MR. BAYNE'S ESSAYS.* Helve is a good book, with a
somewhat awkward title. Mr. Bayne writes with a freshness and charm which must attract all readers, and with a strength of conviction which compels +respect, when it does not win assent. The " Essay on Poetry," with which the volume opens, is, to our thinking, the most important part of its contents. It is full of thought, full of suggestiveness, and glows with a warmth of feeling which those of us who have found in poetry a daily solace and joy will :know how to appreciate. It is quite possible, of course, to estimate the paper thus highly, and at the same time to dis- agree with some of the judgments uttered by the writer. Much that Mr. Bayne says about Mr. Matthew Arnold's recent essay on Wordsworth is, we think, sound criticism. Possibly Mr. Arnold ;would not explain his definition of poetry as his critic explains at. Mr. Arnold is a singularly lucid writer, but his words are sometimes clearer than his thoughts, or rather, one is apt to suspect in reading his essays that what he utters is not all he means. In one sense, to term poetry a criticism of life would seem to narrow its range, by making it didactic, and Mr. Bayne's words on the subject can scarcely be refuted :—
" Mr. Arnold," he writes, "goes astray at the outset, in seeking a qlefinition of poetry by reference to the judging faculty. Criticism of life is not primarily or distinctively the function of the poet. If it were, mankind would have been wrong in placing Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus in one category, and Homer, Sophocles, Pinder in another. 'There is no criticism of life better than that of Bacon's Essays, yet ,these are not poetry at all Doubtless—and the remark is of anoment—criticism of life is involved in poetry, but it is not distinctive of poetry, it belongs to prose as well us to poetry In seeking, therefore, a practically useful criterion of greatness, of excellence, of degree of merit in poetry, we are not to ask, in the first place, how the poet in question criticises life, but how mach of nature and life ho .reproduces, and whether he reproduces greatly or not greatly ; only 'in the second place, as having a highly important bearing on the general character and quality of his poetry, are we to inquire into +his criticism of life."
'So long as Mr. Bayne confines himself to broad definitions of poetry, and to statements of what in chief measure is to be ex- pected of the poet, we generally agree with him. When he passes from definitions to illustrations, and especially when he -tries to show that Mr. Arnold's high estimate of Wordsworth is -a false estimate, we agree with him no longer. To express all the grounds of our faith in Wordsworth as the greatest poet England has produced for two centuries would be obviously impossible, and it will be best, perhaps, to state some of the +author's reasons for depreciating his genius. It should be .observed, in the first place, that Mr. Bayne " entirely agrees " with Mr. Arnold that Wordsworth was a true and even a great poet, but he gives few indications that he has ever been, so to speak, " possessed" by Wordsworth's greatness. He sees clearly that he has written some noble poetry, and still more clearly that he has .written some that is ignoble ; but the *" power " of which Mr. Arnold speaks has not, we think, been strongly felt by Mr. Bayne.
Here are some of the author's counts against Wordsworth. His poems generally are said to be profoundly depressing, many of them " unutterably mournful," and he shares but slightly " that exultation which great poets have in human joy." Again, he " adds less to nature, exercises less of imagi- native power, than belongs to great poetry." His habitual method is unimaginative ; not that Wordsworth was without imagination, but that it awoke seldom, and fails to give the right, vital unity of art. The true artist puts a soul into his
* Two Great Englishwomen : Mrs. Browning and Charlotte Bronle. With an Essay on Poetry, illustrated from Wordsworth, Burns, and Byron. By Peter Bayne, ALA., LL.D. London ; James Clarke and Co. 1881.
landscape. Wordsworth treats his subject topographically. Many of his phrases are sprawling and nerveless, and the " sacred energy," of which Mr. Arnold speaks, is frequently absent, exactly at the moment when it is wanted. But not only is Wordsworth's method unimaginative,—he is too fond, also, of retailing in verse common-place incidents ; " a large portion of his existence was passed in what may be described as a state of refined spiritual dreaminess, bordering on lethargy," and his thoughts in consequence are apt to be only half true. Mr. Bayne has more to add in the same depreciating vein. Compared with the genius of Burns, that of Wordsworth is said to be lax and Blow ; " age in Wordsworth is despondent, heavy-laden, apathetic ; not in Burns,"—and only in style has Wordsworth the advantage of the Scottish poet. Byron, too, is, by many degrees, Wordsworth's superior, and Mr. Bayne is oven " strongly moved" to claim for Mrs. Browning precedence of Wordsworth in the procession of English poets.
