In their lust for caruage blind. Or that skil. of nine should pan, The spear and the sword for men whose joy And for many a day old Tubal Cain Sat brooding o'er his woe; And his hand lorebore to smite the ore, But he rose at last with a cheerful face, And bared his strong right arm for work, And the red sparks lit the air; 'Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made;' And men, taught wisdom from the past, In friendship joined their hands, Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall, And ploughed the willing lands; And sang: Hurrah for Tubal Cain! Our staunch good friend is he; And for the ploughshare and the plough To him our praise shall be. But while oppression lifts its head, Or a tyrant would be lord, Though we may thank him for the plough, We'll not forget the sword!' PHILIP JAMES BAILEY-RICHARD HENRY HORNE. PHILIP JAMES BAILEY was born at Basford, county of Nottingham, in 1816. He was educated in his native town and at Glasgow University, after which he studied for the bar. In 1849 he produced his first and greatest poem, Festus,' subsequently enlarged, and now in its fifth edition. The next work of the poet was 'The Angel World,' 1850, which was followed in 1855 by the Mystic,' and in 1858 Mr. Bailey published The Age, a Colloquial Satire.' All of these works, excepting the last, are in blank verse, and have one tendency and object-to describe the history of a divinely instructed mind or soul, soaring upwards to communion with the universal life.' With the boldness of Milton, Mr. Bailey passes the flaming bounds of space and time,' and carries his Mystic' even into the presence of the 'fontal Deity.' His spiritualism and symbolical meanings are frequently incomprehensible, and his language crude and harsh, with affected archaisms. Yet there are fragments of beautiful and splendid imagery in the poems, and a spirit of devotional rapture that has recommended them to many who rarely read poetry. The Colloquial Satire' is a failure-mere garrulity and slipshod criticism. Thus of war: Of all conceits misgrafted on God's Word, BAILEY.] ENGLISH LITERATURE. To pray for, and to care for others' life. A Christian soldier's duty is to slay, Wound, harass, slaughter, hack in every way Those meu whose souls he prays for night and day; He's told to love his enemies; don't scoff; By, and be therefore blows them from a gun, To bless his foes, he hangs them up like fun.' We may contrast this doggerel with a specimen of Mr. Lailey's ambitious blank verse, descriptive of the solitary, mystic ecluse, dweling 'lion-like within the desert:' Lofty and passionless as date-palm's bride, The depth of Deity and heights of heaven. Or the following fine lines from Festus:' We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives, Lives in one hour more than in years do some Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along the veins. Beginning, mean, and end to all things-God. And on universal love: Love is the happy privilege of the mind In all throughout one common feeling reigns: Each doth maintain, and is maintained by the other; All are compatible-all needful; one To life-to virtue oue-and one to bliss: Which thus together make the power, the end, From these three principles doth every deed, Desire, and will, and reasoning, good or bad, come; Our world. Hail! air of love, by which we live! One only simple essence liveth-God- Are but compounded things of mind and form. An elemental sameness of existence; Seraphs love God, and angels love the good: We love each other; and these lower lives, Which walk the earth in thousand diverse shapes, The most intelligent affect us most. Nay, man's chief wisdom's love-the love of God. Was that of Christ and love. His great command- Truly to love ourselves we must love God To love God we must all his creatures love To love his creatures, both ourselves and Him. Thus love is all that's wise. fair, good, and happy! In 1867 Mr. Bailey added to his poetical works a production in the style of his early Muse, entitled The Universal Hymn.' RICHARD HENRY HORNE, born in London in 1803, commenced active life as a midshipman in the Mexican navy. When the war between Mexico and Spain had ceased, Mr. Horne returned to England and devoted himself to literature. He is the author of several dramatic pieces-'Cosmo de Medici,' 1837; 'The Death of Marlowe,' 1838; and Gregory the Seventh,' 1840. In 1841 he produced a 'Life of Napoleon; and in 1843, Orion, an Epic Poem,' the most successful of his works, of which the ninth edition is now (1874) before us. In 1844 Mr. Horne published two volumes of