We ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley, Where 'tween the dark hills creeps the small clear stream, In arms around the patriarchal banner rally, Nor see the moon on royal tombstones gleam. When the bold kindred in the time long vanished Come foreign rage-let Discord burst in slaughter! O then for clansmen true, and stern claymore- Fair these broad meads, these hoary woods are grand : 1 Ralegh, The Lie. Works, Oxford, 1820. (Poems) vol. viii. 2 Id., An Epitaph upon Sir Philip Sidney, ibid. * Id., The Pilgrimage, ibid. 4 Wotton, To His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia. Wottonianae, 1685, pp. 379-80. Reliquiae 5 Nicholas Breton (A Sweet Lullaby). Works, ed. A. B. Grosart, 1879, vol. i. (Poems). • Bacon, The Bubble. Reliquiae Wottonianae, pp. 397–8. 7 T. Dekker, H. Chettle, and W. Haughton, The Pleasant Comedy of Patient Grissil. Shakespeare Society, 1841. 8 The Duchess of Malfy, Act iv, Sc. 2. Works of John Webster, ed. Alex. Dyce. 1857. • Cupid and Death. Ode, 1653. James Shirley, Dramatic Works and Poems, ed. W. Gifford and A. Dyer. 1833. 10 The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses. Masque, Song, 1659. James Shirley, ibid. 11 Alexander and Campaspe. John Lyly, Dramatic Works, ed. F. W. Fairholt. 1858. 12 Rosalynde, Euphues Golden Legacie. Thomas Lodge, 1878. 13 Disdain Returned. The Poems of Thomas Carew, ed. Arthur Vincent. The Muses' Library, 1899. 14 The Broken Heart. John Ford, Works, ed. W. Gifford and A. Dyer. 1895. 15 Thomas Campion. Fourth Book of Airs, 1617. Allison. An Howre's Recreation in Musike, 1606. Treasury, F. T. Palgrave, p. 76.) 16 Sir William Davenant, Works, 1673. Richard Alison, or (Anon., The Golden 17 (? Comedy by T. B.) Anon. Oxford Book of Verse, No. 391. 18 G. Wither, Select Lyric Poems, ed. Sir E. Brydges. 1815. 19 An Excellent New Ballad-to the tune of ' I'll never love thee more!' by James Marquis of Montrose. Memoirs of Montrose, by Mark Napier, vol. i, appendix, 34–5. 20 Syr Cauline, ser. i, Book I, 4. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, by Bishop (Thomas) Percy. 21 The Ancient Ballad of Chevy Chase. Ibid., ser. i, Book I, 1. 22 Sir Philip Sidney, Miscel. Works, ed. W. Gray, 1829, Defense of Poesy. 23 The Battle of Otterbourne (The Scottish Version), st. 19. Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. i, pp. 354–62 (Rober Cadell, 1833). 24 Sir Patrick Spens. Ibid., vol. i, pp. 299-305. 25 Willie's Drowned in Yarrow, stanzas 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 11, pp. 25–7. Scottish Song, ed. Mary Carlyle Aitken. 1874. 26 The Dowie Houms of Yarrow. Scott's Border Minstrelsy, vol. iii, pp. 147-50. 27 Fair Helen. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 103-5. 28 Lady Anne, st. 8. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 21-2. 29 Earl Richard. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 184-90. 30 The Daemon-Lover. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 195–8. 31 Jellon Grame. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 164–7. 32 Young Benjie. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 13–17. 33 The Cruel Sister (Binnorie, O Binnorie). Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 289–93. 34 The Queen's Marie. 35 Edward, Edward. Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 298–304. 'A Scottish Ballad. From a MS. copy transmitted from Scotland.' Ser. i, Book i, 5, Percy's Reliques (I have somewhat anglicized the Scotch spelling in Percy's copy.) 36 Anon. Scottish Rivers, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, p. 198 (Edmonston & Douglas, 1874). 37 The Twa Corbies. (Scott's Border Minstrelsy), vol. ii. pp. 359–60. (W. Motherwell's version, Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern, 1827, varies.) (Ibid.), vol. i, pp. 422–6. 38 The Lochmaben Harper. (Johnson's Poets, vol. xxvii, p. 14.) 41 A Cradle Hymn, Dr. Isaac Watts. (Johnson's Poets, vol. Ivi, pp. 240-2, stanzas 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13.) 42 Written at an inn at Henley, st. 5. Poets, vol. lix, p. 186). 43 The Vanity of Human Wishes. 2 vols. (H. G. Bohn, 1850), vol. ii, p. 93. Shenstone's Poems (Johnson's Works by Samuel Johnson, 44 On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet, a Practiser in Physic, st. 2, ibid., vol. ii, p. 85. 