verse is that in him which has been most consciously and successfully copied, his greater contribution to the technique of English poetry, by which he must always retain a historic place in the development of his art, can be found only in his lyrical metresabove all in Maud. Mr. Coventry Patmore pointed out (in the Edinburgh Review) that here an artist had definitely returned to the Anglo-Saxon principle of dividing the verse into bars of equal time-value, which the poet filled up at will, without the obligation to make any type of foot preponderate. "In the greater part of Maud," he wrote, "there is really no other metrical foundation than equality of the number of accents in each verse." Tennyson, as he points out, employs rhyme which was unknown to the Anglo-Saxons, but employs it as a thing of secondary value, spacing the rhymes often at immense distances. Alliteration, again, he uses, though not as the Anglo-Saxons did, on a fixed principle; but with the increasing number of long words, each having its accent fixed, there is no such need to mark the stress, as was felt in the monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon. In a word, the metre of Maud is a metre which can dispense with rhyme, and may be compared to the Homeric hexameter, but is freer from fixed law. Such a metre can be handled with wonderful effect by a fine artist, and the precedent set was caught up by Mr. Swinburne, who drew from the language harmonies richer and more varied than had been heard before. Tennyson himself, after the day of Maud, adhered mainly to better marked rhythms; but to the end of his life he was always capable of infinite and subtle variations of metre. His skill was never more nobly shown than in the rare music of his Ode to Virgil, from which may be quoted two lines applicable not unfitly to himself, Thou that singest wheat and woodland, tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd, All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word. And it is present in full measure even in the last poem of all-the Silent Voices, which he dictated while half articulate on his death-bed, interweaving alliteration, varying the pauses, swelling the vowel sounds, up to the solemn close; as some skilled fencer might thrust and parry with unfailing grace and accuracy, though with flagging forces, while life ebbed from his veins. INDEX Abbotsford, built by Sir Absalom and Achitophel, 142. Act of Oblivion, 111. Adonais, 363, 364, 365-369. Affliction of Margaret, The, Annus Mirabilis, 141. Arcadia, 23, 49, 83. Argument against Abolishing Armour, Jean, Burns' wife, Arnold, Matthew, 148-149, 208, As you like it, 52, 65. Augusta, Byron's half-sister, Auld Wat of Harden, 289. 283; Mansfield Park, 283, Bacon, Sir Francis, 84-88, 148, Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 85. Bard, The, 207, 208. Bath, Miss Austen's stay in, Battle of the Books, 184, 186. 69-70, 71, 74, 75, 77; Lines Bee, The, Goldsmith's tributions to, 241. Beeching, Canon, 394. Beggar's Opera, 183. con- Belle Dame sans Merci, La, 375, 378. Beppo, 317. Bentley, Richard, 185. Berkeley, Lord, Viceroy of Bible, authorized version of Blackwood's Magazine, 372, Blake, William, 257-258, 271- Songs of Experience, 273; Bleak House, 385. Blenheim, Battle of, 163. Boileau, 136, 139, 163, 171. Book of Martyrs, 129. Boswell's Life of Johnson, 153, Boyle, Robert, Lord Orrery, Brawne, Miss, engagement to Bride of Abydos, 313. Bride of Lammermoor, 303. Bronte, Charlotte, 225; Criti- Broome, Dr. William, 179. 152. Bull, Rev. Mr., 274. Burbadge, Richard, 44. Burney, Fanny, 281-282. Byron, Lord, life and work, 295; Cadenus and Vanessa; 190. Cambridge, Byron at, 310; Canterbury, Chaucer's visit Canterbury Tales, 8-20, 21, Carlyle, Thomas, life and Carlyle, Mrs., 395, 396. Caxton, William, 27. Celtic language in Ireland and middle of eighteenth century, 255. Cenci, The, 362. Chalfont St. Giles, Milton's stay at, 111. |