that young men are not wholly bad and may generally be judiciously treated with respect and confidence.

Whoever shall contribute to bring about this generous system at Yale, will earn for himself something of that affectionate veneration which we all associate with the name of "dear old Dr. Arnold of Rugby."

TOWNSEND PRIZE ESSAY.

Tennyson. His characteristics as a Poet.

BY HORACE WEBSTER FOWLER, UTICA, N. Y.

TRUTH, beautified by fancy, intensfied by passion, resplendent with imagination, constitutes the highest poetry. All the beauty, all the intensity, all the splendor, find their true value in exalting and impressing the truth; and fancy, passion and imagination are infinitely degraded, when forced to lend delusive charms to the untrue. And while there are hearts to feel deeply, minds to think earnestly, error to be overthrown, truth to maintain; while men are oppressed and oppressors, poetry shall find its highest office, and be the most powerful instrument in elevating and purifying the world. The poet is more than the representative man. He not only receives a character from his age, but he gives its character to it. The great poet is the leader of his age; its most universal instructor; its wisest and most faithful teacher;

"And bravely furnished all abroad to fling

The winged shafts of truth."

We claim for Alfred Tennyson a place among great poets. Possessed of a keenly metaphysical mind, he is a worthy example of that late school which devotes itself to the solution of the darkest questions in human philosophy. It is here that he has exposed himself to the severest attacks.

It is charged that the truth he would evolve is often obscure, and sometimes altogether hidden; but it may well be doubted whether the

fault is not more with the reader than with the poet; for many of those poems which at first appeared so dark, after study glow with light, and the words that seemed so empty, come laden with the richest thought. They who would receive the benefit of Tennyson's hard study, must prove themselves worthy, by their careful attention. There is a deep suggestiveness in his poetry, which no mere surface reading can manage to sound. And there is especial value in such poetry, for it not only transmits the thought of another, but it is the fountain of thought. In the Lotes Eaters, the deep repose is not broken, the false philosophy is not answered, yet none the less bright appears the truth, that it is vile

"To rust unburnished; not to shine în use

As though to breathe were life !"

And throughout his poems the gravest questions are started, and we are put in the way of truth, rarely led as thoughtless followers through all the shining path.

While Tennyson's thought is strong, and that of an earnest man, his feeling is never blindly violent, but strong with reason and governed by it, it comes from the innermost soul, deep and intense. It is manly passion, not ungoverned emotion. We are conscious of the struggle of the passions, but we are also conscious that they are held subject to the reason and the will. We feel the tremendous force that is held in reserve. It is the giving away of one that would not yield, and is therefore to the violent ranting of others what the weeping of a man is to the crying of a child. This is manifest, even in the burning passion of Locksley Hall; and in Arthur's farewell to Guinevere, while all the emotions that stir the noble master of the Round Table, are represented with marvellous power, and while we feel that the king's soul is agitated to its deepest depths, we yet recognize the workings of the strong will that checks all violent outbursts; and the manly power that enables him to say, while yet thinking of his love betrayed and ruined hopes, "Lo! I forgive thee as Eternal God forgives."

In representing the softer passions he has been equally successful. How sacred, how noble is his sorrow at Arthur Hallam's death. In delineating the sweetest passion that moves us, how delicately pure, how elevating does he make love to be. He makes us believe that there is

Not only to keep down the base in man

But teach high thought and amiable words,

And courtliness and the desire of fame

And love of truth and all that makes the man."

Undoubtedly the prime essential to the poet is imagination. This is the most Godlike of our intellectual endowments. It is akin to that power by which we believe the Omniscient, without reasoning, knows all things-the intuitive perception of truth, which makes the poet always the philosopher. It is the unifying power, and therein is beyond fancy, which stops with comparing. To the fancy objects are alike; in the imagination they are the same. Fancy is cold, while imagination is charged with feeling and passion. It is the animating soul of reason. With a word it reveals the truth, and flashes light through darkness. Tennyson, certainly beyond any other modern poet, posseses this faculty. Most beautifully does his imagination present to us pictures from nature, whether they be of a neglected garden plot, or of that "Vale in Ida, lovelier than all the valleys of Ionian hills."

In every sphere, his imagination is fertile and fervent, from that sweetest line, itself a poem,

"The star-like sorrows of immortal eyes,"

to that bold verse

.6

Behind the valley topmost, Gargarus
Stands up and takes the morning."

