A FRENCHMAN ON ENGLISH POETRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 3

A FRENCHMAN ON ENGLISH POETRY.

1 » An ingenious Frenchman, M. Wyzewa, has aspired to imitate Taine in expressing the views of his countrymen on English writers. The title of M. Wyzewa's book is " Ecrivains Etrangers," and the scope of his criticism is a wide one, but it is on the subject of English men of letters that he is most interesting. At the outset, he gets off a good thing by remarking that " when Bf owning died he was bewailed by a crotfd of professors, some metaphysicians, and all the old maids, who are numerous in his country." It is faii 1 to state that the Frenchman means no disrespect either to Browning or ; old maids, and apparently offered his information about the latter in all good faith with a view to the benefit of his countrymen who might be unacquainted with the social conditions of the British Isles. In regard to the poet M. Wyzewa adds : — " Robert Browning* is the most intelligent of English poets ; happy he who has the courage to read him." " Intelligent" is hardly the word by which Browning is as yet known to posterity. Tennyson, as the critic points out, offered a remarkable contrast to the author of " Paracelsus," but one is hardly prepared for the statement that "Tennyson was a man of flawless unintelligence." The general truth that M. Wyzewa's epigram is intended to convey is that in the late laureate's poetry the expression — " thejpure, noble and perfect, form," as he calls it — was superior to the thought, while with Browning the reverse was the case. In spite of his "unintelligence;" M. Wyzewa recognises that Tennyson was a very great poet, and emphatically proclaims the fact. The Frenchman is at a loss to see why the Americans so persistently attack the character of Edgar Allan Poe. He points out that Poe wrote no Bacchanalian songs, and, unlike Burns, sang all his love poems in the ear of the dead. The Scotch poet finds universal favour in spite of his "Willie brew'd a peck of malt," his "Gowden Locks of Anna," and a host of others. The American is still ostracised solely because in spite of many an upward struggle he declined on drink. It is easy enough to agree with M. Wyzewa in finding all this very inconsistent ; it is impossible to follow him in his statement that Poe's verses are "the most magnificent in the English language." The critic, before leaving the domain of letters, has something to say about the morale of the average Briton. " The pale young Englishman," he considers, "is now mostly indifferent, sometimes an atheist, finding a brutal relish in blasphemy." From this it appears that M. Wyzewa can be forcible and original on other than a literary theme.