登陆注册
5381700000011

第11章 Lanier's Poetry: Its Style(2)

As we have already seen, Lanier sometimes fails in clearness, or, more precisely, in simplicity.This comes partly from infelicitous sentence-construction, partly, perhaps, from Lanier's extraordinary musical endowment, but chiefly, I think, from over-luxuriance of imagination.But this occasional defect has been unduly exaggerated.Thus Mr.Gosse1 declares that Lanier is "never simple, never easy, never in one single lyric natural and spontaneous for more than one stanza," -- a statement so clearly hyperbolic as hardly to call for notice.As a matter of fact, Lanier has written numerous poems that offer little or no difficulty to the reader of average intelligence, as `Life and Song', `My Springs', `The Symphony', `The Mocking-Bird', `The Song of the Chattahoochee', `The Waving of the Corn', `The Revenge of Hamish', `Remonstrance', `A Ballad of Trees and the Master', etc.More than this, Lanier at times manifests the simplicity that is granted only to genius of the highest order: thus an English critic,2who by the way declares that Lanier's volume has more of genius than all the poems of Poe, or Longfellow, or Lowell (the humorous poems excepted), and who considers Lanier the most original of all American poets, and more original than any England has produced for the last thirty years, says that "nothing can be more perfect than --`The whole sweet round Of littles that large life compound,'"3lines in `My Springs', and that "the touch of wonder in the last two lines,`I marvel that God made you mine, For when he frowns, 'tis then ye shine,'4is as simple and exquisite as any touch of tenderness in our literature."I frankly admit that several of Lanier's best poems, as `Corn', `The Marshes of Glynn', and `Sunrise', are not simple;but the same thing is true of Milton's `Paradise Lost' and of Browning's `The Ring and the Book', and yet this fact does not exclude these two works from the list of great poems.Mr.Gosse, however, declares that `Corn', `Sunrise', and `The Marshes of Glynn' "simulate poetic expression with extraordinary skill.But of the real thing, of the genuine traditional article, not a trace"! What do these poems show, then?

Mr.Gosse answers: "I find a painful effort, a strain and rage, the most prominent qualities in everything he wrote;" which strikes me as the reverse of the facts.In one of his letters5 to Judge Bleckley, Lanier wrote this sentence: "My head and my heart are both so full of poems which the dreadful struggle for bread does not give me time to put on paper, that I am often driven to headache and heartache, purely for want of an hour or two to hold a pen." If, then, he committed an error (and I am far from considering him faultless), it was not that he beat and spurred on Pegasus, but that he failed to rein him in.Still, I repeat that I prefer the embarrassment of riches to the embarrassment of poverty.Finally, just as Milton tells us that the music of the spheres is not to be heard by the gross, unpurged ear, so I believe that many intelligent ears and eyes are at first too gross to hear and see what Lanier puts before them, whereas a bit of patient listening and looking reveals delights hitherto undreamed of.

1 See `Bibliography'.

2 `The Spectator' (London); see `Bibliography'.

3 `My Springs', ll.49-50.

4 `My Springs', ll.55-56.

5 It is to be hoped that these letters may yet be published.

I quote from one dated November 15, 1874.

同类推荐
  • 评金刚錍

    评金刚錍

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 百越先贤志

    百越先贤志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 双砚斋词话

    双砚斋词话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 盛世危言

    盛世危言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Stories Of The Supernatural

    Stories Of The Supernatural

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 离无韵

    离无韵

    一生中总会遇见那么两个人,一个惊艳了时光,一个温暖了岁月。春秋战国,诸侯争霸,百家争鸣。墨门孤女离无韵,满门被灭之时为楚国令尹习仁君所救,自幼在越国小贤庄由当世大儒简况抚养长大。楚公子柯、吴公子皙,青梅竹马与年少初遇,情窦初开与情有独钟,小小女子兰心慧质,却逃不过命运多舛,终是在没顶绝望中削肉还越、削骨还楚……“离儿,古人常说:凡天下大事,分久必合合久必分,这宿命就没法解开?”“有啊!民为贵,社稷次之,君为轻。诛一独夫纣,未闻臣弑君。君有大过则谏,谏之不听则易其位!”
  • 念朝曦

    念朝曦

    我总以为,那一年,是我人生中最灰暗的一年,直到后来……
  • 异度

    异度

    你相信世界是真实的吗?你做过梦吗?你是否在某一刻突然觉得场景是如此的熟悉,就仿佛经历过一般?思想是一种力量,在它存在的每一秒,我们都能永垂不朽。区别只在于,我们是思想的主人,还是奴隶。 ------------------------- 小刀的战斗类小说,一如既往的暴力风格。
  • 世界最具震撼性的战争故事(2)

    世界最具震撼性的战争故事(2)

