Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851

THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS

"L'éternité est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces deux mots seulement dans le silence des tombeaux. 'Toujours! Jamais! – Jamais! Toujours!'" – Jacques Bridaine.

"Somewhat back from the village streetStands the old-fashioned country-seat:Across its antique porticoTall poplar-trees their shadows throw;And from its station in the hallAn ancient time-piece say to all —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'Half-way up the stairs it stands,And points and beckons with its hands,From its case of massive oak,Like a monk who, under his cloak,Crosses himself, and sighs, 'Alas!'With sorrowful voice to all who pass —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'By day its voice is low and light,But in the silent dead of night,Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,It echoes along the vacant hall,Along the ceiling, along the floor,And seems to say at each chamber door —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'In that mansion used to beFree-hearted Hospitality;His great fires up the chimney roared,The stranger feasted at his board;But, like the skeletons at the feast,That warning timepiece never ceased —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'There groups of merry children played,There youths and maidens dreaming strayed:O precious hours! O golden prime,And affluence of love and time!Even as a miser counts his gold,Those hours, the ancient timepiece told —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'All are scattered now and fled,Some are married, some are dead;And when I ask, with throbs of pain,'Ah, when shall they all meet again!'As in the days long since gone by,The ancient timepiece makes reply —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'Never here, for ever there,Where all parting, pain, and care,And death and time shall disappear —For ever there, but never here!The horologe of EternitySayeth this incessantly —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'"

Mr Longfellow has not treated Jacques Bridaine fairly – certainly not happily. The pious writer intended that his clock, which represents the voice of Eternity, or the Eternal Destiny of each man, should, by the solemn ticking of its pendulum, utter to the ear of every mortal, according to his conscience, the happy "Toujours!" or the mournful "Jamais!" for the joys of Heaven are either "Always" or "Never." But no clock could utter to the conscience of any man a word of three syllables, and by translating the "Tou-jours! – Ja-mais!" into "For ever! – Never!" we lose the voice of the pendulum. The point of the passage is the same, in this respect, as that of the well-known story of the Dutch widow who consulted her pastor whether she should marry again or not. Her pastor, knowing well that, in these cases, there is but one advice which has the least chance of being followed, referred her to the bells of the church, and bade her listen to them, and mark what they said upon the subject. They said very distinctly, "Kempt ein mann!" – "Take a husband!" Thereupon the pastor re-echoed the same advice. Jacques Bridaine intended that, according to the conscience which the listener brought, the swinging pendulum of his eternal clock would welcome him with the "Toujours!" or utter the knell of "Jamais!" This conceit Mr Longfellow does not preserve. But, what is of far more importance, he preserves no one distinct sentiment in his piece; nor is it possible to detect, in all cases, what his clock means by the solemn refrain, "For ever – never! Never – for ever!" When at the last verse the pendulum explains itself distinctly, the sentiment is diluted into what Jacques Bridaine would have thought, and what we think too, a very tame commentary on human life. At the fifth verse, as it stands in our quotation, the old clock quite forgets his character of monitor, and occupies himself with registering the happy hours of infancy. Very amiable on its part; but, if endowed with this variety of sentiment, it should be allowed to repeat something else than its "ever – never."

"Even as a miser counts his gold,Those hours the ancient time-piece told —'For ever – never!Never – for ever!'"

These remarks may seem very gravely analytical for the occasion that calls them forth. But if it were worth while to adopt a conceit of this description as the text of his poem, it was worth the author's pains to carry it out with a certain distinctness and unity.

Considering the tact and judgment which Mr Longfellow generally displays, we were surprised to find that the longest poem in the volume, with the exception, perhaps, of "The Spanish Student, a play in three acts," has been written in Latin hexameters – is, in fact, one of those painful unlucky metrical experiments which poets will every now and then make upon our ears. They have a perfect right to do so: happily there is no statute which compels us to read. A man may, if he pleases, dance all the way from London to Norwich: one gentleman is said to have performed this feat. We would not travel in that man's company. We should grow giddy with only looking upon his perpetual shuffle and cinq-a-pace. The tripping dactyle, followed by the grave spondee, closing each line with a sort of curtsey, may have a charming effect in Latin. It pleased a Roman ear, and a scholar learns to be pleased with it. We cannot say that we have been ever reconciled by any specimen we have seen, however skilfully executed, to the imitation of it in English; and we honestly confess that, under other circumstances, we should have passed over Evangeline unread. If, however, the rule de gustibus, &c., be ever quite applicable, it is to a case of this kind. With those who assert that the imitation hexameter does please them, and that they like, moreover, the idea of scanning their English, no controversy can possibly be raised.

But although Evangeline has not reconciled us to this experiment, there is so much sweetness in the poetry itself, that, as we read on, we forget the metre. The story is a melancholy one, and forms a painful chapter in the colonial history of Great Britain. Whether the rigour of our Government was justified by the necessity of the case, we will not stop to inquire; but a French settlement, which had been ceded to us, was accused of favouring our enemies. The part of the coast they occupied was one which could not be left with safety in unfriendly hands; and it was determined to remove them to other districts. The village of Grand Pré was suddenly swept of its inhabitants. Evangeline, in this dispersion of the little colony, is separated from her lover; and the constancy of the tender and true-hearted girl forms the subject of the poem.

