy—Die and count no friend ?

    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 she might esteem the . elderborn tlje most , yet in her heart of hearts could piue and yearn after the wayward . and the suffering one . However unpleasing the'Tacfc 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 oi ^ e who loves Italy so well would fain believe herself , and lead others ^ to believe , that the doer of the noble de £ tr 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 protest ; 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 shdtild have done anything ; and we don't intend to do anything . Poor Cuft'ey 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 middleelass legislation and general respectability . Coups d ' etat and universal suffrage , and wars for an idea , and regard for facts in preference to laws , are . all equally antipathetic to us . Given that the Emperor and far

    Napoleon is a mere vulgar-tyrant , something more crafty more successful than most of his class , then ^ veare at liberty to pursue our present policy , without hesitation to arm against him , to make use of him while we can , to discard him when we can get an opportunity , and tohold him up always to reprobation . If , however—mind , we only say if—tin ' s should all rest on a false conception , to speak : of . no other consequences , we should feel small , very small indeed . We should feel much as an old Spartan might if some one had shown him that the Helot whom he had been used to see reel drunk before him was a being of another and a higher order to-himself .

    ¦ Por our own part , we know not what to say about Mrs . Browning % 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 first that the

    Is it true , may ) t be spoken , That she who has lain so still , With a wound in her breast And a ilpwer in her hand , And a gravestone under her head , While every nation at will Beside her has dared to stand And flout her with pity and scorn , Saying , ' She is nt rest , She is fair , she is dead , And leaving room in her i tend To us , who are later born : This is certainly best . ' Saying , alas ! ' she is fair , Very fair , but d < -ad , And so wo have room for the race . • • • • * Is it true That she lias not moved in ft trance , As in Forty-eight , When her eyes wore troubled with blood . Till eho knew , not friend from foe , " Till her . lwvml was onmrht in a strait Of her ooroment , and biifiiod ho From doing the ( bed she Mould—And her weak foot stumbled across Tho grave of a king , Anil dmvn she dropt at heavy loss , _ And wo gloomily covered her face , und said , ' Wo have dreamed tho thing — Sho is not alive , but dead . '" Such words could not bo wiittcu save by one to whom Italy was something more living than a name , something dearer than a sentiment . It i » so , we believe , with Mrs . Browning . Though her heart is sound English still ,. yet Italy has boon for many years tho land of hor adoption . -Having thus two countries , sho fecit * , wo

    came before the world , we all felt an unalterable conviction whole thing was a humbug , not from any intrinsic inconsistencies in the revelation , but from the simple fact that the prophet waa called- ~ " -jT > e-Smit 4 i ^—T-he-thing-could-aiotJbe . There ; ' was an in herent impossibility in a new faith being revealed by a Mr . Joseph 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 . us to whether the wider may not be nlso 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 n 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 may be worth fighting for . When we

    read that : — " lie stood sad before the sun ! ( The peoples felt their fate I ) ' The world is many , 1 am one : My great deed was too great : God ' s fruit of justice ripens slow : Men ' s souls are narrow ; let them grow . My brothers , we must wait !'" — we cannot but doubt whether our souls may not be narrow also . We have spoken first of the political aspect of tho book because it is tho most important one , and the ono most liable to censure . Mrs . Browning ' s fame ia too well established to require us to say much t

    more than that tho poetry is worthy of her past . For us , indeed , ihas a peculiar charm . We are somewhat weary of poems about King Arthur , or other ideal personages , and feel as if poetry were u now thing to us when it sings in living passion of a living time . There is every now and then a carelessness about Mrs . Browning ' s rhymes , such as making " passion" rhyme with " domination , " and wo wish that a poem on America at the end of the collection were omitted in another edition , not from any intrinsici inferiority to tho rest ot tho volume , but ns marring the unity of tho work . This , however , is all that , as critics , we could suggest . The book , iifdeod , lull of beauties . We- have not space to quoto moio than ono out of many passages , which we have chosen rather as possessing a peculiar charm lor ourselves , than m better than its fallows :- — " The'Pope on Christmas day Sits in Ht . Peter ' s chain ; But the pooples murmur nnd sny : — ' Our souls arc siok and forlorn , And who will show us where la tho ( Stable whero Christ wna born ?'

    Untitled Article

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

    Poems 15efore Congress. By Elizabeth Barrett Buowning.

    POEMS 15 EFORE CONGRESS . BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 5, 1860, page 425, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2346/page/13/