CXC 'BREAK, BREAK, BREAK' Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! O well for the fisherman's boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! O well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill! But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand, Break, break, break, At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead A. Lord Tennyson End of the Golden Treasury Second Series PAGE NO. I 8 9 12 17 19 I NOTES IN this and a certain number of other poems portions, large or small, have been omitted (as in the earlier volume) where the piece could be thus brought, it is hoped, to a closer lyrical unity: or where the immensely increased length of the Victorian lyrics (as stated in the Preface) outran the limited space. 7 clote, water-lily: tuns, chimneys. Paladore, old traditional name for Shaftes- 10 This, with other poems in the same style 12 16 Emmie. 'It should be remembered that this is a little drama, in which the Hospital Nurse, not the Poet, is supposed to be speaking throughout. The two children, whose story was published in a Parish magazine, are the 256 PAGE NO. only characters here described from actual life': (written on the authority of A. T., 1884). 19 16 St. I oorali, also curari and woorali: a drug extracted from Strychnos toxifera: It acts by paralyzing the nerves of motion, whilst the sensitiveness remains unimpaired. In its sweet simplicity worthy of Blake's Songs of Innocence. 23 17 24 19 The poems by Robert Browning are here reprinted by permission of his son R. Barrett Browning, and of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. 25 20 Clare, born and bred in a day-labourer's cottage, struggling with bitterest poverty, by these experiences became a poet of the poor in an almost unique sense. His mind failed, and the best of his verse (to which all our examples belong) was in truth written during lucid intervals, while he was confined in an asylum. It has hence an almost unapproachable sadness; he reverts always with pathetic yearning to the village scenes of a youth, which now shone before him like a vision of lost happiness. 32 26 It is in his command of pathos (witness Nos. 12 and 15), in his exquisite precision of language, his perfect art, that Charles seems to resemble his next younger brother Alfred. This sonnet exemplifies his curious skill in painting, and almost animating into life, the mechanical appliances of the farm. In the last six lines he refers to Vergil, thinking of the 34 27 arbuteae crates et mystica vannus Iacchi, and the picture of the plough which follows: (Georg. 1, 166). Was it: For this skilfully written passage Arnold refers us to ll. 465-485 in the Birds of Aristophanes. But he was most indebted to the splendid dithyrambic ode, 11. 685 PAGE NO. 723. Arnold's affectionate interest and insight into the animal world is well shown in this (and other) poems, written near the close of his too brief lifetime. 34 28 The Clarence is a small river in the northern part of New South Wales. - This fine poem might be called an Australian Yarrow Unvisited. The writer presently says, The slightest glimpse of yonder place Might wholly kill that nameless grace, He was himself Australian; his life short and unhappy.—This poem, with a few others, is taken from that useful and interesting collection, The Poets and the Poetry of the Century, edited by Mr. A. H. Miles. 36 29 St. 5 And the flower in soft explosion: when the seed is ripe for fertilizing and the anthers burst. One who knew the poet well writes, His love for and observation of Nature was extraordinary from earliest childhood,' and was expanded by his employment in the Natural History province of the British Museum. Arthur O'Shaughnessy's metrical gift seems to me the finest, after Tennyson's, of any of our later poets: he has a haunting music all his own. Within a narrow range of interests and experience, he is also high in pure passionate imagination: he has to the full the Ecstasy which Plato requires in the true poet: although wasted too often in fanciful extravagance and a gloom due to personal misfortune. - Among our Victorian poets, he and William Barnes, I will venture the opinion, have met with the least due recognition of their eminent powers. 37 30 L. 5 Trophonian pallor: Refers to a caveoracle at Lebadaea in Bocotia so gloomy and |