The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX. No. 1023, August 5, 1899Various
General
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX. No. 1023, August 5, 1899
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
We have spoken of the great Florentine poet and the study of Italian;
it will not perhaps be quite out of place to hint to students of German
that a rich reward lies before them if they can master the language
sufficiently to enjoy the lyric poems of Goethe, the higher flights
of Schiller, and many others. The “Erl-König” (Erl King) by Goethe
and the “Farewell of Joan of Arc to the Mountains” from Schiller’s
play, _The Maid of Orleans_, were great favourites of the writer in
her girlhood. German poetry is true music, whatever may be said to the
contrary by those who only half know the language.
Space fails us to write in full of modern English poetry. Wordsworth,
Scott, Longfellow, Tennyson, Browning, Mrs. Browning, Keats, Shelley,
Matthew Arnold, Arthur Hugh Clough, William Morris, are names of
varying fame, but each name brings unspeakable associations to those
who know and love the poet through his work. Surely one of these may
become to you a teacher who will help and inspire.
Wordsworth will transport you into the world of nature. How much those
are to be pitied who live in the “stony-hearted” street, far from
the sweet influences of wood and meadow, moor and mountain, lake and
waterfall! These exiles from the true home of man may find solace in
the poet of nature.
“Keep fresh the grass upon his grave,
O Rotha, with thy living wave;
Sing him thy best! for few or none
Hears thy voice right, now he is gone.”
Thus Matthew Arnold apostrophises the little river that washes the
Grasmere churchyard. The epitaph to Wordsworth in the Grasmere church
so aptly describes his work that we cannot refrain from quoting it here.
“To the memory of William Wordsworth, a True Philosopher and Poet: who,
by the special gift and calling of Almighty God, whether he discoursed
of Man or Nature, failed not to lift up the heart to Holy Things: tired
not of maintaining the cause of the Poor and Simple; and so in Perilous
Times was raised up to be a Chief Minister, not only of noblest Poesy,
but of high and sacred Truth.”
Robert Browning, unlike Wordsworth, is a dramatic poet at heart. We do
not mean that his plays are his best work, but that he has unerring
skill in reading the human heart and translating into poetry its loves,
hates, fears, and ambitions. If you will try to understand him, do not
be discouraged by obscurity, but begin by some of the shorter, simpler,
and yet characteristic poems in the volume of _Selections_.
As for Tennyson, who sings alike of man and of nature, you will
probably be more readily lured to his pages than to those of Wordsworth
or Browning. If you are in sorrow, _In Memoriam_ may prove a faithful
comforter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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