L£.t. 
 
 
 — • • ••^-^5^'^ — ■^K— 
 
 POEMS 
 
 -ON- 
 
 "loGltsleii IfQll, SiitK yeors Jlfter. " 
 
 {Reprinted from the St. TLomm: Times.) 
 
 UY- 
 
 / /t 
 
 and 
 
 re:v. w. f. Clarke. 
 
 -^.».» > J X >. ■ >{ . - 
 
 TIMES PRINT, 
 
 ST. THOMAS, ONT. 
 1892. 
 
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 "''<■■'.. 
 
]jmd ipeF^nvSQi^'s gessiFFiisro.. 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
 'HE recent (leath of the Poet Laureate, 
 Tennyson, invests his wriiini^s witli new 
 interest, and will induce many to read his poems, 
 who have hitherto been unfamiliar with them. 
 They will re-pay re-perusal in the case 
 of those who are familiar with them. It 
 s a characteristic of true greatness that it 
 growr- upon us. No one takes in Niagara at 
 una view, or thoroughly appreciates it at a 
 single visit. It is only after seeing the majestic 
 scene repeatedly, and gazing at it with pro- 
 longed deliberation, that we are duly impressed 
 with its greatness and grandeur. What is true 
 of the magnificent works of nature, is also true 
 of the great works of art. Illustrations of this 
 might easily be given from the domains of 
 painting, sculpture, mi-sic and poetry. Time, 
 that tests all things, keeps the laurel wreaths 
 which encircles the brow of true greatness not 
 only always green, but ever growing. 
 
 Almost the only defect in the lateJLord 
 ' Tennyson's poems, is th e vein of sad n ess and 
 even pessimism that runs through them. It is 
 visible in "Locksley Hall," one of his earlier 
 compositions, written amid the bright dreams 
 of youth, and tinges with a very deep gloom, 
 •'Locksley Hall, sixty years after." Concern- 
 ing this, a writer in the Dominion Illustrated, 
 wrote as follows, a few months ago : 
 
 "The most sanguine optimist and admirer 
 could not fail to be tinged with sadness when 
 the poet, more than half a century after, 
 reviews in his sequel to "Locksley Hall" those 
 bright ''castles in Spain" his youthful imagina- 
 tion had constructed, and discovers that none 
 of them were real. Tennyson regretfully 
 shows in this p lem that bitt' r experience and 
 advancing age have dispelled those youthful 
 
 visions, and on every side are. he thinks,, 
 indications that the world is getting w^c.rse 
 instead of better. The, publication, q; thij. 
 pessimistic view led to a rather spirited di.scus- 
 sion throughout America and Europe, whiUt 
 Canada contributed her quota in the shape of a _ 
 review by Rev. Dr. Dewart, of Toronto, 
 himself no mean poet. A lofty tone. of.lLoiie.- 
 fulness pervaded this review, and Tennyson's 
 attention was drawn to the fact that as we 
 recede from past events their grossne.ss is ottcn 
 glossed over in our imagination, and the 
 present and future look-corresponding dismal. 
 Dew art's criticism of I ennyson's poems led to 
 another Canadian minister. Rev. W. F. Clarke^ 
 then stationed at St. Thomas, Ont., taking up 
 his literary cudgels and slashing both Tennyson 
 and Dewart. This gentleman had not been 
 suspected of possessing a poetic vein, but it 
 must be confessed he put his own views in 
 vigorous verse. I long since lost my copy of 
 it — cut out of a newspaper at the time — but the 
 opening stanzas have always clung to me since. 
 The discussion in this country, ended here ; 
 but as contributions to a literary topic by 
 Canadian authors, they certainly deserved per- 
 manent preservation." 
 
 We have much pleasure in presenting these 
 two productions to the readers of the Ti.mfs, 
 by whom, notwithstanding their length, thtiy 
 will doubtless be read with much interest, 
 especially at the present time. 
 
 THEN ANI» NOW. 
 
