The World's Best Books : A Key to the Treasures of Literature Part 6

[31] Burns is like a whiff of the pure sea air. He is a sprig of arbutus under the snow; full of tenderness and genuine gayety, always in love, and singing forever in tune to the throbs of his heart. Read "The Jolly Beggars," "The Twa Dogs," and see Table III. No. 11. (Scot., 18th cent.)

[32] Probably nothing is so likely to awaken a love for poetry as the reading of Scott. (Scot., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 7.

[33] Byron is the greatest English poet since Milton, and except Goethe the greatest poet of his age in the world. His music, his wonderful control of language, his impa.s.sioned strength pa.s.sing from vehemence to pathos, his fine sense of the beautiful, and his combination of pa.s.sion with beauty would place him high on the first shelf of the world's literature if it were not for his moral aberration. Read his "Childe Harold." (Eng., 1788-1824.) See Table III. No. 13.

[34] Sh.e.l.ley is indistinct, abstract, impracticable, but full of love for all that is n.o.ble, of magnificent poetic power and marvellous music.

Read "Prometheus Unbound," and see Table III. No. 13. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[35] Keats is the poetic brother of Sh.e.l.ley. He is deserving of the t.i.tle "marvellous boy" in a far higher degree than Chatterton. If the lives of Shakspeare, Milton, and Wordsworth had ended at twenty-five, as did the life of Keats, they would have left no poetry comparable with that of this impa.s.sioned dreamer. Like Shakspeare, he had no fortune or opportunity of high education. Read "Hyperion," "Lamia," "Eve of Saint Agnes," "Endymion," and see Table III. No. 13. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[36] Campbell clothed in romantic sweetness and delicate diction, the fancies of the fairy land of youthful dreams, and poured forth with a master voice the pride and grandeur of patriotic song. Read his "Pleasures of Hope," "Gertrude of Wyoming," and see Table III. No. 12.

(Eng., 19th cent.)

[37] Moore is a singer of wonderful melody and elegance and of inexhaustible imagery. Read his "Irish Melodies." (Eng., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 11.

[38] Thomson is one of the most intense lovers of Nature, and sees with a clear eye the correspondences between the inner and outer worlds upon which poetry is built. Read his "Seasons" and "The Castle of Indolence."

(Eng., 18th cent.)

[39] Read Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome." "Horatius" cannot fail to make the reader pulse with all the heroism and patriotism that is in his heart, and "Virginia" will fill each heart with mutiny and every eye with tears. (Eng., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 12.

[40] Dryden's song is not so smooth as Pope's, but doubly strong. His translation of Virgil has more fire than the original, though less elegance. He was the literary king of his time, but knew better _how_ to say things than _what_ to say. (Eng., 17th cent.) See Table III. No. 14.

[41] Collins was a poet of fine genius. Beauty, simplicity, and sweet harmony combine in his works, but he wrote very little. Read his odes, "To Pity," "To Evening," "To Mercy," "To Simplicity." See Table III. No.

14. (Eng., 18th cent.)

[42] Jean Ingelow's poems deserve at least tasting, which will scarcely fail to lead to a.s.similation. (Eng., 1862.) See Table III. No. 14.

[43] Bryant's "Thanatopsis," written at eighteen, gave promise of high poetic power; but in the life of a journalist the current of energy was drawn away from poetry, and America lost the full fruitage of her best poetic tree. He is serene and lofty in thought, and strong in his descriptive power and the n.o.ble simplicity of his language. (Amer., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 13.

[44] Longfellow's poetry is earnest and full of melody, but _as a whole_ lacks pa.s.sion and imagery. Relatively to a world standard he is not a great poet and has written little worthy of universal reading, but as bone of our bone he has a claim on us as Americans for sufficient attention at least to investigate for ourselves his merits. (Amer., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 10.

[45] Lowell says that George Herbert is as "holy as a flower on a grave." (Eng., 1631.) See Table III. No. 13.

[46] Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" and "Traveller" will live as long as the language. They are full of wisdom and lovely poetry. His dramas abound in fun. Read "The Good-Natured Man" and "She Stoops to Conquer."

(Eng., 18th cent.) See Table IV.

[47] Read Coleridge's "Christabel," and get somebody to explain its mysterious beauty to you; also his "Remorse," "Ode to the Departing Year," "Ancient Mariner," and "Kubla Khan." The latter is the most magnificent creation of his time, but needs a good deal of study for most readers to perceive the beautiful underlying thought, as is the case also with the "Mariner." Coleridge is difficult reading. He wrote very little excellently, but that little should be bound in gold, and read till the inner light of it shines into the soul of the reader. The terrible opium habit ruined him. Read his life; it is a thrilling story.

(Eng., 1772-1834.) Table III. No. 11.

[48] Lowell says, in his "Fable for Critics," that he is always discovering new depths

"in Wordsworth, undreamed of before,-- That divinely inspired, wise, deep, tender, grand--bore."

Nothing could sum up this poet better than that. His intense delight in Nature and especially in mountain scenery, and his pure, serene, earnest, majestic reflectiveness are his great charms. His "Excursion"

is one of the great works of our literature, and stands in the front rank of the world's philosophical poetry. Its thousand lines of blank verse roll through the soul like the stately music of a cathedral organ.

(Eng., 19th cent.) See Table III. No. 13.

[49] Pope is the greatest of the world's machine poets, the n.o.blest of the great army who place a higher value on skilful execution than on originality and beauty of conception. The "Rape of the Lock" is his most successful effort, and is the best of all mock-heroic poems. "The sharpest wit, the keenest dissection of the follies of fashionable life, the finest grace of diction, and the softest flow of melody adorn a tale in which we learn how a fine gentleman stole a lock of a lady's hair."

