"My conversation is slow and dull; my humour saturine and reserved; in short, I am none of those who endeavour to break jests in company, or make reparties." --Dryden
This quote mirrors the style with which Dryden, arguably the greatest poet of the Restoration, wrote most of his poetry and prose. He adhered firmly to the new standard of writing which favored good taste, moderation, and Greek and Latin classics as models. The period in which Dryden wrote can be classified as "neoclassical" or "Augustan" because it had been influenced by Rome's first emperor, Augustus Caesar (Norton 1774). The Augustan Age of Rome was the model English poets used to describe the peace and stability of England following their own civil wars. English culture now began to shift away from Renaissance thought and toward a new, more simplistic manner.
John Dryden was born on August 9, 1631, the first of fourteen children. He attained an A.B. in 1654 and by 1668 was made poet laureate by the King because of his talent as both poet and playwright (Norton 1787). In 1682, he declared himself Anglican, however when James II took the throne in 1685, Dryden and his sons converted to Roman Catholicism. Dryden lost his poet laureateship, when William and Mary took the throne in 1689, to a Protestant named Shadwell (Dryden hypertext).
What is Dryden's writing like? His prose-easy, lucid, plain, and shaped to the cadences of natural speech. "His poems represent the superbly civilized language of the Augustan style at its best: dignified, unaffected, precise, and always musical-a noble instrument of public speech" (Norton 1788). Dryden wrote poems, odes, and songs in a language that flowed and in which everyone could understand. His writing was praised by Johnson for its apparent artlessness: "every word seems to drop by chance through it falls into its proper place" (Norton 1788). Much of Dryden's poetry follows conventions of the heroic couplet which is a unit of two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter, generally end stopped (Encarta CD ROM).
An example of this style is evident in his "Ode To the Pious Memory of the accomplished young lady, Mrs. Anne Killegrew, excellent in the two sister arts of Poesy and Painting." In this ode, he uses a slightly higher diction in which to elevate her status beyond that of other humans. In the first stanza he writes, "Whatever happy region is thy place,/ Cease thy celestial song a little space;/ Thou wilt have time enough for hymns diving,/ Since Heaven's eternal year is thine" (1). Using ethereal and celestial imagery, Dryden conveys that Anne Killegrew was not an ordinary human when she was living, just as now, in death, her soul is comparable to angels and muses.
In keeping with the style of Greek and Latin classics, Dryden makes reference to Epictetus, the philosopher who emphasized freedom, morality, and humanity. His philosophy was centered around the theory that humans are basically irrational and limited, but the universe, ruled by God through pure reason, is perfect. A main concern to this philosophy was morality as defining goodness. (Encarta CD ROM). This example relates to Anne Killegrew because Dryden comments on the purity of her morals. "Her morals, too, were in her bosom bred,/ By great examples daily fed,/ What in the best of books, her fathers life, she read" (1). Comparing a woman with a great philosopher could be another example of Dryden elevating the status of Anne Killegrew beyond that of a human.
The poem, "One Happy Moment" and "Hidden Flame" each deal with the concept of human emotion. Each referring to the love between a man and a woman. In "One Happy Moment," the poetic voice explains the love he feels for a woman and how it can only be eternal in death. Humans are only alive for a certain amount of time and must live their lives with the knowledge that even in death, love remains constant. Although some people fear death, it is the "One Happy Moment" for the poetical voice. His happiest moment will be realized by death. To emphasize the depth of his emotion, Dryden writes, "I can die with her, but not live without her" (2).
In "Hidden Flame," Dryden writes from a female perspective, keeping reason above emotion throughout the poem. The woman refuses to reveal her true feelings to the man she loves. Dryden uses an interesting sentence in the second stanza: "Yet he, for whom I grieve, shall never know it" (3). Choosing to write the word "grieve," a word usually used to describe sorrow or sadness about a death, gives the reader further insight into the woman's emotional being. She is clearly upset that she can not tell the man how she feels, but is content in the knowledge that her love will go unrequited.
In "A Song For St. Cecelia's Day," Dryden is paying homage to the patron saint of music. It is said that St. Cecelia sang to God in her heart. "The music associated with her is that of an angelic visitation or of the whole cosmological order within which the passions are played on as the variety of instruments, both man himself as he is swept by the music of universal forces and man-made music issuing from the flawed implements of his own making" (Hoffman 153). This song was written with a higher diction yet it retains an element of simplicity. It is a very religious poem which begins with the creation of the universe and man. The poetical voice is describing how mortal men created musical instruments but are in search of a Divine musician.
Dryden writes of the god, Orpheus. He was given a lyre by Apollo and when he played and sang, it is said that all things, both animate and inanimate moved. Music has the power to move everything but humans are limited. Praise is given to St. Cecelia when we read, "But bright Cecelia rais'd the wonder higher:/ When to her organ vocal breath was given,/ An angel heard and straight appear'd/ Mistaking Earth for Heaven" (2). St. Cecelia is the only one who could make music beautiful enough for ethereal beings. Even on judgment day, music will live on throughout eternity.
The poetry of John Dryden is clearly the driving force behind Restoration literature. "He is not at all the solitary, subjective poet listening to the murmur of his own voice and preoccupied with his own personal view of experience, but rather a citizen of the world commenting publicly on matters of public concern" (Norton 1786). Dryden established a new order in prose and poetry that would last well into the early nineteenth century. His use of language, metrical form, and wit makes his writing accessible to generations.
Works Cited
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton & Company., Inc. 1968.
Writers and Their Background: John Dryden. Ed. Earl Miner. Ohio University Press. 1972.
Encarta- CD ROM
http://ernie.bgsu.edu/%7E.../publick/dryden.html
Charles Sackville, the sixth Earl of Dorset, was one of the least productive, but by no means the least gifted, of the Restoration poets. Supposedly born in 1638, (a few books claim he might have been born in 1643), Sackville received the title of Lord Buckhurst in 1652 when his father inherited the title Earl of Dorset. Sackville's education included a few years at Westminister School, some time in France with a tutor, and a tour of Europe. He eventually returned to England soon after the Restoration.
Sackville collaborated with Sir Charles Sedley in a translation of a tragedy of Cornielle, which was produced in 1663. In 1665, Sackville served under the Duke of York at sea in the great naval victory of the English over the Dutch on June 3rd, 1665. He inherited the earldom of Dorset in 1677. In Sackville's later years, he became the patron of William Wycherley, John Dryden, and Matthew Prior. He died at Bath on January 19th, 1706. He wrote satirical pieces, lyrics, and ballads, such as "Song Written at Sea, In the First Dutch War," which is his most famous piece.
"Song Written at Sea" is a traditional ballad consisting of eleven stanzas; however, the ballad stanza form, which is a quatrain in alternate four- and three-stress iambic lines with usually only the second and fourth lines rhyming, is slightly altered. Each stanza begins with a quatrain and alternates iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter while rhyming abab. The quatrain is then followed by an octosyllabic couplet, consisting of a pair of rhymed lines with a total of eight syllables in four iambic feet. A refrain that is repeated without change is the seventh and/or last line of each of the eleven stanzas. Every line of the delightful ballad is touched with wit, showing off Sackville's satirical image.
Sackville uses the plural pronouns We and Our. The narrator explains how all the men aboard the ship want to write to their women at home, but it is hard to write anything with all the turmoil they are going through because of the war, so these men call upon the Muses and Neptune to help them. Although the group of men feel this way, it seems only one narrator is "communicating" with the reader. The men know with the help of the Muses, the goddesses of poetic expression and arts, they will have no trouble writing; however, if Neptune makes the wind blow and the ocean rough, it will be impossible for them to write to the ladies.
The narrator explains that even if the ladies don't receive many letters, there is nothing to worry about. It does not mean the men aren't thinking about them or that they should move on to another man. The man will send their tears faster than the post, "Our tears we'll send a speedier way, The tide shall bring them twice a day-" (ll.19-20). The men will cry so much to show their sorrow because they are not there with their women that "the king with wonder and surprise/ Will swear the seas grow bold, Because the tides will higher rise/ Than ever they did of old" (ll 22-25). If the Dutch only knew how forlorn the men were, they wouldn't even want to be at war with "so weak a foe". It does not matter to the men what happens as long as they know their ladies at home are faithful and "kind". The men realize they gain honor while at sea, but lack happiness. They explain how they fear their ladies will want another man if they go to a play, and want the women to think about their plight at sea. The men hope the women feel pity for them after hearing the song, and that the women haven't changed their feelings of love or become fickle because the men are constantly dealing with the sea changing its moods and finally want something stable in their lives.