prose sketches entitled A New Spirit of the Age,' being short biographies, with criticism, of the most distinguished living authors. In 1846 appeared Ballad Romances;' in 1848, Judas Iscariot, a Mystery Play; and in 1851, 'The Dreamer and the Worker,' two vols. In 1852 Mr. Horne went to Australia, and for some time held the office of Gold Commissioner. We may note that 'Orion' was originally published at the price of one farthing, being an experiment upon the mind of a nation,' and as there was scarcely any instance of an epic poem attaining any reasonable circulation during its author's lifetime.' This nomi HORNE.] ENGLISH LITERATURE. nal price saved the author the trouble and greatly additional ex. pense of forwarding presentation copies,' which, he adds, are not always particularly desired by those who receive them.' Three of these farthing editions were published, after which there were several at a price which amply remunerated the publisher, and left the author no great loser.' Orion, the hero of the poem, was meant to present a type of the struggle of man with himself—that is, the contest between the intellect and the senses, when powerful energies are equally balanced.' The allegorical portion of the poem is defective and obscure, but it contains striking and noble passages. The Progress of Mankind.-From 'Orion.' The wisdom of mankind creeps slowly on, Falls blunted from the mass of flesh and bone. Some hair-breadths only from his starting-point: Yet lives he not in vain; for if his soul Hath entered others, though imperfectly, The circle widens as the world spins round His soul works on while he sleeps 'neath the grass. So let the firm Philosopher renew His wasted lamp-the lamp wastes not in vain, Nor trace them through the darkness; let the Hand Which feels primeval impulses, direct A forthright plough, and make his furrow broad, So let the herald poet shed his thoughts, Like seeds that seem but lost upon the wind. Work in the night, thou sage. while Mammon's brain Break thou the clods while high-throned Vanity, Midst glaring lights and trumpets, holds its court; This poet is a native of Ballyshannon, county of Donegal, Ire land: The kindly spot, the friendly town, where every one is known, He was born in 1828, and from an early age contributed to periodical Songs,' 1854; 'Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland' (a poem in twelve chapters), 1864; and Fifty Modern Poems,' 1865. Mr. Allingham says his works' ciaim to be genuine in their way.' They are free from all obscurity and mysticism, and evince a fine feeling for nature, as well as graceful fancy and poetic diction. Mr. Allingham is editor of Fraser's Magazine.' To the Nightingales. You sweet fastidious nightingales! green, Fair-mirrored round the loitering skiff. Embosomed ocean-bays are ours With all their isles; and mystic towers What scared ye? (ours, I think, of The sombre fowl hatched in the cold? stern. Smiters of galloglas and kern ? (1) Come back. O birds, or come at last! Why should we miss that pure delight? Their place is in the second row. ALFRED TENNYSON. MR. TENNYSON, the most popular poet of his times, is the young est of a poetical brotherhood of three-Frederick, Charles, and Alfred-sons of the late Rev. George Clayton Tennyson, a Lincolnshire clergyman,* who is described as having been a man remarkable for strength and stature, and for the energetic force of his character. This gentleman had a family of eleven or twelve children, seven of whom were sons. The eldest three we have mentioned were all educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, pupils of Dr. Whewell. 1 Galloglas-kern-Irish foot-soldier; the first heavy-armed, the second light. The mother of the laureate was also of a clerical family, daughter of the Rev. Stephen Frtche. His paternal grandfather was a Lincolnshire squire, owner of Bayons Manor and Usselby Hall--properties afterwards held by the poet's uncle, the Right Hon Charles Tennyson D Eyncourt, who assumed the name of D'Eyncourt to commemorate his descent from that ancient Norman family and in compliance with a condition attached to the nof certain manors and estates. The eldest of the laureate brothers, Frederick, phor of a volume of poems-graceful. but without any original distinctive character -entitled Dans and Hours, 1854. Charles, the second brother. who joined with Alfred. as stated above, in the composition of a volume of verse. became vicar of Grassby. Lin. colnshire In 1835. He took the name of Turner, on succeeding to a property in Lincoln shire. In 1861, he published a volume of Sonnets. |