 •Jf^ 
 
 \ 
 
 A. Siippleinciital Kcspouse (o Lord Tcuiiy- 
 sou's •*Lock8lcy Hull Sixty Years After" 
 byltcv. E. H. Wcwart, D.D. 
 
 Though the poet peer of England, in a faitfe; 
 less, mournful strain^ 
 
 Sings of dark and baleful evils which o'ercast 
 the people's reign, 
 
 Men of hopeful hearts forget not how our cen- 
 tury has outgrown 
 
 i ! 
 
 I ! 
 
vW^' 
 
 jr\X 
 
 LORD TENNYSON'S PESSIMISM. 
 
 X 
 
 / 
 
 Cruel wronjjs nnd hateful customs that were 
 once on fashion's throne. 
 
 Why in ever) clime and period have the fearful 
 
 an-i the old, 
 Glorified the age departed as the Eden uge of 
 
 gold ? 
 ('han(;e and progress, Jarger freedom, wliich 
 
 the hanti c)| tirr.e has brought, 
 Arc but signs of hliijht and ruin by the rash 
 
 and reckless wrought. 
 
 Forms of life and truth must vary with the 
 
 spirit of the years ; 
 Fairest blossoms of the springtime, wither ere 
 
 the fruit apjicars, 
 Every age moulds thought and action by its 
 
 free and living mind — 
 D<' not cast away the kernel for the roughness 
 
 of the rind. 
 
 When the hopes of youth are buoyant, and the 
 
 pulse of life keeps time 
 To the glad inspiring mueic of love's melodies 
 
 sublime, 
 All the world is bathed in brightness ; hope 
 
 pours balm on every smart ; 
 And the bleakest scenes are golden by the 
 
 sunshine in the heart. 
 
 I When the fires of life burn dimly, and the false 
 and selfish world 
 Chills our hopeful trust and courage till the 
 
 flags of faith are furled, 
 Then the world without grows darker ; things 
 . which once seemed good and fair 
 
 I The desoondent spirit colors with the hues of 
 its despair. 
 
 Looking backward through the ages of which 
 
 timid croakers boast. 
 They are black with wrongs and falsehoods, 
 
 that are nov a vanished host ; 
 For the "good old times" embosomed brainless 
 
 follies, social crimes, 
 That we would not brook a moment in these 
 
 kindlier better times. 
 
 Who that shares the light and freedom, which 
 
 like blessed sunlight falls 
 On the peasant's lowly cottage freely as on 
 
 lordly halls. 
 Would go back to times of darkness e'er the 
 
 sun of freedom rose, 
 And renounce the wealth of blessing which 
 
 this latest age bestows ? 
 
 Then the vast and mystic forces. Cod through 
 nature has diffused 
 
 Were, alike by sage and savage, undiscovered 
 and unused : 
 
 Now these ])owers like living creatures have 
 been taught by human skill — 
 
 Wear man's yoke and bear his burdens, faith- 
 ful servants to his will. 
 
 Learning then was fortune's favor ; to the poor 
 
 by fate denied ; 
 Now the gates of truth and knowledge unto 
 
 all stand open wide ; 
 And the poor man's boy, with only honest 
 
 heart and active brain. 
 May evince his native kingship and the highest 
 
 rank attain. 
 
 Then the toiling and the Icnvly, were each 
 
 petty tyrant's scorn, 
 Doomed to stay with dumb submission in the 
 
 sphere where they were born ; 
 Now the sons of toil are honored, while their 
 
 selfish despots cower , 
 For the voice ol honest labor has liecome a 
 
 voice of power. 
 
 Then the multitude, unthinking, blindly 
 
 drank the potion given, 
 Took the words of human teachers as the very 
 
 words of heaven. 
 Only few with faith and courage, truth herself 
 
 su])remely prized. 
 While the slaves of custom worshipped what 
 
 the past had canonized. 
 
 Now o'er truth's vast sea exploring thought's 
 free pennons are unfurled, 
 
 There's a mental resunection like the spring- 
 time of a world. 
 
 , Creed and teacher must be tested as by fire in 
 fiercest light. 
 