45 Ambrose Philips-To Miss Charlotte Pulteney, in her Mother's Arms, May 1, 1724. (Johnson's Poets, vol. lvii, p. 74.) 46 Sally in our Alley, stanzas 1 and 4. Henry Carey, Poems, 1729. 47 Christopher Smart. A Song to David, st. 5. Works and Life, 1791. 48 R. Browning. Parleyings with Certain People. (Christopher Smart), vi, p. 85. 49 Carolina Lady Nairne. The Land o' the Leal. Poems, with Memoir, ed. Charles Rogers, 1869. 50 The Flowers of the Forest. Jane Elliot. (Scott's Border Minstrelsy), vol. iii, pp. 335–7. 51 On an Infant Dying as soon as born, p. 184. Poetical Works of Charles Lamb. Fourth Edition, H. G. Bohn, 1841. 52 Hester, pp. 1-2. Ibid. 53 The Old Familiar Faces, pp. 15-16. Ibid. 54 The Falling Leaf. The Poetical Works of James Montgomery. Longmans, 1850, p. 321. 55 The Wife A-lost, pp. 155-6. Poems of Rural Life-in the Dorset Dialect-by William Barnes. Second collection. F. R. Smith, 1863. 56 Balder (Song), vol. ii, pp. 198-202. Poetical Works of Sydney Dobell, ed. J. Nichol. Smith, Elder & Co., 1875. 57 A Nuptial Eve (Keith of Ravelston), ibid., vol. i, pp. 372–3. 58 Echo, st. 1, Christina Rossetti, p. 80. Goblin Market and Other Poems. Macmillan, 1865. 59 Song, ibid., pp. 110-11, ibid. 60 Uphill, ibid., pp. 128–9, ibid. 61 Skipper Ireson's Ride. John Greenleaf Whittier, st. 8, pp. 274-6. Poetical Works. Macmillan, 1874. 62 To a Waterfowl. William Cullen Bryant (Poems, Collected by the Author. Liverpool, 1850). 63 Plaint. Ebenezer Elliott. More Verse and Prose by the Cornlaw Rhymer, vol. i, pp. 11-13. C. Fox, 1850. 64 To Night. Joseph Blanco White. Life, by Himself. Thom, 1845. Ed. J. H. 65 The Burial-March of Dundee, pp. 107-16. Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, by William Edmondstoune Aytoun. Blackwood, 1856. 66 The Wearing of the Green. Anon., p. 515. The Memory of the Dead, John Kells Ingram, pp. 63-4. The Groves of Blarney, R. A. Milliken, pp. 437-8. The Bells of Shandon, Francis Mahony, pp. 431–2. I'm not Myself at all, Samuel Lover, pp. 349-50. Irish Minstrelsy, by H. Halliday Sparling. W. Scott, 1888. 67 Harmosan, pp. 228-30, and To Poetry, st. 6, p. 282, and Richard Chenevix Trench. Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems. Parker & Son, 1862. 68 Shadows, II. Selections from the Poetical Works of Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton. John Murray, 1863. 69 Lays of Ancient Rome (The Battle of Lake Regillus), Thomas Babington Macaulay. Longmans, 1842. 70 Stevenson, The Little Land (A Child's Garden, IX, pp. 51-3). Works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Longmans, 1895. 71 Canadian Boat Song (see G. M. Fraser, Times Literary Supplement, Dec. 23, 1904, where it is mentioned that the song has been attributed variously to Professor Wilson, Lockhart, John Galt, and Lord Eglinton). CONCLUSIONS? FROM my first to my latest words on verse which is poetry, though, it may be, without a poet, I have had in my mind two questions. Consciously or unconsciously I have been asking myself: What then is Poetry?' and 'What makes a Poet?' I am unable to answer them yet to my own satisfaction. 6 I can enumerate the qualities which, single or several, never all together, unless perhaps in one superhuman case, I myself find in English verse. Fancy and Imagination, Form--or Style-, Stateliness, Passion, Charm, Mystery, Pathos, Atmosphere, and Spontaneity share among them whatever poetry is, in my judgement, entitled to be called great. Imagination and Fancy stand foremost; Imagination for the processes of reconstructing, anticipating, and prophesying; of setting Fancy in motion; Fancy, whether independently, or, after Imagination has done its work, and sometimes before, for seeing things under a changed aspect, the old as if they were new. The absence of Form is more readily noted than its presence. When the distinguishing characteristic, as of Ben Jonson as poet, of Herrick, Waller, Suckling, and Lovelace, it is almost identical with Style. It implies Selfrestraint, and Reserve. Frequently it has the happiness to be associated with too much of grandeur for it to be singled out as the writer's badge. Yet a poet may be illustrious without it; for Wordsworth is. Stateliness and Passion, necessities sometimes, otherwise are often out of place. We want no finer example of the former than Paradise Lost, and no worse than Night |