The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. PoetryByron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
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The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. Poetry
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
Poetry
[Footnote 136: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles
Robert Darwin. Coleridge describes his poetry as "nothing but a
succession of landscapes or paintings. It arrests the attention too
often, and so prevents the rapidity necessary to pathos."--'Anima
Poetæ', 1895, p. 5. His chief works are 'The Botanic Garden' (1789-92)
and 'The Temple of Nature' (1803). Byron's censure of 'The Botanic
Garden' is inconsistent with his principles, for Darwin's verse was
strictly modelled on the lines of Pope and his followers. But the 'Loves
of the Triangles' had laughed away the 'Loves of the Plants'.]]
[Footnote 137: The neglect of 'The Botanic Garden' is some proof of
returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.]
[Footnote 138: This was not Byron's mature opinion, nor had he so
expressed himself in the review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' which he
contributed to 'Crosby's Magazine' in 1807 ('Life', p. 669). His scorn
was, in part, provoked by indignities offered to Pope and Dryden, and,
in part, assumed because one Lake poet called up the rest; and it was
good sport to flout and jibe at the "Fraternity." That the day would
come when the message of Wordsworth would reach his ears and awaken his
enthusiasm, he could not, of course, foresee (see 'Childe Harold', canto
iii. stanzas 72, 'et seqq.').]]
[Footnote 139: Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of
Southey and Co. [Charles Lloyd (1775-1839) resided for some months under
Coleridge's roof, first in Bristol, and afterwards at Nether Stowey
(1796-1797). He published, in 1796, a folio edition of his 'Poems on the
Death of Priscilla Farmer', in which a sonnet by Coleridge and a poem of
Lamb's were included. Lamb and Lloyd contributed several pieces to the
second edition of Coleridge's Poems, published in 1797; and in 1798 they
brought out a joint volume of their own composition, named 'Poems in
Blank Verse'. 'Edmund Oliver', a novel, appeared also in 1798. An
estrangement between Coleridge and Lloyd resulted in a quarrel with
Lamb, and a drawing together of Lamb, Lloyd, and Southey. But Byron
probably had in his mind nothing more than the lines in the
'Anti-Jacobin', where Lamb and Lloyd are classed with Coleridge and
Southey as advocates of French socialism:--
"Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co.,
Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux."
In later life Byron expressed a very different opinion of Lamb's
literary merits. (See the preface to 'Werner', now first published.)]]
[Footnote 140: By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his
hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to
Grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her Bravo, William of Deloraine.]
[Footnote 141: "Unjust."--B., 1816. [In 'Frost at Midnight', first
published in 1798, Coleridge twice mentions his "Cradled infant."]]
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