 For the question of the age is, "Is it True 
 AND IS IT Right ?" 
 
 Law, so long the rich man's weapon, keeping 
 
 pelf and power secure, 
 Now extends its strong protection to the feeble 
 
 and the poor, 
 Lonely souls through all the ages, wrought 
 
 and battled in the van ; 
 Now the range of deeds heroic spans the 
 
 brotherhood of man. 
 
 Then, like soulless beasts of burden, men and 
 
 women bought with gold 
 W'ere by heartless christian brother into life- 
 
LOUD TENNYSON'S PESSIMISM. 
 
 long bondage sold ; 
 Now through every clime and country rings 
 
 the jubilant decree, 
 That, in spite of race and color, every human 
 
 soul is free. 
 
 Christless multitudes, unpitied, down to deeper 
 
 thraldom swept; 
 Left alone in guilt and darkness while the 
 
 church supinely slept ; 
 Now to every tribe and nation, where God's 
 
 name was never named, 
 Messages of free salvation are with living 
 
 power proclaimed. 
 
 Is it right, because past evils do not thwart our 
 
 present aims. 
 To make light of them and cover cruel wrongs 
 
 with pleasant names? 
 And to slight the fruits of freedom, now to 
 
 rich and poor supplied, 
 Which through all those vaunted ages were 
 
 unrighteously denied ? 
 
 Why bewail the strife and struggles that disturb 
 I this restless time 
 
 I As the signs of coming chaos, which presage 
 
 decay and crime ? 
 ji All the cherished light and progress that have 
 ' lifted up the race 
 
 Have been w^n by throes and conflicts which 
 to bette: things gave place. 
 
 Brood not over stormy passions, surging 'round 
 
 some chronic wrong ; 
 High above the noise of battle, faith may hear 
 
 the victor's song. 
 Toil yields rest, and beauty blossoms from a 
 
 dark ''unsightly root ;" 
 Unrjpe sourness is the promise of the Autunva's 
 
 ruddy fruit. 
 
 In the lives of men and nations, comes no 
 
 crown of bliss sunipreme. 
 To the stolid and slow-hearted who have 
 
 floated with the stream. 
 Oft the fires of ardent conflict, heavy burdens, 
 
 fiercest strife, •, , r' . ..,- 
 
 Lift the struggling spirit higher ; nerve and 
 
 beautify the life. 
 
 Men who weakly cringe and pander to advance 
 
 some cherished cause. 
 May be counted wise and prudent, win the 
 
 shallow world's ai:)plause ; .-•- ;.'v, 
 Yet I'd rather brave its hatred, standing lonely 
 
 in the fight, 
 
 And be loyal to my conscience, and to whnt is 
 true and right. 
 
 Ignorance, injustice, folly, linger still, while 
 
 myriads wait 
 'Till the valleys are exalted, and the crooked 
 
 paths made straight ; 
 But the direst ills and follies thfit becloud the 
 
 worl 1 to-day. 
 Are but shi.des of darker evils that have almost 
 
 passed away. , 
 
 Doubtlcs:: prejudice and passion may th^-* 
 
 restive crwwds unite ; 
 And the blind may lead the blind, 'till thev 
 
 trample on the right ; 
 Bitter feuds of creeds and classes find no cure 
 
 in human code ; 
 Men in true and Christly brotherhood, mu>.t 
 
 bear each other's load . 
 
 Rough and steep the path of progress ; slowly 
 
 earth's oppressions die ; 
 Yet the world is rising higher as the burdened 
 
 years go by. 
 Truth and righteousness, unconquered, in this 
 
 warfare shall prevail ; 
 This the God of truth has promised, ami his 
 
 word can never fail. 
 
 ^.aj 
 
 
 •<- 
 
 •►O 
 
 »'THE.\ AXI» son.' 
 
 A Crithiiie on **A !!iiii»i>l(>Hi(>ntal It(>Ki)oii<.f 
 to Lord Toiiiiysoirs "Locksloy Hall 
 Sixty l'< nr» After," by Rov. W. F. C'lnrSi*-. 
 