The refrain, "With a fa, la, la, la, la," gives a sense of false happiness similar to the fake excitement in "Deck the Halls". The outer emotion of happiness is symbolically there, but the inner agreeable sensations of happiness are lacking. The use of the refrain shows Sackville's use of satire, for instance, in the eighth stanza, why would you be "fa, la, la"ing if your love was flirting with another man?!
Another poem by Sackville in the collection is "Dorinda". Dorinda is said to be based on Sir Charles Sedley's daughter, Katherine. "Dorinda" is a short piece, only two stanzas. Two quatrains, with four iambic feet in each line, rhyming abab, brillantly describes a woman as if she is a fire.
The metaphor of a painfully dazzling fire links the two stanzas together with admirable art and the sudden transition in the last two lines from the rocco cupid to the 'black-guard Boy' with his flaming 'Link"(i.e. torch) takes us with a pleasurable shock from the dreamworld of the pastoral convention to the actuality of night in the murky streets of Restoration London, where there were no street lamps and the only illumination was provided by the "torches of linkboys (de Sola Pinto, 24).
Although the amount of pieces by Sackville don't compare to the amount by Prior or Dryden, Sackville still made a deep niche and a considerable difference in the Restoration Period. He was a man of quality, not quantity.
"Donne had no imagination, but as much wit, I think, as any writer can possibly have.-Oldham is too rough and coarse.-Rochester is the medium between him and the Earl of Dorset.-Lord Dorset is the best of all those writers.-"What! better than Lord Rochester?"-Yes, Rochester has neither so much delicacy or exactness as Lord Dorset.- Alexander Pope, 1734-36, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 102.
"In Dorset's sprightly muse but touch the lyre,
The smiles and graces melt in soft desire,
And little loves confess their am'orous fire."
-Sir Samuel Garth, 1699, The Dispensary, canto iv.
Works Cited
de Sola Pinto, Vivian. The Restoration Court Poets. Published for the the British Council and the National Book League by Longmans, Green & Co.
John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester's history is just as intriguing as his poetry. He was the son of a hero and a religious woman. He received his Masters at the age of fourteen at Oxford University and traveled until his seventieth year. When he returned to Rochester, he began his romantic endeavors he was well known for. Due to his charm and wit, he was favorable by the court. These characteristics are reflected in his works as you will see. By the time he reached eighteen, he abducted Elizabeth Malet while she was in a coach with six servants. After much objection by her family, he married her. He and his wife lived in London with their family and not unlike men in London, he had many mistresses. He served as a naval volunteer and was made keeper of Woodstock park in 1674 by Charles I.
Wilmot's wild side did not end with his mistresses. He was rarely sober, lacked in religious following and was quite sinister. He was, however, very generous and kind to his friends.
To add to the list, Wilmot hired gangsters to beat up John Dryden when he changed a dedication from Rochester to one of Rochester's enemies. Due to his drinking and other habits, John Wilmot died at the age of thirty-two. Before his death he changed his ways and became a much more religious man.
Ethridge, a friend of Rochester's, wrote "A Man of Mode" with Rochester in mind for Dormant. The Earl fit into the role of many typical characters in the dramas and satires Dryden, Etheridge and the other Restoration playwrights wrote about. He was a man of wit, well educated and sexually promiscuous. These characteristics are what made him a noteworthy poet. It is said that he was "one of the last important Metaphysical poets of the 17th century" (oxford 837). His extensive education is reflected in his writing, unfortunately, there are not many selections on Wilmot in this collection.
Rochester wrote about sex more openly than any other author before the 20th century, he captures pure wit and was admired by the great poets of his time specifically Pope, Swift and even Dryden. It is unfortunate that he died at such an early age or else we would have more writings (oxford 837). It is interesting to think where his writings would go had he lived a longer life. Would he have changes his ways if he weren't near death? We will never know.
John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, brings the Restoration to life. It is hard to believe the characters in "The Country Wife" to be realistic. Rochester brings truth to these roles. He is not unlike many artist of the twentieth century who went too far, yet created magnificent work."Love and Live" a short love poem which can pinpoint Rochester's rational with his mistress Phillis. This particular poem was written around 1777, after Rochester achieved his poetic style.
All my past life is mine no more; The flying hours are all gone, Like transitory dreams given o'er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone. The time that is to come is not; How can it then be mine? The present moment's all my lot; And that , as fast as it is got, Phillis, is only thine. Then talk not of inconstancy, False hearts, and broken vows; If I by miracle can be This life-long minute true to thee, 'Tis all that Heaven allows (p.5 ).
It is plain to see how Rochester charmed his way into the hearts of his court and Elizabeth. His mistress surly did not deny him after such poetic rational. He is honest and admits that he cannot give more than possible. He is not a liar, he is true to himself.
Rochester's rhyme scheme is ABAAB consistently throughout but the meter varies and seems not to matter to his writings. This is typical of the revolution in literature during this era. This poem does contain the metaphysical especially in the first stanza but he does not drown himself in it. He moves along to his subject, Phillis and the problem she is having with his lack of time for her in the second stanza. Finally, he admits he cannot tell her lies which will be broken. He could be sincerely true to her this minute for reasons only God can explain. Rochester is well known for his irony, so he could be merely smooth-talking Phillis. Although this is not his best work, it is a small example of the brilliance of Rochester cut short by his early death.
Educated in Westminster school and St. Jonh's college, Cambridge, Matthwew Prior was a distinguished gentlemen in his class. He began to write early, prose as well as verse; Prior joined forces with Charles Montagu, who later became earl of Halifax, and began to write satire. One of their pieces was a satire of John Dryden's " The Hind and the Panther."
Throughout his life Prior held many different positions with diverse organizations. He was appointed secretary to the ambassador at " The Hague" and employed in the negotiations for the treaty of Ryswick. These were two of the most important events in the 18th century, therefore it is not a surprise to learn that Prior's poem " The Secretary" is an account of his life at this time. Prior enjoyed change and challenges, that led him to the Tories. He was sent to Paris as a secret agent during the time when peace negotiations were being held. In 1713 Queen Anne died and Prior was recalled; he was arrested and sentenced to over one year in jail. The year 1718 was the year when Matthwew Prior's folio edition was brought out. This was shortly after his release and he made 4,000 guineas in subscriptions.What Matthwew Prior is most remembered by are his occasional verses, the ability to combine mocking and seriousness, and the various styles in which he wrote. He also wrote odes, dialogues ridiculing various systems of Philosophy, and he wrote most of these in a genre popular at the time.
Interesting enough the majority of Prior's works, odes, poems, etc., are in some way or another linked to love. He writes satire about love and yet he is so in love with Chloe that he can not even admit it to her face to face. He hides behind the mask which his poetry provides him. Along with his writing is his music, that is how he speaks to her. The poem " Song" is an example of Prior's wit and his ability to mock serious aspects of life; in this case love is his target.
Song
The merchant, to secure his treasure, Conveys it in a borrow'd name: Euphelia serves to grace my measure; But Chloe is my real flame. My softest verse, my darling lyre, Upon Euphelia's toilet lay; When Chloe noted her desire That I should sing, that I should play. My lyre I tune, my voice I raise; But with my numbers mix my sighs: And while I sing Euphelia's praise, I fix my soul on Chloe's eyes. Fair Chloe blush'd: Eupjelia frown'd: I sung, and gazed: I play'd and trembled: And Venus to the Loves around Remark'd, how ill we all dissembled.
The poetic voice in the poem " Song" by Matthwew Prior, is Prior. He is discussing his love for one woman Chloe, she is his desire and his soul mate. The first two lines of the poem give us the subtle hint that he is not being completely honest when writing this poem. Prior allows a gap to create a sense of mystery about the characters in the poem. " The merchant, to secure his treasure, Conveys it in a borrow'd name: Euphelia serves to grace my measure; But Chloe is my real flame. (Prior, pg.499) What he is saying here is that in order to secure his treasure- his love for Chloe- he must borrow Euphelia's name. This allows him to demonstrate his love for Chloe indirectly. Through testing Euphelia's reaction to his amorous attempts at conquering Chloe, he gets an idea of how she will react.
In the second verse he says, " My softest verse, my darling lyre, Upon Euphelia's toilet lay; When Chloe noted her desire; That I should sing, that I should play." ( Prior,pg. 499) His efforts toward Euphelia were not with the intent to conquer her, however he seems to want a reaction from her. In this verse we see him mocking his own poetry- she laid it over her toilet- as if to say it is no good. Prior is willing to do what ever it takes to please Chloe. When he discovers her wish is for him to sing and play his lyre he is ready and willing to comply. He is hiding behind the music, but he knows he is giving Chloe pleasure; she is his motivation.
