CHAPTER XVIII

THE LYRIC

However skilled the singer, quality and charm are inborn. Something of them, therefore, always graces the folk-songs of a peasantry, the ballads and songs, let us say, of Ireland and Scotland. Theirs is the wilding flavor which Lowell detects:

"Sometimes it is

A leafless wilding shivering by the wall;
But I have known when winter barberries
Pricked the effeminate palate with surprise

Of savor whose mere harshness seemed divine."

When to this the artist-touch is added, then the wandering, uncapturable movement of the pure lyric-more beautiful for its breaks and studied accidentals and most effective discordsis ravishing indeed: at last you have the poet's poetry that is supernal. Its pervading quintessence is like the sheen of flame upon a glaze in earth or metal. Form, color, sound, unite and in some mysterious way become lambent with delicate or impassioned meaning. Here beauty is most intense. Charm is the expression of its expression, the measureless under-vibration, the thrill within the thrill. We catch from its suggestion the very impulse of the lyrist; we are given the human tone, the light of the eye, the play of feature,—all, in fine, which shows the poet in the poem and makes it his and not another's.EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN, The Nature and Elements of Poetry.

A lyric originally meant a song fit to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre, but in modern usage it has come to have a broader meaning, for many lyrics are not songs at all. The lyric may be defined as any short,

spontaneous personal poem which is musical in form and expressive of a single complete idea.

The several points of this definition will need some explanation and illustration.

Characteristics of the Lyric

Brevity.-Poe probably had the lyric in mind when he made his famous dictum that there could not be a good long poem. Certainly it would be tiresome to prolong a personal poetic expression, and impossible to do so were the lyric properly confined to a highly unified theme. In nothing do young poets err more than in allowing their productions too great a length. For the purpose of determining current usage, it is decidedly worth while to make a careful study of the six or eight magazines which seek to print the best verse obtainable -and to keep well within the average length, which will be found to lie somewhere near sixteen lines.

Spontaneity and Personality.-As illustrating particularly these joint qualities, examine the following verses by Sir Richard Lovelace. They have been called a perfect lyric.

TO LUCASTA, ON GOING TO THE WARS

Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind

That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I flee.

True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;

And with a stronger faith embrace

A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Louise Imogen Guiney, herself a lyric poet of sweetness and power, in her "Footnote to a Famous Lyric" sings of the foregoing poem:

And till your strophe sweet and bold,

So lovely aye, so lonely long,

Love's self outdo, dear Lovelace! hold
The pinnacles of song.

Lovelace's charming lyric is not only supposed to express the author's personal feelings, but it expresses them in such a spontaneous manner as to make the poem seem an unpremeditated outburst of the heart. And indeed such has been the origin of many famous lyrics. In thinking of this most popular type of poetry this point must not be obscured-the lyric is, really or apparently, a spontaneous expression of one's self, just as dramatic poetry is an expression of the souls of others.

Musical Quality.-What other forms so ever may be rough and irregular, the prosperity of the lyric lies so largely in its melodious flow that music has fixed its very

name.

After our studies thus far, it will be patent that the musical qualities of the lyric live in a collocation of smoothsounding words, grouped in lines of flowing rhythm— that is, pleasing sounds in pleasing motion.

Tennyson greatly admired the music of Burns's lyric quoted below, and said he wished that he had written it.

MY HEART'S IN THE HIGHLANDS

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go.

Though the lyric must be musical, it need not necessarily be rhymed. This Tennyson proved in his famous songs in "The Princess": "Come down O maid," "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white," "O Swallow, Swallow," and the following:

TEARS, IDLE TEARS

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair

Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,

In looking on the happy autumn fields,

And thinking of the days that are no more.

Lamb's "The Old, Familiar Faces," is another beautiful example of the unrhymed lyric.

Unity. A careful examination of the lyrical verse thus far quoted will be enough to show how unified and

complete the lyric must be. To introduce complexity is to deprive it of one of its charms—simplicity.

A good lyric is probably the most exquisite and poignant example of the poet's art, but although it is difficult to write good ones, it is unfortunately only too easy to write bad ones. Perhaps, though, it is not really difficult to write good ones, but rather, as Victor Hugo said, “Either very easy, or impossible."

EXERCISES FOR CLASS USE AND SELF-INSTRUCTION

NOTE: The student should copy or clip from books and magazines and caily papers lyrics that appeal to him, collecting them in a scrap book for study and reference. Memorize the best lyrics of Shakespeare, Lovelace, Shelley, Keats, Burns and other masters of the art. Later, give attention to present-day lyrists.

I.

Put in writing your own definition of a lyric.

2. What is the radical difference between lyrical and dramatic poetry?

3. Name a lyric that you are fond of and, so far as possible, analyze its charm for you.

4. Write with all the care possible-lyrics upon variations of the new-old themes of love, and springtide joy, striving to make each poem definite and simple, and do not run the gamut of the passions within the limits. of a single lyric. Keep your lyric short, and when you have polished it until you see no fault in it, put it away and forget it-later, begin the process of polishing anew. 5. Make a list of three original lyric themes.

6. Select one, and write a lyric. Aim at compression and perfection, writing quickly under inspiration, but