 "Poet-peer" and poet-preacher both are ri'.-ht 
 
 and both are wrong, <A.Ai^ 
 
 Each has truth and fact embodied in the tex- *^ 
 
 ture of his song; > 
 
 One has wailed a minor cadence with a ])nlhos 
 
 all his own. 
 While the other peals an anthem in a \o{\.)\ 
 
 major tone. 
 
 'Tis the old chameleon fable, verified in stately 
 verse, 
 
 In some things the world is lietter, while in 
 others it is worse; 
 
 All depends on h(nv you mcw it, in the sun- 
 shine or the shade, 
 
 When the flowers are blooming brightly, < r 
 the brilliant colours f^ide. 
 
 Tennyson has penned no libel on the passing 
 
LORD TENNYSON'S PESSIMISM. 
 
 n^e nnd nice, 
 Tor ihcre still arc j^iant evils which humanity 
 
 (lis'Macc ; 
 Tis a life-liUc (•icime truly that his artist hand 
 
 has skelchffl, 
 Though his sorrowful examples may he here 
 
 and there far-fetched. 
 
 r>ewart, too, has f^nnjured up no fanciful, 
 
 poetic dicam ; 
 In the sifjns of iuo('crn pro};rcss he has made 
 
 liis cheerful ilicint.', 
 All is true to human nature, and to present, 
 
 real life, 
 liut, as ever, gmn] and evil are engaged in 
 I /., deadly strife. 
 
 Which, upon the whole is mightier, who has 
 
 V light enough to say ? 
 
 Does thu'twili<:ht tend to evening or to bright 
 ■! , nv-'ridian day, 
 \it Are^.they gathering glooms that presage an 
 ^^ apjiroaching, dismal night, 
 
 -' Or dispelling shadows, vanishing before a 
 
 morning bright? 
 
 Many hoary wrongs departed, tell of progress 
 
 on those lines, 
 And, of social peace and comfort, there are 
 
 many hopeful signs. 
 But the old oppressions linger, though in new 
 
 and modern forms. 
 And the heavens are black witi cloud-banks 
 
 that betoken coming storms. 
 
 Lo ! the European nations, always armed for 
 deadly strife. 
 
 While with wars and rumors of them, all the 
 foreign air is rife, 
 
 Britain torn with wild convulsion, law and 
 order set at naught, 
 
 And the wisest statesmen living, with perplex- 
 ity distraught. 
 
 Science has yoked up the forces which 
 through nature are diffused, 
 
 And they lie no longer idle, dormant powers 
 by man unused. 
 
 But monopolists and nabobs, pouncing on them 
 as their prey, 
 
 Reproduce the wrongs and hardships of a by- 
 gone feudal day. _ _^^ -r- 
 
 Coat of armour, bow and arrow, glittering 
 
 sword and pointed spear. 
 Old-time weapons of rude warfare from the 
 
 conflict disappear, 
 
 Acts of I'arliamei.t and charters now empower 
 
 the favoured few. 
 At their wills to fleece the many, just as barons 
 
 used to do. 
 
 Scholarship and education in these days are 
 free to all. 
 
 But they do not rid the masses of their former 
 captive thrall. 
 
 They are like "dumii driven cattle," forced, 
 though much against their will, 
 
 To (jbey tyrannic masters anil submit to bond- 
 age still. 
 
 Is it now the burning question, in this age 
 
 (jfvaunled light, 
 What the poet preacher tells us, "Is it true 
 
 and is it right ?" 
 Kather do nf't men and women in our much 
 
 enlightened day. 
 Ask on every mooted subject, "Is I'V Safe 
 
 AND WILL IT Pay?" 
 
 It is well the poet ])rencher holds the standards 
 
 of his church 
 Otherwise he soon would be, a theologian in 
 
 the lu.ch ; 
 Robbed of pulpit, standing, stipend, easy 
 
 edit(jrial chair. 
 In a far-ofl' country exiled, empty husks his 
 
 daily fare. 
 