In the third verse he admits to focusing on Chloe rather than on Euphelia. " My lyre I tune, my vice I raise; But with my numbers mix my sighs: And while I sing Euphelia's praise, I fix my soul on Chloe's eyes. ( Prior,pg.499) He is outwardly pleasing Euphelia, but inside he is devoted to Chloe. It seems that what began as a harmless attempt at keeping his love for Chloe a secret has escalated, into using another persons feeling for selfish purposes. Furthermore, it is said that the eyes are the door to the soul; when he writes about fixing his soul on Chloe's eyes he is describing the stereotypical idea about the eyes and soul being connected. Through her eyes he is reaching in her soul, that is important because he wants her to know how he feels about her without having to express himself vocally.
Scottish poetry can be defined as an attempt to represent the mind and heart of a country, of a people as exhibited in its poetry, should be inclusive rather than exclusive, should avoid pedantry, should eschew cramping limitations and disputable principles. It should seek the plain and beaten path, the broad way of the daily traveler (The Edinburgh Book of Scottish Verse, 8).
Although this definition is slated for Scottish poetry it is however, written in English which is the work of Scotsmen. Scottish poetry may be English but English can never be Scottish. What justifies Scottish from English in menial terms, is the language. Scottish poetry uses Gaelic terms and is much more difficult to comprehend without the help of the glossary. Lady Grisel Baillie was born on December 25, 1665 in Redbraes, Berwickshire. She was the eldest daughter of Grisell (Ker) and Sir Patrick Hume. Grisel Baillie is as famous for her heroism as for her writing (Feminist Companion to Literature in English, 19). Lady Baillie displayed her courage at the age of 12 when she conveyed secret messages to her father's friend, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood. She met, through the exploits, and later married Robert Baillies' son George. After the Restoration in 1688, Lady Baillie was given the offer of post of Maid of Honour to the Princess of Orange but declined to marry George. Lady Baillie lived a life of courage and honor.
Lady Baillie began writing prose and verse at an early age and left fragments of poems in a notebook, 'many of them interrupted, half writ, some broken off in the middle of a sentence', as described by her daughter (Feminist Companion, 19). Some of he poems were published in Allan Ramsay's 'Tea Table Miscellany' (1723-1740) and in other collections of Scottish songs (Feminist Companion, 20).
'Werena my Heart licht I wad dee' was published in 1726 and well admired by a most well known poet, Robert Burns. Her poem was later praised by an anthologist as he wrote: 'Its sudden inspiration has fused and cast into one perfect line, the protest of thousands of stricken hearts in every generation' (Feminist Companion, 20). Her poem, or Scots popular ballad is of telling a story. The poem is narrative and longing of love. The character's repetitiveness of the title symbolizes that she would die for the love of Johnnie. The ballad signifies unrequited love and the longing of Johnnie to lover her.
The language is difficult to understand however, with the glossary it can be better understood. The poem is better comprehended when read over once or twice. With Scottish poetry, re-reading is the key to understanding it.
Lady Anne (Lindsay) Barnard (1750-1825) spent her youth in Fifeshire. Lady Anne was the daughter of James Lindsay, fifth Earl of Balcarres. Lady Anne made up her mind that she wasn't going to marry therefore she moved with her widowed sister to London. While in London, she met Andrew Barnard, the son of the Bishop of Limerick, whom she later married and moved to Good Hope in 1793. The next 14 years of her life were described in her illustrated 'Journal and Notes'. Andrew Barnard passed away and Lady Anne returned to London. Many prominent men such as Burke, Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales, a life long admirer of Lady Anne's, were habitués of their Berkeley square Salon (British Authors Before 1800, 27). After her sister remarried, she continued to live alone in the house where she enjoyed friendships and correspondences until she died in 1825. Lady Anne's principal work was 'Auld Robin Gray' which she wrote to preserve the tune of an English-Scotch ballad she heard previously with more suitable verses. At 21, she had first heard this ballad and enjoyed it however, she disapproved of what she considered the "improper" words (British Authors, 27). Lady Anne didn't claim what she wrote until 1822 in a letter to Sir Walter Scott describing the circumstances of their composition. 'Auld Robin Gray' was composed by Lady Anne Lindsay in 1771. The poem or Scottish ballad symbolizes the love and regret of the character. The character fell in love with Jamie however, he had nothing to offer her. He, in order to obtain more for her, sailed the seas. While Jamie was at sea, Robin Gray courted Jennie. Her parents fell ill and so Robin Gray pleaded with Jennie to marry him for her parents sake. She heard of a ship wreck and thought her Johnnie dead. After 4 weeks of marriage Jamie returns, she thought in spirit, until he spoke. At this moment, Jennie realizes the mistake she made with Auld Robin Gray and is regretful. Her heart is broken as she repeats throughout the ballad 'woe is me'.
As with 'Werena my Heart licht I wad dee', ballads need to be read over a few times to better comprehend. Most Scottish ballads are interpreted as love and longing for love. Auld Robin Gray is similar to 'Werena my Heart licht I wad dee' for they both symbolize the love and emotions of two people.
Works Cited
The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Joann Shattock. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Virginia Blair, Patricia Clements, Isobel Gundy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. British Authors Before 1800. Stanley Kunitz, Jr., Howard Haycraft. New York: H.W. Wilson Co, 1952.
A minister born in Southhampton in 1674, he considered himself of the Independent religious sect. His main works were spiritual and educational. He enjoyed great popularity for his hymns and religious songs for children. He wrote his first hymn in 1695 and before his death in 1748, he had completed 600 of these works. His works influenced William Blake, and he was even put into Johnson's book The Lives of the Poets. He was noted for his plain words and used of broad universal imagery that could be understood by all who read it. His more sophicticated works he set aside in a book he titled Horae Lyricae.
As hymns were his chief subject in writing he greatly wished to "christianize" the old Hebrew psalms so they would be useful then. "Watss was not the first but was certainly the most influential advocate for replacement of the Psalms..." (Vinson 1057). He was considered a major contributor to the begining of the English hymn tradition. He filled his hymns with universal images for all classes of society to understand and wrote them plainly with a regular rythm.
In his "The Day of Judgement" he does not use grand lanuguage or any rhyme scheme at all to send his religious message. Although, its simplicity ends there. He employed a new technique in the formation of the stanzas, to create impact and intensity.
"The Day of Judgement"
When the fierce North-wind with his airy forces
Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury;
And the red lighting with a storm of hail comes
Rushing amain down;
Hark, the shrill outcries of the guilty wretches!
Lively bright horror and amazing anguish
Stare thro' their eyelids, while the living worm lies
Gnawing within them.
Thoughts, like old vultures prey upon their heart-strings,
And the smart twinges, when the eye beholds the
Lofty Judge frowning, and a flood of vengeance
Rolling afore him.
Hopless immortals! how they scream and shiver,
While devils push them to the pit wide-yawning
Hideous and gloomy, to receive them headlong
Down to the centre!
Stop here, my fancy: (all away, ye horrid
Doleful ideas!) come, arise to Jesus,
How He sits God-like! and the saints around Him
Throned, yet adoring!
O may I sit there when He comes triumphant,
Dooming the nations! then ascend to glory
While our Hosannas all along the passage
Shout the Redeemer!
Throughtout the poem familiar images are used so that all can understand him. For example, the image of hell as a deep, dark pit is very common. The last lines of the stanzas are like the shouts coming down form heaven on Judgement Day. They help create the discordant noise of that day as well as the lack of a definite rhyme scheme. In general, it creates the common picture of the final days of the earth.
His other set of works were songs written for children. They were written with a child's level of understanding in mind and for the purpose of educating them about the Bible's teachings. These songs greatly influenced William Blake when he wrote his work for children know as Songs of Innocence . They were also to be parodied by Lewis Carroll in his book Alice In Wonderland . Carroll changed " How doth the busy bee" to "How doth the little crocodile". One of these teaching songs, with a simplified Christian message was "A Cradle Hymn".
"...See the kinder sheperds round Him, Telling wonders from the sky! Where they sought Him, there they found Him, With His Virgin mother by. See the lovely infant, how He smiled! When He wept, the mother's blessing Soothed and hush'd the holy child. Lo, He slumbers in His manger, Where the horned oxen fed: Peace, my darling; here's no danger, Here's no ox anear thy bed. Twas to save thee, child for dying, Save my dear from burning flame, Bitter groans and endless crying, That thy blest Redeemer came. May'st thou live to know and fear Him, Trust and love Him all thy days; Then go dwell for ever near Him, See His face, and Sing His praise!
The words are plain and simple enough for a child to understand. The use of a lullaby is also and effective teaching tool for small children. He also uses the familair nativity scene that all children would have most likely seem pictures of, or heard of in books. He clearly states his message in the last two stanzas of the poem quite cleverly, as if done in the begining they may have been forgotten by the child toward the end.