Read also his "Essay on Man," and glance at his "Dunciad," a satire on fellow-writers. (Eng., 1688-1744.) See Table III. No. 13, and Table IV.

[50] Southey had great ideas of what poetry should be, and strove for purity, unity, and fine imagery; but there was no pathos or depth of emotion in him, and the stream of his poetry is not the gush of the river, but the uninteresting flow of the ca.n.a.l. Byron says, "G.o.d help thee, Southey, and thy readers too." Glance at his "Thalaba the Destroyer" and "Curse of Kehama." (Eng., 1774-1843.)

[51] Walton's "Compleat Angler" is worthy of a glance. (Eng., 1653.)

[52] Browning is very obscure, and neither on authority nor principle a first-rate poet; but he is a strong thinker, and dear to those who have taken the pains to dig out the nuggets of gold. Canon Farrar puts him among the three living authors whose works he would be most anxious to save from the flames. Mrs. Browning has more imagination than her husband, and is perhaps his equal in other respects. (Eng., 19th cent.)

[53] Read Young's "Night Thoughts."

[54] Jonson, on account of his n.o.ble aims, comparative purity, and cla.s.sic style, stands next to Shakspeare in the history of English drama. Read "The Alchemist," "Catiline," "The Devil as an a.s.s,"

"Cynthia's Revels," and "The Silent Woman." The plot of the latter is very humorous. (Eng., 1700.)

[55] The dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher are poetically the best in the language except those of Shakspeare. Read "Philaster," "The Fair Maid of the Inn," "Thierry and Theodoret," "The Maid's Tragedy." (Eng., 17th cent.)

[56] Marlowe's "Mighty Line" is known to all lovers of poetry who have made a wide hunt. His energy is intense. Read "The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus," based on that wonderfully fascinating story of the doctor who offered his soul to h.e.l.l in exchange for a short term of power and pleasure, on which Goethe expended the flower of his genius, and around which grew hundreds of plays all over Europe. (Eng., 17th cent.)

[57] For whimsical and ludicrous situations and a rapid fire of witticisms, Sheridan's plays have no equals. Read "The School for Scandal" and "The Rivals." (Eng., 18th cent.)

[58] Carleton's poetry is not of a lofty order, but exceedingly enjoyable. Read his "Farm Ballads." (Amer., 19th cent.)

[60] Virgil is the greatest name in Roman literature. His "aeneid" is the national poem of Rome. His poetry is of great purity and elegance, and for variety, harmony, and power second in epic verse only to his great model, Homer. (Rome, 1st cent. B. C.) Read Dryden's translation if you cannot read the original.

[61] The Odes of Horace combine wit, grace, sense, fire, and affection in a perfection of form never attained by any other writer. He is untranslatable; but Martin's version and commentary will give some idea of this most interesting man, "the most modern and most familiar of the ancients." (Rome, 1st cent. B. C.)

[62] Lucretius is a philosophic poet. He aimed to explain Nature; and his poem has much of wisdom, beauty, sublimity, and imagination to commend it. Virgil imitated whole pa.s.sages from Lucretius. (Rome, 1st cent. B. C.)

[63] Ovid is gross but fertile, and his "Metamorphoses" and "Epistles"

have been great favorites. (Rome, 1st cent. B. C.)

[64] The "Antigone" and "OEdipus at Colonus" of Sophocles are of exquisite tenderness and beauty. In pathos Shakspeare only is his equal.

(Greece, 5th cent. B. C.)

[65] Euripides is the third of the great triumvirate of Greek dramatists. His works were very much admired by Milton and Fox. Read his "Alcestis," "Iphigenia," "Medea," and the "Baccha.n.a.ls." (Greece, 5th cent. B. C.)

[66] Aristophanes is the greatest of Greek comedy writers. His plays are great favorites with scholars, as a rule. Read the "Clouds," "Birds,"

"Knights," and "Plutus." (Greece, 5th cent. B. C.)

[67] Pindar's triumphal odes stand in the front rank of the world's lyric poetry. (Greece, 5th cent. B. C.)

[68] Hesiod's "Theogony" contains the religious faith of Greece. He lived in or near the time of Homer.

[69] Heine is the most remarkable German poet of this century. He has written many gems of rare beauty, and many sketches of life unmatched for racy freshness and graphic power.

[70] Schiller is the second name in German literature; indeed, as a lover of men and as a poet of exquisite fancy, he far excels Goethe. He was a great philosopher, historian, and critic. Read his "Song of the Bell," and his drama of "Wallenstein," translated by Coleridge.

(Germany, 18th cent.)

[71] Corneille, Racine, and Moliere are the great French triumvirate of dramatists. Their object is to produce one ma.s.sive impression. In this they follow the cla.s.sic writers. A French, Greek, or Roman drama is to a Shakspearean play as a statue to a picture, as an idea carved out of Nature and rendered magnificently impressive by its isolation and the beauty of its modelling, to Nature itself. The historical and ethical value of the French plays is very great. Corneille is one of the grandest of modern poets. Read "The Cid" ("As beautiful as the Cid"

became a proverb in France), and "Horace" (which is even more original and grand than "The Cid"), and "Cinna" (which Voltaire thought the best of all). Racine excels in grace, tenderness, and versatility. Read his "Phedre." Moliere was almost as profound a master of human nature on its humorous side as Shakspeare. He hates folly, meanness, and falsehood; he is always wise, tender, and good. Read "Le Misanthrope," or "The Man-Hater," and "Tartuffe," or "The Impostor." (17th cent.)

[74] Alfred de Musset is a famous French poet of this century, and is a great favorite with those who can enjoy charming and inspiring thoughts though mixed with the grotesque and extravagant.