Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . to be aprinciple in litera-ture which resem-bles the principleof sexual artist some-times instinctivelyseeks for his ownantithesis andhungers aftervictory in alienforms. All theromantic riot inMr Swinburnesblood clamouredfor Greek severityand Greek re-straint. Nothingis more remarkablein the phenomenaof literature thanthis unconscious economy of correction. The same tendency maybe seen i
Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . to be aprinciple in litera-ture which resem-bles the principleof sexual artist some-times instinctivelyseeks for his ownantithesis andhungers aftervictory in alienforms. All theromantic riot inMr Swinburnesblood clamouredfor Greek severityand Greek re-straint. Nothingis more remarkablein the phenomenaof literature thanthis unconscious economy of correction. The same tendency maybe seen in Browning, whose Gothic grotesquerieand barbaric formlessness were always sprawlingat the feet of Greek sanity and Greek most paradoxical feature of Mr SwinburnesHellenism is its co-existence with his imagination is Protean. He assumes the verysoul of a period, and for the time sings as if hewere a poet of the time. At one moment he isan Elizabethan dramatist, at another a Hebrewseer, at another a French lyrist, at another aGreek poet. His mastery of multifarious stylesis unparalleled. The vivid Greek verses prefixedto Atalanta are followed by the no less vivid. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINIJUKNEFrom a Photograph by Elliott & Fry. Argument, written in prose as magical as thatof the Authorised \ersion. Or take Anactoria(perhaps the pinnacle of his achievements in pointof form), or On the Cliffs, in which he capturesthe uncapturable Sapphic cadence : Bid not ache nor agony break nor master,Lady, my spirit. But of all Mr Swinburnes spiritual transmigra-tions Erechtheus is the most wonderful. Its cold austerity of con-tour, its pure sanityof style, its noblepatriotism, its holymaternal heroism,its magnanimity,and its clangoroussongs of storm andbattle are all builtup into an edificeof balanced beautyand symmetricalstrength. Thechoruses in Erech-tlicHs will neverbe so popular asthe choruses inAtalanta; but inperfection of formand unity of spiritit is nobler than
Size: 1339px × 1865px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglish, bookyear1901