The next of his poetry, that which Watts considered fancy, he set aside in his book Horae Lyricae. Those that he placed in this book were not for congregational use, he felt that they were not suited for such use. These had more sophisticated language and a definite ryhme scheme. To Watts, he thought they were fancy. His more famous poetry in this style of writng, was what he was better known for. One of these poems was "Crucifixion to the World By the Cross of Christ".
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory dy'd, My riches Gain I count but Loss And pour contempt on all my Pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast Save in the Death of Christ my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his Blood. See from his Head, his Hands, his Feet, Sorrow and Love flow mingled down; Did e're such Love and Sorrow meet? Or Thorns compose so rich a Crown? His dying Crimson like a Robe Spreads o'er his Body on the Tree, Then am I dead to all the Globe, And all the Globe is dead to me. Were the Whole Realm of Nature mine, That were a Present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine Demands my Soul, my Life, my All.
The first thing one will notice is the fancier language, the "wondrous" cross, not the cross. The next would be that of a definite rhyme scheme. The imagery of Christ's blood as a robe that covers the tree, was quite extravagant for Watts' daily sermons. He also describes the dripping blood as personified love and sorrow. This poem was one of his most famous based on Galatians 6:14 , in the Bible.
Watts' fame and popularity primerly came from his own versions of the Psalms. These were often written with a conscious simplicity and limitation that showed his merit in poetic artistry. It also showed his devotion to preaching and his careful understanding of the mind of his followers. He was forced to stop his ministry early beacuse of poor health. Yet, his life was so exemplary the he reamined well known and respected long after his death itein 1748.
Works Cited
Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Eagle, Dorothy, ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature. 2nd ed. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1970.
Scott-Kilvert, Ian, ed. British Writers. Vol. III. New York: Charles Scribner's Son's, 1980.
Vinson, James, ed. Great Writers of the English Language: Poets. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1970.
Ward, A.W., and A.R.Waller, ed. The Cambridge History of English Literature. Vol. IX From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift. Cambridge: University Press, 1968.
Henry Carey's fame comes from his fanciful burlesque comedies and his poetic songs. Carey was considered a successful dramatist in his own day, but today we remember him primarily for his songs. Carey was born in an age of extravagance which he portrays humorously in his plays. His poetry and songs frequently depict the lives of ordinary people, rather than the upper class.
The date, place, and circumstances of Henry Carey's birth remain a mystery. Biographers place the date of Carey's birth between 1687 and 1693. Many suppose Carey to have been the illegitimate son of George Savile, Marquis of Hallifax; others claim that he was the son of Henry Savile. While a successful dramatist in London, Carey was rumored to have received a pension from the Savile family. Carey offers information about his mother and his schoolyears through self-references in his poems and the preface to his first volume of poems. His mother acted as a school mistress in Yorkshire. There Carey received an education, and he devoted several years to the study of music. Carey studied music with various teachers and then worked teaching music at boarding schools.
In 1715, two years after Carey published his first collection of poems, Poems on Several Occasions, he suddenly reappeared in the London literary scene as the successful author of The Contrivances: or More Ways Than One. This play was produced at the Drury Lane and began Carey's successful career as an author of musical plays, farces, and burlesque opera. As an acknowledged author, Carey entered the social scene in London dramatically. He was known for his lively social life. Carey spent the money he received form the Saviles and from his plays freely. He was known as "the gayest and liveliest of companions, in and out of innumerable scrapes, and popular with everyone" ("Carey, Henry" 87). Carey became a member of "Addison's little senate," a group which revered Joseph Addison as a writer and critic. When Addison praised one of Carey's poems, Carey rejoiced.
For twenty years after Carey's first successful farce, he retained his great popularity as a writer. Then, while still young, Carey died suddenly. He was reported to have been in good health in the morning of October 4, 1743, but was later found dead. Most of his biographers agree that Carey probably committed suicide. His friends arranged a benefit performance at Drury Lane to provide for his widow and four children.
Although Carey's drama enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, few pieces are believed to have literary merit. Chrononhotonthlogos is the only play which is read today.
Carey claimed that poetry was an amusement and hobby for him, not a serious pursuit. His poems are full of energy and embrace a vivacious life. "A Drinking Song" illustrates the jovial mood common in Carey's writing. The singer pleas for a world "Stock'...d with nothing else but Wine: . . . And let that Wine be all for me!" Dobree claims, "[Carey's] work has the charm that belongs to that of the gifted amateur, without pretensions, ignoring models, unhampered by classical predilections" (Dobree 525). Carey writes in a light-hearted manner and without all of the restraints of the pretentious forms of the day. In the Neo-Classical age of Dryden's heroic couplets, the shift from traditional conventions is noticeable in Carey's poetry.
Critics credit Carey with breaking new ground in the modern ballad. Carey combines his musical training and aptitude with his poetic capabilities. Today Carey's best remembered ballad is "Sally in our Alley." He allegedly wrote this song after following a shoemaker's apprentice and his sweetheart on a holiday. In "Sally in our Alley" Carey breaks with the tradition of the ballad which takes nobility or supernatural events as its subject. The narrator of this ballad admits that he works as a lowly apprentice and that his master "comes like any Turk, / and bangs me most severely" (lines 13-14). He recognizes that Sally belongs to a low social class, but justifies his love of her by her good qualities:
Her father he makes cabbage-nets,
And through the streets does cry 'em;
Her mother she sells laces long
To such as please to but 'em:
But sure such folks could ne'er beget
So sweet a girl as Sally! (lines 9-14)
Even though the characters come from ignoble city streets, their love remains as honorable and true as the loves and lives of the wealthy, a traditional subject of ballads. The narrator repeats that Sally "is the darling of my heart" as every refrain. He yearns for Sunday, "For then I'm dressed in all my best / To walk abroad with Sally" (lines 28-29). Though Carey returns to love as the theme of this song, he revitalizes the story. This time the characters will "wed, and then we'll bed," rather than merely bedding.In an ironic twist of time, during his lifetime Henry Carey was recognized first and most emphatically for his drama. Today we claim that the majority of his plays had scarce any literary merit, but we praise him for his ballads. The life which Henry Carey lived and portrayed in his dramas of the high life survives only as the shadows behind his songs of humanity.
Samuel Johnson, a writer known more for his lexicography than for his verse, was one of the most important literary figures of the 18th Century. In order to better understand his poetry it is vital to explore his life and accomplishments.
Born September 18, 1709 in Lichfield, England (about 100 miles northwest of London), Johnson was a gifted, though sickly, child. At the age of three, he was taken to London to Queen Anne for the "king's touch" for scrofula (Drabble 513). In addition to causing partial blindness, the disease was believed to have caused "nervous effects" including "grimacing, gesturing, [and] muttering to himself" (Kunitz 293). Modern historians, having nothing but historical records and other primary sources, believe that Johnson suffered from Tourette's Syndrome; this affliction would definitely explain Johnson's eccentric behavior ("Samuel Johnson"). Schooled at Lichfield Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford, Johnson received no degree on account of his lack of financial support. He was later given a M.A. and a LL.D. by Oxford. With the death of his father in 1731, Johnson was entirely broke and obtained a job as an usher at Market Bosworth. Extremely dissatisfied, he moved to Birmingham and wrote for a newspaper. He married in 1735 and opened an unsuccessful school with his wife's money. Failing at that, he joined a former pupil and went to London. There Johnson took work as a hack writer. Still impoverished, he wrote for other London magazines, mostly anonymously. In 1747, Johnson issued his prospectus for a new dictionary. Eight years later the dictionary was complete. He was paid 1500 guineas for it but more importantly it established his reputation. While working on the dictionary Johnson went on to edit literary magazines and to publish some essays. Rasselas, often considered his most important work, was published soon after (Kunitz 293-4). 1762 brought a Tory government and Johnson, a vociferous Tory, was given a crown pension of 300l. per year (Drabble 513). The following year, Johnson was introduced to Boswell. Boswell, Johnson's most vocal supporter, would later write the biography of Johnson that is widely known today.
In 1764, Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds founded the Club. It was during this time that Johnson's reputation and notoriety grew (Kunitz 295). Johnson published an edition of Shakespeare in 1765. His Preface in it is considered to be his best piece of critical prose. In the decade that followed, Johnson traveled for the first time outside of England. After excursions to Scotland and to the Continent, Johnson undertook one final project at the behest of several booksellers: The Lives of the English Poets (Drabble 514). This was Johnson's last major work. From 1781 onward, Johnson endured poor health. In 1783 he suffered a stroke. His failing health prompted him to plan a trip to Italy to escape a harsh winter in England. This plan would never materialize. Johnson knew his health could not hold out much longer and in the fall of 1784 he destroyed his unpublished and personal papers. On December 13, 1784, Johnson died. He was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey (Kunitz 295).
