A REVIVAL OF CAMPBELL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 22

A REVIVAL OF CAMPBELL

“Poems by Thomas Campbell.” By Lews Campbell, Macmillan and Co., London. Whitcombe and Tombs,-.Wel-lington.

It is advantageous sometimes to turn from the effervescing literature or the hour to the works of a writer wno charms and uplifts his readers. In these days of labour and worry it is restful to peruse anew the “Pleasures of Hope, or the story of “Gertrude of Wyoming. The publication by Messrs Macmillan of the poetical writings of Thomas Campbell in the firm’s “Golden Treasury Series” in an assurance that the works or this Scots poet possess “the quality of not perishing.” There is much in the life of the poet that calls up our sympathy and admiration. His domestic troubles were sufficient to destroy the poetical faculty in any genius, and although his trials subdued his fervour they did not altogether destroy the love of humanity which was one of his chief characteristics. When Burns had been dead just two years Campbell gave to the world his “Ballads” and his “Pleasures.” Pope was “the grand Napoleon of the realm of rhyme,” and Wordsworth was just appearing on the horizon, when Campbell was styled “the Pope of Glasgow.” Yet his name was destined to find a niche in the Temple of Fame, and his countrymen to regard him •* worthy of a public funeral, a grave in the Poet’s Corner and a statue in Westminster Abbey. Campbell earned these honours as well by the beauty of his poetry as by the nobility of his patriotism.

„ Campbell was educated at the,university of Glasgow and was there distinguished for his Greek translations. His Greek professor, John Young, declared that his translation of the “Clouds” of Aristophanes the best version that had tv«r been given in by any student, and pieviously he had received a prize fox* an English poem entitled. “An Essay on the Origin of Evil.” Thus early, the poet was not yet in his sixteenth year, he evinced that peculiar delicacy of taste and select poetical diction which characterised all his work. His early manhood was employed in teaching and literary work,- hut he did not neglect the muse, and while yet under twenty-two his “Pleasures of Hope” were published, the copyright being sold for £6O. Generosity was, however, exhibited by his - publishers, for the work ran through four editions in a twelvemonth,. and for each edition Campbell was allowed £SO, and he received in all £I2OO for the poem. Although composed in a dusky common lodging house, its melody, diction and lofty-sentiment captivated all readers. It abounds in delightful episodes, and those who know anything of the history of Russia’s dealings with Poland will realise something of that indignation Campbell expresses in the line:

Oh, Woodiest picture in the "boot of time ?”

In later years we discover him giving expression to prophet-like utterances in Ms “Power -of Russia,” and his lines are worth quoting for they are not without significance at the present moment.

Norwegian woods shall build His fleets ; the fcwede his vessel, and the Dane; The glebe of fifty kingdoms shall be till’d To feed his dazzling, desolating train, Camp’d sumless, ’twixt the Black and Baltic main.

The stripling Titan, strengthening year * by year, ;

Whom Persia bows to, China, ill confines, And India’s homage waits, when Albion s star declines. Campbell’s forecast is still appropriate, although Russia has assumed gigantic , proportions. Campbell possessed the gift of melodious speech. He had assimilated classic poetry from his earliest years. His tour of Europe where he saw the fierce encounters between the French and Austrians, and made the acquaintance of Wieland and Berger and Schiller and Goethe, “added a glow of patriotism to Ihe poetic stimuli of love and liberty.” I» was at this time (1802) that he wrote '“Locliiel’s Warning” and “Holienliriden,” and contrary to common belief Campbell did not witness the conflict oh the Iser but visited the valley shortly ;/ afterwards. Nevertheless the battle, 'with its enormous slaughter, made a ' deep impression upon the poet, and he gave to the world “one of the grandest :-i battle-pieces in that has ever been drawn.” “Iff a few remarks tour authority, “flowing like a choral melody, the poet brings before us the silent midnight scene of engagement wrapt in the snows of winter, the sud-

den arming for the battle, the press and shout of charging squadrons, the flashing of artillery, and the final scene of death.” Many doubtless date their first love of literature to the poetry of Campbell. The Scotsmen of the older generation can still recall passages from “Lochiel,” “Lord Ullin’s Daughter,” while every schoolboy has learned ‘"‘Ye Mariners of Elngland” and “The Soldier’s Dream.” We pass over the period when, through domestic affliction, Compbell’s “harp was unstrung,” and we need not here concern ourselves with the irritability and waywardness of his temper and genius. Campbell “soon kindled, and soon burned,” and in his highest pulse of excitement the cadence of his verse never loses its liquid smoothness v His was altogether a refined nature, with deep moral feeling, and he moulded human speech into new forms of beauty. At times he appears to us artificial, his natural history inexact, and his astronomy not up-to-date: hut then Wordsworth says that “the appropriate business of poetry is to treat of things not as they are hut as they appear; not as they exist in themselves hut as they seem to exist to the senses and to the passions.” And so, as Mr Allingham lias expressed it, Campbell as a lyrical writer seems to have a finer touch than Scott or Byron, ‘'The former of whom is apt to he rough, the latter turgid.” The editor of this new edition of a not forgotten poet has corrected some of the errors that have crept into the detached poems of Campbell as published in school-books, and two or more hitherto urpuhlished additions from the manuscript of the poet have been added. The publishers have adorned the work with & photogravure from a portrait in oils by Sir Diavid Wilkie, and presented the volume in an attractive size and binding.