WORDSWORTH,

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 312, 26 September 1908, Page 14

WORDSWORTH,

No habitual iteacter of tho New York "Nation" would bo .surprised at the recent article'on Wordsworth. From time to timo during: the last jyeor or so there have ;bceu cast at that poetfc, sometimes from a " letter to the editor "'aM sometimes from the body of., a; review, da iris of another sort than Cupid's, and now .this element of auti-Words-worthianism lias culminated in a three-decker special article the* -writer pf which finds the secret of all . Wordsworth I .'; limitations, in poetry, philosophy.,, and outlook, in a certain "lack of native-vitality." In so far as the .article criticises ijio philosophy of Wordsworth it is not oi' supremo importance. A reader, asks of a >jpoct not that his. ideas should agree with iris own, but that they should appeal powerfully to his feelings jrn'd imagination. Thus die does not require- to bo a follower of Epicurm hi order to enjoy the poem ,of Lucretius, Dior does appreciation of Dante imply, acquiascenea in the' medieval theory, while if, as 'Mark Pattison says, the particular form- of. ■Christianity, represented by Milton has passed away, Milton not tho less on that account remains the sccond of the two groat names of : English poetry. So if may bo—although- we do not admit that it is—with Wordsnvorth. A reader's enjoyment is, of, course, increased w&en he is in perfect agreement with'' his poet, but the increment ;of pleasure in that caso is not a specifically poetic increment, and certainly anypiie is in a fair way to lose all poetic perception whose mental reaction upon a poem is a mere alternation of nego aii'd probo as he reads. On the other hand, the article is vitiated as literary criticism by an attempt to belittle "Wordsworth's poetry by caricaturing his habits of composition. The poet, as we know from his sister's " Jtournals," used to labour over his verses until '-sometimes he made himself ill. So our writer " seems'to see hjm " starting with the hoard determination to "flog his. sluggish blood into motion," working .himself up into a "tense, nervous state of I expectancy," so that " his apprehensions .come in crowds." Ho "can see," he adds, "tho haggard search for inspiration in his eyes," eyes in which the firo too commonly merely "glimmered and smoked." And it ■was only when the .will was quite exhausted or off its guard altogether that the inspiration came, bringing with it the power to write poetry. Now such an explanation might serve if Wordsworth's caso merely wero that some of his poems were good and, some bad. But tho peculiarity is that the good and tho bad lie in such close juxtaposition in tho same poem. Mr. William Watson once quoted as characteristically prosaic -tins'line from tho "Leech Gatherer":— At length himself unsettling,' he the pond Stirred with his staff. He might have quoted:— He with a sipilo did then his words ropeat; And said that, gathering lcoches far and wide, He travelled; stirring thiiis about his feet Tho waters of the pools where thoy abide. Yet. those passages occur in ono pf the poems which no Wordsworthian anthology could omit. It is tho,poem of the "I thought of Chatterton" staijza, of tho haro "running races in its mirth," while the former bathos of tho two follows immediately upon tho sublime image of tho oioud which " hcaroth not the loud winds when they call." Wordsworth's is not tho case of a man " searching for inspiration." It is tho case of ono with tho inspiration working powerfully in' his heart already and labouring for adequate utterance. Sometimes ho misses it, and the result may bo bald prose; on the other hand, sometimes lie hits it, and the result is such felicities of diction as aro unrivalled in our language.—" Manchester Guardian."