Throughout his life, Johnson's personality gained him the respect and admiration of many people and made enemies of many more. Soame Jenyns sums up how many felt about Johnson in "Epitaph on Dr. Samuel Johnson":
Here lies Sam Johnson:- Reader, have a care,
Tread lightly, lest you wake a sleeping bear:
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was; but self-sufficient, proud, and vain,
Fond of, and over-bearing in dispute,
A Christian, and a scholar- but a brute. (Davison 64).
Never one to deceive, Johnson was kind and generous to friends and vocally vicious in his criticisms, literary and otherwise. This behavior was not acceptable to many and people often spoke ill of Johnson. Nicknames such as The Blaspheming Doctor, Blinking Sam, A Learned Attila, Our Literary Whale, and Surly Sam showed the antipathy felt for Johnson among inferior writers whom Johnson railed on. Johnson once said of Mark Akenside, a second-rate poet, "I see they have published a splendid edition of Akenside's works. One bad ode may be suffered; but a number of them together makes one sick."(Moulton 542). With harsh attacks like this it is easy to see why people reacted the way they did to Johnson. His slovenly appearance, engendered by his years of poverty, and his ungainly, hulking physique were often the target of inferior and false wit. But his friends had nothing good to say of Johnson. It was said that "nobody could pay more graceful compliments, especially to ladies, and he was always the first to make advances after a quarrel. His friends never ceased to love him; and their testimony to the singular tenderness which underlay his roughness is unanimous." (Moulton 735). He loved children and animals. In fact, Johnson went so far as to purchase oysters specifically for Hodge, his beloved cat. He was also indiscriminately charitable. (Moulton 735). Of course, the general public never saw this side of the great writer. Instead, Johnson often left the impression of a madman or lunatic on acquaintances; this was in some part intentional as it was claimed he could control his erratic outbursts. But Johnson was unconcerned what people thought of his behavior or appearances; he let his writing speak for itself.
Johnson was an accomplished essayist and critic. His verse was often praised for being scholarly works but the general populace received them with indifference. Johnson was a religious man; while his poems are not overtly religious they often take a moralizing tone. For instance, "One-and-Twenty", while not strictly didactic or pedagogical, takes an extremely moralizing tone. The poetic voice is warning a young man who has just legally become an adult against acting foolishly. Johnson's pragmatic style suits his subject matter and his diction. In his elegy "On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet" Johnson skillfully mourns the passing of a good friend. Without gushing and without overstating Levet's good points, Johnson states truths that display Levet's goodness. Johnson is so skillful as to state only the facts and not give a cold or impersonal voice to the poem. Instead, the poem is a touching tribute masterfully executed.
One can easily see how Johnson's life and his personality affected his writing. The same unabashed and honest style Johnson adopted in his everyday life comes through quite clear in his writings, particularly in his poems. Even though during his lifetime his poems were treated as his lesser works, I think anyone who has read Johnson's poems, even just "One-and-Twenty" and "On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet", would agree that they are anything but inferior. Johnson deserves a place in history next to not only the great authors but also the great poets.
WORKS CITED
British Authors Before 1800. Ed. Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1952.
The Library of Literary Criticism. Volume III. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. The Moulton Publishing Company, 1959.
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
The Penguin Book of Eighteenth Century Verse. Ed. Dennis Davison. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973.
"Samuel Johnson": http://neuro-www2.mgh.harvard.edu/TSA/AboutTS/johnson.html
Thomas Gray can be considered one of the finest Restoration poets, shadowed only by the likes of John Dryden and William Blake. Gray was born in 1716, and educated at Eton College (The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature, 236). Eton had a great effect on Gray, since this is where he made his first friends: Richard West, Thomas Ashton, and Horace Walpole (Norton Anthology of English Literature, 2454). Gray writes of Eton in his poem entitled "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," a poem not in this collection, but one that shows the depth to which Gray was affected by his time spent there and the acquaintances he made. It's writing may also stem from the death of West, who died in 1742, five years before the Eton ode was written, and the same year that Gray moved to Cambridge (Norton, 2454). Gray's most famous poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" may also stem to a degree from the loss of West, as it deals with the theme of death in a melancholic and philosophic manner.
Also included in this collection is a poem entitled "on a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes." This poem also deals with death, a theme that Gray deals with in many ways, although it is a lighter and sillier poem than "Elegy" or "Ode." The final poem included in the collection is "The Progress of Poesy--A Pindaric Ode" written in the style of Pindar, a Greek lyric poet whose "compositions were elevated and formal, distinguished by the boldness of their metaphors and a marked reliance on myth..." (Oxford, 441). Gray is considered one of the only seventeenth and eighteenth century poets to tackle this difficult form, included with the likes of Cowley, Dryden, and Pope (Oxford, 441). Gray dealt with the theme of death in many forms, yet was not confined to it, as seen by "The Progress of Poesy," nor was he obsessed with the seriousness of the subject, as seen in "On a Favourite Cat."
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is perhaps Gray's most masterfully written poem. Every aspect of the poem mirrors the feeling of death and the mood of one who plods his way wearily through a country churchyard. The meter, iambic pentameter which remains practically unbroken, mirrors the feeling of melancholy that pervades the entire poem, and also the sense of a man wandering his way amidst the graves that hold the people of which he speaks. It also allows everything the poet says to soak into the reader's thoughts. An iamb is a metric foot that consists of a short syllable followed by a long one. This can create a sing-songy pace to a poem or in the case of "Elegy," a plodding one which, rather than being boring, effectively mirrors the mood of the poem. When the iambic pentameter is broken, it is to further enhance the pervasive feeling of a specific passage. For example, the seventh stanza begins with a trochee, which is "a metrical foot in prosody consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one...unstressed syllable" (American Heritage Dictionary). The trochee, with it's opening stress, draws the reader along into the line, and is stronger than the iamb with it's unstressed, and therefore passive, opening. The stanza deals with strength, specifically the strength of the plowmen in the fields, the same men who now lie beneath the poet's feet. The epitaph deals with the poet's feelings for the dead man, "a youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown" (118), whose soul was "sincere" (121). The poet asks for the world to leave the dead man to his rest; perhaps this is Gray asking the world to allow his friend West to rest in peace.
Gray shows the reader his scope with the poem "On a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes." He uses high diction and AA-BB rhyme scheme to create an almost sing-songy mockery of the seriousness of death. The poem consists primarily of iambic tetrameter in two line clusters broken by iambic trimeters. Thus, every two lines have eight syllables, and every third line has six. This adds a rigid structure to the poem that compliments the high diction. However, to describe the goldfish that tempt Selima to her fall as "[t]he Genii of the stream:/Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue/Thro' richest purple to the view/Betray'd a golden hue" (15-18), is to add a mocking tone to the poem. One would think that Gray's poetic voice would mourn for the death of his cat; however, Gray just seems to be showing his range by treating the manner lightly, with mock sadness, rather than with seriousness it may indeed deserve. The final stanza of the poem serves as a warning, perhaps to the "female heart" that can not scorn gold (23). The poetic voice uses the death of Selima to warn: "Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes/And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;/Nor all that glisters, gold" (40-42). Thus, in this short, forty-two line poem, Gray is able to treat death mockingly, and use it as an argument for temperance in one's desires.
The final poem in the collection is Gray's attempt at a Pindaric ode. Entitled "The Progress of Poesy," it follows the style of the Greek Pindar with its elevated metaphors and use of myth to further it's ideas. The title of the poem is effective in giving the reader a succinct idea as to what the poem is about. In the opening of the poem, Gray's poetic voice personifies music by telling it to "awake...and give to rapture all thy trembling strings" (1-2). "Poesy" then continues to establish the metaphor of music as almost a living being, effecting change on all who come into contact with it. By creating a setting directly out of Greek mythology, Gray firmly establishes his foothold in the tradition of Pindar. Music is likened to a stream of water in the opening stanza, flowing gently through the country and touching the lives of the flowers "that round them blow" (5). The stream grows in intensity, as does the emotion of the poem, as the water rolls "down the steep amain,/Headlong, impetuous see it pour;/The rocks and nodding groves bellow to the roar" (10-12).
Gray continues to cover the range of music's effect on people, likening it to the power of the "Lord of War" (17) in the second stanza, and the joy of music in people's lives in the third stanza, with it's talk of "antic Sports," "brisk notes in cadence beating," and many-twinkling feet" (30-35). Throughout the remainder of the poem, Gray examines music in various other ways, for example, music given as a gift to a child that "can unlock the gates of joy" (92). Music played can "scatter from her pictured urn/Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn" with her power (109-110). Thus, Gray through metaphor and allusions to mythology, effectively speaks of another intangible, similar to death, that touches everyone. Through "Elegy," he is able to deal with his pain at the loss of a loved one, and at the same time touch all who read his work. He is also able to turn his talent to mocking death, with a poem such as "On a Favourite Cat," or to the subject of music and it's effect in people's lives in "The Progress of Poesy." Throughout the works by Thomas Gray included in this collection, one can see that his talent allows him to speak on many subjects with the knowledge of one who has experienced many things that have touched him deeply.
