VICTORIAN NARRATIVE POETRY

ALTHOUGH Tennyson's poetic gifts were primarily those of a lyric poet, he wrote many narratives that contributed much to his fame among his contemporaries. Of the longer poems, The Princess, dealing with the education and social development of woman, and Maud, with its background of the Crimean War, are now read less . frequently than the more ambitious Idylls of the King, in which the poet interpreted for his age the story of the old Arthurian romances.

The poems that make up the Idylls of the King were written at different times between 1842 and 1885, but the stories of King Arthur had always seemed to Tennyson "the greatest of all poetical subjects." The central theme that gives a sort of epic unity to the different poems is "sense at war with soul," exemplified in the defeat of Arthur's high purposes by the weaknesses and disloyalties of others. Guinevere represents the dramatic climax of the story, and shows Tennyson's symbolism at its height. The story is much less important to the poet than its significance. The wonderful adventures and the marvels of old romance have all but disappeared and the allegorical interpretation, supporting Tennyson's belief in conventional morality, is made much of. The beauty of the poem lies less in the characters and the story than in the finely shaded rhythms, the form and color of the verse, and the artistic phrasing.

Sohrab and Rustum comes closer to the old epic manner than any of the other narratives of the period, for Matthew Arnold was a lover of Homer. It may appropriately be called an heroic tale, for it presents a crisis in the lives of two leaders of warring hosts, both essentially noble figures. The style is in keeping, dignified, reserved, duly subordinated to the action and the character.

William Morris was both a "dreamer of dreams" and an avowed disciple of Chaucer. He loved the Middle Ages as he disliked the materialistic spirit of his own age, and he had the ability to relate long narratives in verse with ease and fluency. The Haystack in the Floods is a romantic tale written realistically, with much of the dramatic intensity of life in medieval times.

Rossetti's The Blessed Damozel has the form of a ballad but is really a succession of beautiful pictures, set forth simply and sincerely by a poet who was also a painter. Although there is a slight narrative framework the poem is markedly lyrical in its emphasis upon the feelings of two lovers, one in heaven, one on earth,—both unhappy.

Sir Modred; he that like a subtle beast 10 He, reverencing king's blood in a bad

He chill'd the popular praises of the King No knight of Arthur's noblest dealt in With silent smiles of slow disparage

And he was answer'd softly by the King Held her awake: or if she slept, she