    我的课外第一本书——震撼心灵阅读之旅经典文库,《阅读文库》编委会编。通过各种形式的故事和语言,讲述我们在成长中需要的知识。
  • 完美少年进化论

    完美少年进化论

    每天名牌傍身,背景深不可测的奢侈品小姐伊原千,以她无所不通的天才成为时尚传奇,不料却被一个神秘美少年揭穿苦心经营的伪贵族“画皮”。发誓报复的她力挫无数高人,成为蔷薇庄园的首席家教,帮首富调教三个无比闪亮却无比腹黑的极品美男:高深莫测,却以败家为乐趣的花心大少纪寒城;出身高贵,审美却恶俗廉价,以成当红“男公关”为毕生目标的二少纪宸希;容貌绝美,却以“爱因斯坦”造型示人的废柴三少纪允灿。四个高智商“演技派”在相处中斗智斗勇,上演精彩纷呈的同居笑料。改造狼少年的家教生涯里,伊原千究竟是能成功驯服这三只狼,还是被狼吃干抹净,这是一个甜蜜而危险的问题……
  • 鬼王爷的呆萌妃

    鬼王爷的呆萌妃

    【本文属于男强女强!一对一!,绝对宠文!】古武世家夜月舞在接任掌门之位的短短几天时间内竟然穿越到一个不受宠,而且还痴傻的小姐身上,本身有着倾国倾城的容颜却被人陷害成为丑陋不堪,武学奇才被人说成废柴,看一个废柴如何在以武为尊的大陆崛起。契神兽,炼元丹,欠我的统统还回来。腹黑狡诈的鬼王轩辕绝一生只痴缠于她,为她受伤,为她送命,在一次次的危险中不知是谁折服了谁。风云变化的大陆,两者携手走向大陆的顶端,为彼此创造自由的天空。精彩片段你在干嘛,某男愤愤的看着夜月舞说,亲你,走开啦,没看见我在喂奶啊,我也要吃,滚,否则今晚没得吃,某男灰溜溜的走了。……………………………………………………………爹,娘把你的南海大珍珠磨碎了,说要美容,某小男孩眨着两个大眼睛说道。随她,某男头都没抬一下。爹,娘把那株千年结一次果的树烧掉炼丹了。随她。爹,妹妹说想跟哥哥一样出去玩。派人暗中保护。爹,娘说宫内太无聊了,出去走一走。某男嗖的一下就不见了。小男孩对着旁边的一个长得跟自己一模一样的小女孩说道,“跟你说了在爹心里,娘是最重要的,你还不信!”然后就看见小男孩从窗户内飞了出来,这次比之前的几次好像飞的更高,更远了。少宫主的武功又长进了,不知道这次多长时间回来,路人甲暗自叹息!他身边有青龙呢,放心好了。可怜的少宫主啊路人乙感叹道!
  • 狐妖找上门

    狐妖找上门

    【寡言高能忠狐与话唠终极女汉的萌爱纯恋故事!】【甜!作者不会写虐文!】突然有一天安心的身体里寄住了一只疗伤的狐妖女王,于是她的美男白狐护卫白瑟时刻在她周围美其名曰护其周全。每到安心睡着时她的身体都不是自己的,甚至还要代替在她体内的女王去参加狐王换届大会挽回地位;可是美男护卫的确替她打了周围伺机而动的小狐妖等一众小怪兽,在女王恢复的过程中她甚至还能使用一些狐妖能力,并且时刻有忠犬美男护卫任她耍……罢了罢了,就让女王寄住到她恢复吧……然而事情,似乎并不那么简单……【安心:“如果注定是这样的结局,我选择最爱你的方式……”;白瑟:“你可以利用我,但绝不能伤害她。”】
  • 文学与戏曲(和谐教育丛书)

    文学与戏曲(和谐教育丛书)

    本书从我国古代的神话与仙话开始,介绍了文学戏曲产生的背景和经过,以详实的历史记录和客观的文字笔调书写了文学戏曲的种类、内容,给读者展开一幅全面而生动的总览图。
  • 医妃有毒:殿下,请入瓮

    医妃有毒:殿下,请入瓮

    "被人下毒,卖入春花楼,为保清誉自尽而亡。一朝魂灭,浴火重生。得高人相助,才得以回到秦家。奈何三妹陷害,被父逼婚,秦家再无她的容身之处,庶妹骄横跋扈,主母黑白不分。是他们先不慈,就别怪她不仁,所有欠她的,她都会讨回来!为了复仇,她不得不同意嫁给被冷落的三皇子,以求合作,却不料……"--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 斜风

    斜风

    历史在1855年走向未知,是赤潮席卷新世界,还是依旧无法把握命运,柳畅在斜风中前行英雄血,美人泪,自信人生两百年,会当击水三千里,我能改变的不仅仅是历史而已紫钗恨2012架空历史新作