Works Cited
American Heritage Dictionary: Second Edition. 1982.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York:W.W. Norton and Co., 1993. 2454.
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1987. 231 and 411.
William Collins was born on Christmas Day, 1721, the son of an English hatter. He composed his first poem, "The Battle of the Schoolbooks," in 1734. He was only fourteen at the time, and in that same year his father died. In 1739 his sonnet, "When Phoebe form'd a wanton smile," was published. He attended college at Oxford and graduated in 1743 (Johnston 129).
In 1744, Collins moved from Oxford to London because he failed to obtain a fellowship and also because his creditors were growing impatient. In July of 1744, his mother died, leaving him a small property, which he quickly exhausted. In London, he attempted to engage in many literary enterprises but did not succeed. He formed a friendship with the poet, James Thompson, and met poets and actors. He was also introduced and made acquaintance of Dr. Johnson (Johnston 129).
In 1746, Collins published his Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects. In 1751, he became very ill but recovered, and because of the illness he was subject to melancholia for the rest of his life. He traveled in France, hoping that a change in scenery would improve his spirits. Johnson visited him in Islington. He returns to Oxford to visit for a month in the summer of 1754. His melancholia quickly became worse and he stayed for a short time in McDonald's Madhouse in Chelsea. In April of 1756, Johnson inquired after Collins's health saying, "I wrote him a letter which he never answered." Collins most likely never answered because his illness had a full grip on him. He died on June 12, 1759, and was buried at St. Andrew's Church in Chichester (Johnston 129).
When it comes to comparisons, Collins is always compared to the more popular Thomas Gray. In 1786, Gilbert Wakefield in his Notes on the Poems of Gray, said that of all Gray's contemporaries, only Collins was "capable of attaining the excellence of Mr. Gray," (Johnston 121). Collins's reputation grew after his death. James Langhorne edited his poetry in 1765 and said that Collins had no equal when it came to the writing of odes.
Collins's "Ode to Simplicity," describes Simplicity as one of the most important members of Nature. Nature teaches Simplicity to keep order in the world. Without Simplicity, nothing can exist properly. The fifth stanza develops the idea:
O sister meek of Truth, To my admiring youth Thy sober aid and native charms infuse! The flow'rs that sweetest breathe, Though beauty cull'd the wreath, Still ask thy hand to range their order'd hues.
In this stanza, the poet is stating the need for Simplicity. The art and beauty of the world can come from a variety of sources, but only Simplicity can arrange and order it in a way so that it can be appreciated. Simplicity allows people to understand the beauty of Nature.
The "Ode to Evening," is addressed to a goddess who represents evening. The poet asks Eve to teach him how to be quiet, simple, and composed, so that he can adapt these characteristics to his poetry. The fourth stanza is central to the poem:
As oft he rises, 'midst the twilight path Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum: Now teach me, maid composed, To breathe some soften'd strain.
In "Ode to Simplicity" and "Ode to Evening," the poet admires simplicity, quietness, and composure. These are major themes found in Collins's work, and in the eighteenth century. Collins demonstrates the usefulness of these qualities in his odes, which are beautiful in their simplicity. They are full of clean description and are, at the same time, to the point.
"Fidele" may be about the tomb where fair Fidele lies, but it is also about fidele, or fidelity, which means sincere, faithful, and true (Oxford English Dictionary 876). In the poem, no witches or goblins can be found near Fidele's grave. Only shepards and virgins may approach. "How Sleep the Brave" is a poem dedicated to brave warriors. It is an easy poem to understand in which Spring, Fancy, Honour, and Freedom, come to bless the brave.
William Collins is what he aspires to be as a poet. He has the ability to describe things that could take pages. In living up to his belief in simplicity, Collins keeps his descriptions clean, uncomplicated, and short. He is not the great poet of his age, but he certainly is very talented and is a master of the ode.
Johnston, Arthur. Selected Poems of Thomas Gray and William Collins. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 1970.
The Oxford English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989.
"Poets" But the chief
are poets; eloquent men, who dwell on earth
To clothe whate're the soul admires or loves
With language and with numbers. Hence to these
A field is open'd wide as nature's sphere;
Nay, wider: various as the sudden acts
Of human wit, and vast as the demands
Of human will. The bard nor length, nor depth,
Nor place, nor form controls. To eyes, to ears,
To every organ of the copious mind,
He offereth all its treasures. Him the hours,
The seasons him obey: and changeful Time
Sees him at will keep measure with his flight,
At will outstrip it.
"The Pleasures of Imagination-IV"
Mark Akenside's philosophical view of poets and poetry is given here in this brief piece from "The Pleasures of Imagination." It is a straightforward, noble-sounding statement of the duty of the poet and a testament to the greatness of poets. The poet makes "whate'er the soul admires or loves" more beautiful with "language and numbers." Here Akenside makes poetry into a "field...wide as nature's sphere" being at the same time broader than the Earth and Nature's realm, elevating poetry as high as the heavens. Poetry hinges on the spontaneity of wit and the demands of the human audience. The great, broad field of poetry already exists, the poet does not create it but must give "its treasures" in good form to the audience. Poetry must be beautiful to see, wondrous to hear, and highly intelligent. If a poet creates poetry in this manner, he will outrun Time itself.
This is both a humble and a lofty idea. It is humble in that the poet can take no credit for the "field" of poetry but only the way that he uses it, and he is still subject to the whims of his audience. Poetry is held in a lofty place. By following these humble rules, the poet can actually race time and win, being immortalized.
Akenside, as a poet, strove to attain these goals. He was born to a butcher in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1721 and raised Presbyterian. He went to Edinburgh to study for the Presbyterian ministry but ended up studying medicine there and at Leyden. He was placed in a position as a doctor in Bloomsbury by a wealthy friend, Jeremiah Dyson. This gave him an income which allowed him to live very comfortably and afforded him plenty of time to write, his first passion. At this time he devoted minimal attention to his medical career and spent more on a literary one. He had been writing since the age of seventeen when he started what has been considered his best piece of work, "The Pleasures of Imagination." It was published in 1744 when the poet was twenty-three and he continued reworking it until its second publication in 1757. It has been said, however, that the first version is better than the last(Kunitz 4). It was an important first work for Akenside and it had been published at a price of 120 pounds, "paid on the advice of Pope, who said Akenside was 'no everyday writer'."(Kunitz 4).
"The poem is based on the philosophical and aesthetic doctrines and distinctions of Addison, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson...It examines the primary and secondary pleasures of the imagination, the first connected with the Sublime, the wonderful and the beautiful, the second with passion and sense."(Drabble 771).
In "The Pleasures of Imagination" and in other poems Akenside uses Nature, akin to man and Heaven, to embody a sort of ultimate experience of his poetic ideals. Nature is never far removed from his work, nor, it seems, is God. In "Nature's Influence on Man", a 66-line poem from "The Pleasures of Imagination", the poetic voice compares the riches of Nature to the riches of man and contends that although the "envied life"(l.9) of man cannot be attained by all, Nature's treasure can be. Nature here makes all men equal and anyone "whom nature's works can charm, with God himself hold converse."(l.63). Nature's influence on man is to bring him closer to God. In Akenside's work Nature is divinely controlled, so when in Nature one is never far from God's own influence.
In "Ode to the Evening Star", a virtually unchanged version of "The Nightingale" with three stanzas added, is found a similar theme of Nature's sacredness. The speaker is travelling through the woods at night, addressing Hesper, the Evening Star, asking her to guide him safely through the woods. His lover, Olympia, is dead and he has just come from her tomb seeking the nightingale. He reaches the clearing where the nightingale resides and implores anyone who would wander there to go softly. He asks the potential wanderer to listen to her and contemplate Heaven's control over man's fate and the sadness man encounters in the mortal world. He then addresses the nightingale and asks her to let him come often and listen to her mournful song so he will forget his own grief. In the last three stanzas, where the poetic voice is addressing man and Nature (Nature being shown concretely in the form of the nightingale), man is made a subject of Nature, asked to listen and think on the "mournful scenes"(l.67) of the "mortal stage"(l.68). The nightingale is made sacred and he asks for her counsel so he can forget his troubles for "nature's common cares"(l.77). Now not only does Nature equalize man but also relieves mankind of its troubles. It, under "heaven's disposing power"(l.65) becomes sacred and Godly. If we apply this to the terms expressed in "Poets", good poets are, if poetry itself is "wider than nature's sphere", the closest thing to God next to Nature.
