The Poet's Poet by Elizabeth Atkins
page 141 of 367 (38%)
page 141 of 367 (38%)
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barmaids, as to the liquor they dispense. But this is mere bravado, as
much of his other verse shows. Byron's case, also, is a doubtful one. The element of discontent is all that elevates his amours above the "swinish trough," which Alfred Austin asserts them to be. [Footnote: In _Off Mesolonghi_.] Yet, such as his idealism is, it constitutes the strength and weakness of his poetical gift. Landor well says, [Footnote: In _Lines To a Lady_.] Although by fits so dense a cloud of smoke Puffs from his sappy and ill-seasoned oak, Yet, as the spirit of the dream draws near, Remembered loves make Byron's self sincere. The puny heart within him swells to view, The man grows loftier and the poet too. Ideal love is most likely to become articulate in the sonnet sequence. The Platonic theory of love and beauty, ubiquitous in renaissance sonnets, is less pretentiously but no less sincerely present in the finest sonnets of the last century. The sense that the beauty of his beloved is that of all other fair forms, the motive of Shakespeare's Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts Which I by lacking have supposed dead, is likewise the motive of Rossetti's _Heart's Compass_, Sometimes thou seemest not as thyself alone, But as the meaning of all things that are; A breathless wonder, shadowing forth afar Some heavenly solstice, hushed and halcyon, |
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