 Not a decade yet has vanished since a Method- 
 ist divine. 
 
 Add a Presbyterian preacher, stars that bright 
 with lustre shine. 
 
 Had to eat their words incautious, to escape 
 sectarian ban, 
 
 Just because they dared to venture too far 
 forward in the van. 
 
 Still "the multitude" unheeding blindly "drink 
 the potion given," 
 
 Take the words of human teachers as the very 
 words of heaven. 
 
 Only few, with ftiith and courage, truth her- 
 self supremely prize. 
 
 While the slaves of pious custom, still the dead 
 ' past canonize. _„ ... '..u^ji 
 
 Still, men meekly cringe and pander to 
 advance some selfish cause. 
 
 And are counted wise and prudent, win the 
 shallow world's applause. 
 
 Who dares brave its cruel hatred, standing 
 lonely in the fight, 
 
 Loyal evermore to conscience, and to what si 
 
 1^ 
 
LORD TENNYSON'S PESSIMISM, 
 
 true aiui iit;ht ? 
 
 :Still, like soulless beasts of l)iinlen, men and 
 women houtjlit withjjold, 
 
 .Are by heailless I'duc and Mammon i.:to life- 
 long Ixindatje sold, 
 
 Not the body merely, we with ignominious 
 fetter hind, 
 
 But that better nature whicli we proudly call 
 "the immortal mind." 
 
 Christless multitudes uniiitied down to deeper 
 
 thraldom sweej), 
 Left alone in fjjuilt and darkness, while the 
 
 angels look and weep, 
 'For, l)eneath the eaves of churches, heathen 
 
 perish day by day. 
 Though we jily our mission labors, to the 
 
 countries far away. 
 
 .'See the social evil rampant, as it never was of 
 
 yore. 
 Tramps, and waifs, ard drunkards, wandering 
 
 pa.-it the sanctuary door; 
 Poverty and want uncared for, while the 
 
 wealthy hoard their pelf. 
 And devote their lavish thousands, to the 
 
 pampering of self. 
 
 And while all these evils fester in the body 
 
 politic. 
 Rank hypocrisy apparent, niakes the burdened 
 
 heart grow sick. 
 People doubt the saintliness that, passing on 
 
 the other side, 
 Asks, "Who is my neighbor ?" with a tone and 
 
 air of cant and pride. 
 
 Oh ! it seems an endless reon that we have to 
 
 hope and wait. 
 Till the valleys are exalted and the crooked 
 
 paths made straight; 
 
 Is the world's mellenium ne.ucr thin it was an 
 
 age ago, 
 When so many signs and portents seem aloud 
 
 to answer "No'?" 
 
 IIapi)y tho.se who 'mid the chaos, feel that 
 things are ripeidng ui) 
 
 To the time when rdl the starving sliall enjoy 
 their "bit and sup," 
 
 Every form of moial evil sink .nlo oblivion 
 deep, 
 
 Dalm be given to hearts that ache, aid glad- 
 ness dawn on eyes that weep. 
 
 \(jthing shoit of love's enthronement in lire 
 
 hearts and lives of men, 
 Will bring hack to earth's bleik desert, "Para- 
 
 ilise Resl-^red" again. 
 And, the golden rule established, b otherhoo I 
 
 and concord hnd 
 Universal welcome in the haunl.i and homes of 
 
 ad mankind. 
 
 If this "golden age'' is coming, yen is at oui 
 
 A'ery tloor, 
 Sudden siicial revolutions must bo for the 
 
 world in store, 
 Great upheavals, moral earthqurd<e.i, cycKjnes 
 
 of redstless might, 
 That shall swallow up the evil, and aloft uplift 
 
 the right. 
 
 Not by tardy gain of inches can ten thousand 
 leagues of space, 
 
 Be recovered from usurpers who alllict the 
 human race. 
 
 Let us pray that (iod Almighty, will upon the 
 scene descend. 
 
 And consign its desolations to a quick, per- 
 petual end I 
 St. Thomas, March 8, 1888.