Akenside held high values on poets and the art of poetry. Some of his critics have said that he tried too hard to live up to his ideals. His neoclassical poem "Hymn to the Naiads" was highly regarded until Keats's "Endymion" and "Hyperion" moved it to a position of second-rate greatness(Moulton 542). Edmund Gosse said of him in A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, "At his very best Akenside is sometimes like a sort of frozen Keats"(Moulton 545). Because Akenside's work expresses some of the later Romantic ideals, there is a tendency to view him, in retrospect, not in the terms of a poet of his own age but in the terms of a second-rate Romantic poet. Thomas Arnold calls him "a second-rate Wordsworth"(Moulton 543). This sort of treatment of it is unfair if you consider the fact that much of Akenside's work falls under the Enlightenment and predates Wordsworth by fifty years and Keats by seventy-five years. Not that Akenside was popular among all of his contemporaries. The opinions of these critics and of early nineteenth century critics varied greatly. Many considered him cold and too classically oriented, others considered his verse warm, insightful and inspired. Most agreed, however, that his blank verse was excellent and that his poems had a good sound. Samuel Johnson said of him in his Lives of the English Poets, "In the general fabrication of his lines he is perhaps superior to any other writer of blank verse...[but] as nothing is distinguished, nothing is remembered."(Moulton 543). Smollett satirizes him terribly in The Peregrine Pickle, possibly because of some disparaging remarks Akenside is said to have made about Scotland and also the fact that Akenside could be difficult to deal with socially as he was argumentative and held strong beliefs.
At about the time that Keats was becoming popular, Akenside's work was admired for its imagination and its philosophy. After Keats usurped him, it became criticized for its stiff, classical manner and its lack of humanity. For his age, however, barring the Romantic poets, he deserves the esteem given to Gray and Collins and Smart. His work is a fine example of Eighteenth century poetry, using beautiful blank verse and holding high philosophical ideals. When kept in the context of his own time he is worth mentioning and deserving of attention.
WORKS CITED
The Library of Literary Criticism. Volume III. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. The Moulton Publishing Company, 1959.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1968.
The Oxford Book of Eighteenth Century Verse. Ed. David Nichol Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926.
The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. Margaret Drabble. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Christopher "Kit" Smart's life is one of both promise and malevolence. He was born in 1722, at Shipborne, Kent. He studied at Pembroke Hall College, Cambridge, He graduated in 1742, and in 1745 was elected a fellow, lecturing in philosophy and rhetoric. He moved to London where he became active as poet, producer of theatrical entertainments, editor of a humorous magazine, and hack writer for John Newbery. Repeated illnesses, coupled with overwork and drinking, eventually produced a complete breakdown, and Smart was placed in Bedlam in 1751. During his second incarceration in Bedlam in 1763, Smart wrote "A Song to David", a powerful, mystical poem that has often been compared to the work of William Blake. Smart was in and out of various asylums for nearly seven years. Smart died in debtor's prison in London on May 21,1771.
For the most part, "A Song of David" is conveying several things. This poem has been characterized for its brilliant imagery, unusual phrasing, and remarkable architectonic, or structural, form. Smart's poem is dealing with two worlds; the metaphysical world and the natural world. The metaphysical world dominates the first half of the poem. As stated in part one, poets in the Restoration era began to write freely about certain themes. Some of the themes were amorous, philosophical, humorous, and critical. Society and personal experiences influenced the writings of poets in the Restoration era. Christopher Smart was the son of a preacher, and despite not becoming a minister himself, Smart adhered to those religious principles administered to him during his upbringing. Therefore, Smart became known as a religious poet.
Although the poem can be read in a variety of interpretations, the theme in "A Song to David" seems to be religion. This is also evident when analyzing first stanza of he poem.
"Sublime----invention ever young, Of vast conception, towering tongue To God th' eternal theme Notes from yon exhaltations caught, Unrivall'd royalty of thought O'er meaner strains supreme!"
The first stanza sets the reader into this metaphysical world. This world is sublime, gigantic, and awesome. This world cannot be interpreted, analyzed, or rivaled, because God reigns supreme eternally. The poem continues to attribute homage to God in the second stanza. Here, God's muse, or source of inspiration, soothes all that pierce, and all that rages. The shift changes slightly, (one of several voice shifts in this poem) to that of David, a devout servant who wrote the Bible book of Psalms.
From there Smart deals with the complexities in this metaphysical world. Each line illustrates the magnanimous power of God. In the fifth stanza, Smart mixes between the metaphysical and the natural world. For example, in the fifth stanza, Smart uses the lines, "The glorious light, the soothing shade, Dale, champaign, grove, and hill;" Some of the items in each series (i.e. glorious light, dale, and hill) are somewhat elevations from the later items, but all are in the natural world.
This theme of religion seems to have and effect upon Smart. In the second half, Smart tends to write concisely.
"Sweet is the dew that falls betimes, And drops upon leafy limes; Sweet, Hermon's fragrant air: Sweet is the lily's silver bell,"
The conciseness of this experience that Smart writes about makes the second half proverbial. Since this is a poem that pays homage to God, and David, the co-authors of the Bible book of Psalms, Smart elevates the narrative voice in the poem with their company. The final line in the poem, "Determined, dared, and done!" is not only an alliteration with emphatic dramatic qualities, but concludes the poem in positive natural state.
William Cowper was born in 1731 and educated at Westminster. As a child he ws known as a hypochondriac and suffered from severe depression. At one point in his life he even attempted suicide and scholars have speculated that it was due to his unrequited love fo r his cousin Theodora Cowper. He had dreamed of the day when they would be married, and when it did not happen his melancholy gradually worsened. He viewed himself as an outcast of God's people, and felt that their was no divine mercy in his future. His depression and suicidal tendancis became so severe, that he served time in Dr. Cotton's Collegium Insanorum at St. Albans where his only degree of solace stemmed from Christianity. In 1765, he came into the home of Rev. Morely Unwin at Huntingdon. After Morely's death he moved to Olney with his widow. In Olney, William met J. Newton, an evangelical curate. This man influenced Cowper to write "Olney Hymns" in 1779. The most unethical aspect of his life at this time came when he became engaged to his late friend, Morely Unwin's widow. After the engagement, he suffered another serious bout of depression and once again attempted suicide. He recovered while spending a year with the Newtons and then returned home to Mrs. Unwin. As his life settled down, he wrote his satires including: "Table Talk," The Progress of Error," Truth," Expostulation," Hope," "Charity," Conversation," and "Retirement" which were published in 1782. In 1785, he wrote his most popular longer poem entitled "The Task," which was based on an idea by his new friend Lady Austen. In 1786, William Cowper and Mrs. Unwin moved to Weston Underwood where he wrote several more poems which were not publisheduntil after his death. They included "Yardley Oak," which was widely admired b Wordsworth, "On the Loss of Royal George," "To Mary," and "The Poplar Field." Unfortunately, in 1791, Mrs. Unwin suffered several strokes and died in 1796. This event led William nto a deep depressionfrom which he never fully recovered. His work "The Castaway," which he wrote shortly before his death, tells of man's isolation and helplessness. He dealt with the mysteries of God which plagued his unstable life through the end. He was most admired for his use of blank verse, sympathetic language usage for nature, romanticism, and sharp wit. His life of melancholy ended in 1800. (Drabble, 236).
William Cowper's poetry encompasses the melancoly tone of his life and captures his close connection with God. In his poems. "To Mary," and "My Mary," we see the only truehappiness in his life came from being with Mary Unwin. He placed her o a pedestal and saw her as a small piece of heaven on Earth. In these poems, it seems that he is trying to cling to his sanity by attaching himself to Mary. Mary stood as his only outlet from gloom and dispair and after her death he had little to live for. Cowper's poetry reads as if he were not attempting to create an object of literary art, but a new understanding of himself and the purpose of his life. His words are sincere and heartfelt and I believe that this led to his highly acclaimed respect and admiration as a true literary genius. Although the unstability of his life is tragic, I believe it is what gave his poetry that literary spark which ignited into beautiful art. Had his life been normal and stable, he would havehad no deep questions to ask and explore. He would not have had the burning desire to question God. He would not have seen Mary as his only connection to reality and his sole source of salvation.
There is a "Cowper and Newton Museum" in England which commemorates his work as a writer. (http://www.olio.demon.co.uk/viiting.html.). "Traces of Eden," a play by Keith Spence, will also be performed in October 1997, at Statonburg Theater Company. It is part of the Olney Arts Festival and is based on the life of William Cowper. It explores Cowpen's fascination with his concept of a contradictory world and his priceless it. Even in modern day, people continue to pay tribute to this talented poet who captured the essence of Olney in his every written word. (http://www.olio.demon.co.uk/traces_of_eden .html).
Works Cited
Cooper, Jeremy. The Cowper and Newton Museum Homepage.