Tennyson's versatility, too, is worthy of remark. It is not the fickleness of a mind that knows not where to rest. It is the strength of the oak that, taking deep, enduring root, shoots forth its branches in every direction. It is evidence of that same power that enabled Shakspeare to give us the fairy fancies of "The Midsummer Night's Dream," and the dark horrors of Macbeth; which made Milton the author of L'Allegro, and of Paradise Lost. So, too, it is one man who has told of the "golden prime of good Haroun Alraschid," with a magnificence of diction and a beauty of imagery that more than equals our most oriental dreams; and has told the story of Dora with the severest simplicity. In the "In Memoriam," he has written the noblest elegy that ever enshrined undying sorrow, or ever hallowed a dead friend's memory; while in the "Talking Oak" and "Miller's Daughter," he has clothed pure love with the lightest fancy and the brightest thought. There is tender pathos in the "May Queen," and righteous, fierce indignation in "Locksley Hall" and "Maud." He has written ballads and songs with exqusite delicacy of expression

and beauty of versification; and he has shown the power of an epic poet in the "Morte D'Arthur" and "Idyls of the king." Yet in all this variety he has never shown himself a bungler in his art; but rarely has he touched what he has not adorned.

Another evidence of his power is found in the perfect adaptation of his diction and versification to the subject which he treats. There is the luxuriance of words which pervades the "Recollections of the Arabian Nights;" and the plain Anglo-Saxon, which so befits the narration of the legends of the Round Table, he uses with such masterly skill, in the Idyls of the king," that it would be vain to seek his equal among poets who have written since the English language has assumed its modern character. It has also developed the full capabilities of the metres he has employed. So skilfully has he used them, that his deepest thought and lightest fancies, the outpouring of his sorrow, his wrath and his love, often find perfect expression in the same metre. And this skill is the result of the care with which Tennyson always composes. He takes no other than the exact word which will everyway express his meaning, and then puts it in its proper place. Seaching through the language, he often revives a beautiful word, which had almost been lost; and he forces our stiff English into compounds, which, if not always happy, often produce a most graceful effect. He does not claim the name of a fast writer, or of an impromptu poet, but his works are the product of careful, anxious elaboration. He spent twenty years in writing the "In Memoriam," and the result is, that by word and metre he has conveyed to us the full burthen of his sorrow; and has raised a monument that shall make Arthur Hallam's name immortal, and shall secure the author's fame forever.

We have now briefly noticed some of the characteristics which, possessed so largely by Mr. Tennyson, make him worthy to rank as a great poet; let us see how he has made these gifts valuable to his age, by developing truths and inculcating lessons worthy of the poet's

art.

Beginning his career as a poet with a high notion of the dignity and power of his art, we believe Mr. Tennyson has labored conscientiously and well to fulfill his ideal. The turmoil and fierce conflict which attended the times of the French Revolution has given way to calmer thought and calmer reason, but there still remains among thinking minds the earnestness, the honest seeking after truth aud progress, of which that great upbreaking was the precursor and preparation. There are everywhere attempts at reform, a desire to overthrow evil and inaugarate good, little respect for antiquity, and a hearty hatred of old iniquities,-a spirit sometimes bearing fruit in noble projects for

the welfare of mankind; sometimes springing up in visionary theories which, proceeding from honest hearts, yet threaten to destroy the dearest edifices of our civilization. But, with so much that is noble, there is much evil; and one pervading, absorbing vice is ever opposing the progress of the world, commanding it to stand still. Every worthy project, every progressive reform is measured by a golden standard. Every door is barred with gold and opens but to golden keys."

The poet of this age, to fill well his part, needs no common judgment and wisdom. From the infinite diversity of theories and opinions, he must select the good and reject the evil. In the endless varieties of reforms and projects, he must uphold the right and bear down the wrong; his voice must be upraised against the iniquities of the land, and be heard in behalf of its downcast and oppressed. Alfred Tennyson is another example, showing how large an ingredient common sense is in the character of a great poet. A poet of hope and of the future-one

"That held it better men should perish one by one

Than earth stand still at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon."

he has not yielded to the fanatic theories which lure so many poets on to ruin; nor has he indulged in idle dreams of impossible ideals and a golden future; but gladly rejoicing in the world's progress, earnestly watching for a happier time, he is still intent upon the present and its possibilities, that through them he may reach forward to that happy "golden year." He preaches what we may accomplish, not what we may dream. By present action, by honest labor we do our part

"And well I know

That unto him that works and feels he works

This same grand year is ever at the door."

But especially is he strong in the denunciation of the tyranny of wealth. All the sympathies of his heart are given to the oppressed poor; and the vials of his wrath are opened and poured out against the “ narrowing lust of gold."

Tennyson has made the world better by his pictures of female character. He seems endowed with Shakespeare's versatility and Spenser's grace in delineating them. Each description is perfect, and each character is distinct in its individuality, yet all-womanly. He has raised the ideal of woman; and through him she becomes like Godiva, " clothed on with chastity;" like the Prince's mother, "all dipt in Angel instincts, breathing Paradise."