Gents Mag 1850 part 2 p.467
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Gentleman's Magazine 1850 part 2 p.467
soared into the sternest and most serene regions of duty. The following anecdote, which Wordsworth has perpetuated, will illustrate our meaning: --- And when we chanced One day to meet a hunger-bitten girl, Who crept along fitting her languid gait Unto a heifer's motion by a cord tied to her arm, and picking thus from the lane Its sustenance, while the girl with pallid hands Was busy knitting in a heartless mood Of solitude, and at the sight my friend In agitation said, "'Tis against that That we are fighting," I with him believed That a benignant spirit was abroad Which might not be withstood. Of the immediate predecessors of Wordsworth two alone can be regarded as original poets of any large dimensions, Churchill and Cowper. From the former, and perhaps the most vigorous of the two, Wordsworth, both as a man and as an artist, would recoil, for Churchill was a coarse worldling and an offset in verse of Dryden. Between Cowper and Wordsworth there existed a nearer political kindred, although the latter in his critical prefaces has been rather too chary in his acknowledgments of the relationship. For Cowper, with a feebler will and less adventurous temper, was a zealous opponent of poetic diction and a stickler for representing rural objects in unadorned simplicity. But the author of the Task enjoyed few or none of the educational advantages possessed by the author of the Lyrical Ballads. He lived in a conventional age; his travels did not extend beyond a trip in Sir Thomas Hesketh's yacht to the mild scenery of the Isle of Wight; his literary connexions were few and trivial; and his gloomy religion affected his contemplation of external nature. We have been much struck, however, while reading the Prelude, with its numerous resemblances to the Task. The structure and cadence of the blank verse, which differ considerably from the pauses and measure of the "Excursion," are very similar to the metrical peculiarities of Cowper. There is also, though in a very inferior degree, an irony in the Prelude in which Cowper delighted over much, and Wordsworth has nearly excluded from his later productions. Let the reader judge whether the following description of the tradesmen's signs in London might not be placed in the same category with "Katterfelto wandering for his bread." --- The string of dazzling wares, Shop after shop, with symbols, blazoned names, And all the tradesman's honours overhead: Here fronts of houses, like a title-page, With letters huge inscribed from top to toe, Stationed above the door, like guardian saints: There, allegoric shapes, female or male, or Physiognomies of real men, Land-warriors, kings or admirals of the sea, Boyle, Shakespeare, Newton, or the attractive head Of some quack-doctor, famous in his day. We have extracted liberally: but, if we have studied the Prelude rightly, not too liberally for the approval of our readers. It is seldom that we have the privilege of noticing so masterly a work as this poem, still less seldom do we meet with one so rich in both historical and psychological interest. But we must now conclude, partly rejoicing, and partly regretting, that the late venerable Laureate should not have printed, in his lifetime, this record of his mind's growth. It is after all but a propylaea to a much more majestic and comprehensive design. For the Prelude was intended to be introductory to the Recluse, and the Recluse, if completed, would have con- |
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