Drabble, Margaret. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1985. 5th edition.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was born in Leicestershire, England on June 20, 1743. She was the eldest child and only daughter born to John and Jane Aikin. Anna Barbauld's father was a dissenting minister who self taught his children. Anna, therefore, learned to speak many languages such as, Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. She was also influenced by many other prominent individuals such as Dr. Joseph Priestley, philanthropist John Howard, Dugald Stewart; a Scotch metaphysician, British poet William Wordsworth and Mary Wilkinson. These scholarly refined men and women helped Anna to build her confidence to write her first successful literary work, Poems, which was published in 1773. Her highly acclaimed work persuaded Anna's brother, John, to co-author Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, another well received publication.
It could be said that because of Anna's close relationship with her father, or, her religious upbringing, was influential in her marrying Rochemont Barbauld in 1774. He, too, was a dissenting minister. Together, they ran a school for boy's which was said to be quite successful. The book Anna wrote after her marriage such as Hymns in Prose for Children, was also well received and gained popular attention. She attempted to instill moral beliefs in her literature in a way to make it more appealing for her young readers. Her objective was to show children the importance of having God in one's life.
Due to her husband's poor health, Anna was forced to close the school which they ran for 11 years. However, she continued to write literary works for children that basically emphasized the importance of moral living. For example, in her correspondence on prejudice, Anna Barbauld compelled parents not to instill their opinions of others unto their children:
Mrs. Barbauld urged parents to be careful not to teach children practices they may have to unlearn later in life. Anna believed children were not mature enough to make mature decisions and that their decisions and opinions were learned through the continual routine of their parents. So, depending on what attitudes were shown by their parents, whether it had to do with political or social matters, more than likely, the children would develop the same kind of attitude.
Not only was she known for her literary brilliance, but, she was well known for her womanly virtues and charming personality. Anna Barbauld enjoyed watching the beauty of nature. She wrote poems based upon the seasons of the year. It seemed as though spring was her favorite time of year.
The speaker in Ode to Spring made it quite obvious of their favorite time of year. In the first line of the first stanza, Spring is labeled as the offspring of a rough and violent father ( winter) who allows the buds on trees to begin to bloom. The entire poem pays tribute to the beauty of Spring because the speaker sees it as the beginning of a new life. Spring is much more appreciated than Summer because it is a time when rain is tender and it allows the flowers to bloom and the wind sounds pleasant to the ear:
Unlock thy copious stores; those tender showers That drop their sweetness on the infant buds, And silent dews that swell The milky ear's green stem, And feed the flowering osier's early shoots; And call those winds which thro' the whispering boughs With warm and pleasant breath Salute the blowing flowers. 2
Anna Barbauld was known for her children's literature, pastoral poems and poems about life and death. In the year 1814, Anna Barbauld published a poem called A Thought on Death. During this time, Anna was approximately 71 years old. Her father, mother and husband had all died. Anna wrote about her thoughts on death. Anna compared a new life to a newly budding flower:
When life, as opening buds, is sweet, And golden hopes the spirit greet, And youth prepares his joys to meet, Alas! how hard it is to die!
When life is fun and sweet, no one wants to die, but, when family and friends die and close ties are broken, the thought of death begins to become a little easier to accept:
When, one by one, those ties are torn And friend from friend is snatched forlorn, And man is left alone to mourn, Ah! then, how easy 'tis to die!
In the fourth stanza, the speaker suggests that life led in a righteous manner would make a person gain more confidence in facing death:
When faith is strong, and conscience clear, And words of peace the spirit cheer, And vision'd glories half appear, 'Tis joy, 'tis triumph, then to die!
The last stanza suggests that death sounds even more inviting when one's health becomes problematic. Anna Barbauld, ironically, began to lose her eyesight in the year of 1822- eight years after this poem was written. Her husband, Rochemont, committed suicide due to his declining mental health.
When trembling limbs refuse their weight, And films, slow gathering, dim the sight, And clouds obscure the mental light, "Tis nature's prcious boon to die! 3
In 1825, the poem entitled Life was published. The speaker describes life as a long-time friend, but, wonders what life really is when they are no longer together:
To break thy trance and rassume thy power? Yet canst thou, without thought or feeling be? O say what art thou, when no more thou 'rt thee?
The ending to the poem suggested the speaker would not become upset once her dear friend "life" were to part from her, but, she would somehow look forward to a new beginning:
Life! we've been long together Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear, Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear; Then seal away, give little warning, Choose thine own time; Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime Bid me Good Morning. 4
The speaker in these last two poems sounded as if they were at peace with themselves and looked forward to meeting their maker. Each speaker seemed to have had a strong belief in faith and a sincere relationship with God- something that had always been important to Anna Barbauld.
Contrary to her highly praised poems and didactic correspondence, there was one particular publication that was not well received. The poem called Eighteen Hundred and Eleven.
Britain and France had been at war since 1794. Each government tried to destroy each other's trades. This forced hardships onto their citizens. Because of negotiations made by Russia and Austria, France, basically, became the winner of this long, drawn out war. However, Britain would not give up. She continued to be at war with France which caused great financial strains on the citizens. Anna Barbauld showed her disappointment and anger towards Britain, which, some say, was a sign of being unpatriotic.
It seems to me, that "feminine" issues, such as the upbringing of children, watching trees and seasonal "wonders" are acceptable for women, but, when they express their opinions about "masculine" issues, they are severely criticized.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld wrote extraordinary literature. She should be remembered for her virtuous qualities and brilliant writings she shared with the world.
Work Cited
1. The Life and Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Edited by Grace A. Ellis (University Press: Welch, Bigelow and Co. 1874), vol. II.
2. Poems of Anna Barbauld, edited by William McCarthy and Elizabeth Kraft (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993) pg.78.
3. Ibid. pg.168.
4. Ibid. Pg. 166.
Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Scotland. His father was a poor farmer, but he provided the best education he could afford to his son. Burns had a private tutor and managed to go to a few years of formal schooling. At school, he first learned English poetry before studying the poetry of his Scottish heritage. Due to Burns humble beginnings, he was considered the poet for the "common man". He wrote about Scottish life and injustices and tried to express the thoughts and emotions of ordinary people, "for he not only wrote about Scottish life and manners, but he also sought inspiration from Scotland"(Critical Survey of Poetry, pg.450).
Robert Burns is considered the national poet of Scotland for his efforts to preserve his Scottish heritage. He wrote in Scots--a northern dialect of English spoken by Scottish peasants. Burns' unique style of writing and expressing emotions gave him the label as a romantic poet, "No matter what the dialect, however, literary historians have termed Burns a pre-Romantic"(Critical Survey of poetry, pg.447). Burns rejected the neoclassical poets, instead, he focused on his Scottish heritage, "Burns had little use for Horace, Homer, and the other models for English neoclassicism"(Critical Survey of Poetry, pg. 448). At a time when Scotland was in civil turmoil, Robert Burns helped to preserve its cultural identity by writing about his homeland. Unlike the neoclassical poetry of his time, Burns wrote with passion and was easily able to express his feelings through poetry, "his poems evinced a heartiness and exuberance, and even a certain "roughness""(Critical Survey of Poetry, pg448.)
A Red, Red Rose is a fine example of Burns' love poetry. The poem's meter alternates mostly between tetrameter and trimeter. The poetic voice employs trochees such as "O my" and spondees such as "red rose" throughout the poem. The iambic feet lull the reader like the way a rose's essence might lull a lover.
In the opening stanza, the poetic voice compares his love to both a rose and a melody. The poetic voice is setting a happy and joyous tone, thus far. "Luve" is personified through capitalization in this stanza.
O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly played in tune!
In the second stanza, the poetic voice continues to express his deep love. He tells his love he will care for her forever, until all the seas dry up. Iambics allow for stresses such as "am I" in line six, therefore increasing the significance of the speaker of the poem--Just as the poem affirms the love, the meter affirms feeling through rhythm. Love, again, is personified.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in Luve am I
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry:
The third stanza begins with the poetic voice repeating the last line in order to emphasize his love for her. The poetic voice continues to reinforce his statements with even more comparisons to his love. There is a break of meter in line eleven which interferes with the lulling rhythm; this break allows the sentiment to resonate and emphasizes his love.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
In the final stanza, the poetic voice says good-bye to his love. He tells her he will come for her another time, regardless of the distance he may have to travel.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
The rose, the melody, the drying seas, melting rocks and sands all help to express the earthly love the poetic voice feels towards his unnamed woman. Throughout this poem, Burns manages to convey deep feeling without the use of complex language.
Works Cited
Critical Survey of Poetry, Salem Press, Pasadena, California: vol.1, 1992.
Robert Burns, National Book league, David Daiches, New York: 1963.
His Personality, His Reputation and His Art, Kennikat Press, Franklyn Snyder, N.Y./London: 1970.