We have summed up in a few brief words the most prominent charges brought against Wordsworth by Mr. Bayne. Expressed with intensity of conviction and charm of style, they are likely to influence many readers. If they be true, we venture to think that they are fatal to the greatness which the writer accedes to this poet. We readily make an admission. Wordsworth is sometimes prolix and dull. He does not always know whether he is composing poetry or prose, and when he has no poetical thought to deliver, ho is too honest to write in the poetical diction which is so often a substitute for imagination. His deficiencies lie upon the surface. He has no wit, no humour, no nimbleness of fancy, neither has he the creative faculty which exhausts worlds, and then imagines new. He frequently mistakes triviality for simplicity, and has a good deal of what Mr. Arnold aptly calls " poetical baggage," with which we could readily dispense. These are faults, no doubt, and they show that in some directions Wordsworth's power was limited ; but what he lacks in range he gains in depth, and those who have once felt " the magic of his power " can never more escape from it. Mr. Bayne considers that Wordsworth's poems generally are profoundly depressing. That some of them are profoundly pathetic, wo admit readily ; witness the story of Margaret, as told iu the "Excursion," but that tale is the very opposite of depressing, for the exalted and exalting faith of the poet is expressed by the old man who, at the close of the narrative, incul- cates on the listener wisdom and cheerfulness, and the very power of suffering delineated is in itself in the highest degree exalting in the tragic sense. It would be, indeed, a strange contradiction, if Wordsworth, who called himself one of the happiest of men, and who, according to Rogers, was so joyous and communica- tive, had proved a depressing poet. No doubt, he has his fits of depression, as all men must have who tidal: and feel ; but joy, the fruit of hope and faith, is assuredly the motive-power of his poetry. It is this that inspires the glorious " Ode on Immor- tality," that breathes through the lovely lines written ou the banks of the Wye, that fills with serene light the " Ode to Duty." And what poet who was not imbued with the divine spirit of joy could have written as Wordsworth has written of birds and flowers,—of the cuckoo and the skylark, of the daffodil and the celandine, of the solitary Highland lass singing in the field and filling the poet's heart with her music, of the famous shepherd whose daily teachers had been woods and rills,'- " The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills P"
So far from Wordsworth's" habitual mood being unimaginative," it may be questioned whether any poet since Milton has dis• played an imagination alike so vivid and so intense. It is, indeed, restricted iu range; but Wordsworth, even more than Milton,"sees into the life of things," though the poetical terri- tory of the latter is grander and more spacious. " I am reading over and over again," writes Lander, " the stupendous poetry of Wordsworth. In thoughts, feelings, and images, not one among the ancients equals him ; and his language—a rare thing—is English." There may be exaggeration in Lundor's statement, but it proves, at least, that the imagination of the poet held him captive when he wrote. Even Wordsworth's faults—and they are many—are not, like Byron's, meretricious. His work, at its worst, is honest metal, and can never be mistaken for pinchbeck. The author compares Wordsworth with Burns, to the advantage of the Scottish poet ; but the two occupy, we think, such distinct positions, that they cannot be fairly placed in comparison. It is quite true, as Mr. Bayne observes, that if Burns is one of the greatest love-poets of the world, Worda-
worth can hardly be called a love-poet at all ; and, indeed, all that the writer has to say about the darling poet of all Scotch- men is, to our thinking, not only beautifully said, but also absolutely true. Wordsworth and Burns, however, are poets of so different an order that their relative greatness need not be discussed. Perhaps a similar remark might be made with regard to Byron, who, it should be remembered, felt Words- worth's influence profoundly. Byron, the least artistic of poets, was great in passion, in wit, as well as in descriptive power. Of some of these qualities Wordsworth was destitute. But then, Wordsworth had other qualities, which we believe aro greater, and likely to prove more lasting,—a belief which those whom his poetry has failed to " find " will of course laugh to scorn.
The "Essay on Poetry" is followed by a masterly and com- prehensive criticism of Mrs. Browning's poems. We do not know of any modern poet in whom the fervour and energy of genius are combined with so feeble a, perception of what is due to art. Her words are winged, but her taste is often execrable, and the reader, after being borne to a great height, is sud- denly precipitated into the mud. Her lines and stanzas are frequently of undying beauty, but, with the exception of a few lyrics and sonnets, she has written no poem in which defects of form are not as evident as splendour of imagination and wealth of fancy. Mr. Bayne is not blind to the faults of this wonderful woman, but he is also enthusiastically alive to her merits, and his comments as he passes from poem to poem, instead of txhausting the reader's interest in Mrs. Browning, will stimulate and strengthen it. For many persons, the most attractive portion of the volume will be found in its concluding chapters. The account of Charlotte Bronto and her sisters is thoughtful and sympathetic. Here, as elsewhere in the book, we sometimes read with dissent, but always with pleasure.
Admirably does the author write about Jane Eyre, about Wuthering Heights, about Shirley ; but his estimate of Villetto is not a high one, and he considers that when she wrote it, Char- lotte Bronto's inspiration had ebbed. We see no signs of this. Villette has always struck us as the greatest work of her genius, and its hero, Paul Emanuel, is, to our thinking, one of the most original characters in English fiction.
In conclusion, we may add that Mr. Bayne's book is full of the criticism which stimulates thought, curiosity, and some- times healthy opposition. Readers who love and admire Jane Austen, as we do, will be astounded to read that she is void of invention and imagination, and belongs distinctively to the minor schools of literary art, and readers who have learnt to honour the great names of Dryden and Popo with an admi- ration based upon a knowledge of their deficiencies, as well as of their greatness, will be still more astounded when they read that these men are " firmly and unanimously denied the distinctive glory of poets by the present generation, because they have no eye for nature, and have said no tender, heartfelt things, instinct with music, about the birds and the brooks." We hope Mr. Bayne is mistaken, we believe he is ; but if not, we can only say, so much the worse for the present generation !
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