Our readers will be curious, perhaps, to see a specimen of Mr Longfellow's hexameters. Evangeline is one of those poems which leave an agreeable impression as a whole, but afford few striking passages for quotation. The following is the description of evening in the yet happy village of Grand Pré: —

"Now recommenced the reign of rest and affection and stillness.Day with its burden and heat had departed, and twilight descendingBrought back the evening star to the sky, and the herds to the homestead.Pawing the ground they came, and resting their necks on each other,And, with their nostrils distended, inhaling the freshness of evening.Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline's beautiful heifer,Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that waved from her collar,Quietly paced and slow, as if conscious of human affection.Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks from the sea-side,Where was their favourite pasture. Behind them followed the watch-dog,Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of his instinct,Walking from side to side with a lordly air." —

All this quiet happiness was to cease. The village itself was to be depopulated.

"There o'er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful procession,Came from the neighbouring hamlets and farms the Acadian women,Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to the sea-shore,Pausing, and looking back to gaze once more on their dwellings,Ere they were shut from sight by the winding roads and the woodlands.Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on the oxen,While in their little hands they clasped some fragments of playthings."

If in "Evangeline," Mr Longfellow has hazarded a trial upon our patience, in the "Spanish Student," on the contrary – which, being in the dramatic form, had a certain privilege to be tedious – he has been both indulgent and considerate to his reader. It is properly called a play, for it does not attempt the deep passion of tragedy. It is spirited and vivacious, and does not exceed three acts. Hypolito, a student who is not in love, and therefore can jest at those who are, and Chispa, the roguish valet of Victorian, the student who is in love, support the comic portion of the drama. Chispa, by his Spanish proverbs, proves himself to be a true countryman of Sancho Panza. We must give a specimen of Chispa; he is first introduced giving some very excellent advice to the musicians whom he is leading to the serenade: —

"Chispa.– Now, look you, you are gentlemen that lead the life of crickets; you enjoy hunger by day, and noise by night. Yet I beseech you, for this once, be not loud, but pathetic; for it is a serenade to a damsel in bed, and not to the Man in the Moon. Your object is not to arouse and terrify, but to soothe and bring lulling dreams. Therefore each shall not play upon his instrument as if it were the only one in the universe, but gently, and with a certain modesty, according with the others. What instrument is that?

1st Mus.– An Arragonese bagpipe.

Chispa.– Pray, art thou related to the bagpiper of Bujalance, who asked a maravedi for playing, and ten for leaving off?

1st Mus.– No, your honour.

Chispa.– I am glad of it. What other instruments have we?

2d and 3d Mus.– We play the bandurria.

Chispa.– A pleasing instrument. And thou?

4th Mus.– The fife.

Chispa.– I like it; it has a cheerful, soul-stirring sound, that soars up to my lady's window like the song of a swallow. And you others?

Other Mus.– We are the singers, please your honour.

Chispa.– You are too many. Do you think we are going to sing mass in the cathedral of Cordova? Four men can make little use of one shoe, and I see not how you can all sing in one song. But follow me along the garden-wall. That is the way my master climbs to the lady's window. It is by the vicar's skirts the devil climbs into the belfry. Come, follow me, and make no noise.

[Exeunt."

Chispa is travelling with his master, Victorian. When they come to an inn, the latter regales himself with a walk in the moonlight, meditating on his mistress. Not so Chispa.

"Chispa.– Hola! ancient Baltasar! Bring a light and let me have supper.

Bal.– Where is your master?

Chispa.– Do not trouble yourself about him. We have stopped a moment to breathe our horses; and if he chooses to walk up and down in the open air, looking into the sky as one who hears it rain, that does not satisfy my hunger, you know. But be quick, for I am in a hurry, and every one stretches his legs according to the length of his coverlet. What have we here?

Bal. (setting a light on the table.) – Stewed rabbit.

Chispa (eating.) – Conscience of Portalegre! Stewed kitten, you mean!

Bal.– And a pitcher of Pedro Ximenes with a roasted pear in it.

Chispa (drinking.) – Ancient Baltasar amigo! You know how to cry wine and sell vinegar. – Moreover, your supper is like the hidalgo's dinner, very little meat, and a great deal of table-cloth.

Bal.– Ha! ha! ha!

Chispa.– And more noise than nuts.

Bal.– Ha! ha! ha! You must have your jest, Master Chispa. But shall not I ask Don Victorian in to take a draught of the Pedro Ximenes?

Chispa.– No; you might as well say, 'Don't you want some?' to a dead man.

Bal.– Why does he go so often to Madrid?

Chispa.– For the same reason that he eats no supper. He is in love. Were you ever in love, Baltasar?

Bal.– I was never out of it, good Chispa.

Chispa.– What! you on fire too, old haystack? Why, we shall never be able to put you out.

Vict. (without.) – Chispa!

Chispa.– Go to bed – the cocks are crowing."

This Chispa changes masters in course of the piece, and enters into the service of Don Carlos; but the change does not seem to have advanced his fortunes, for we find him thus moralising to himself at the close of the play —

"Alas! and alack-a-day! Poor was I born, and poor do I remain. I neither win nor lose. Thus I wag through the world half the time on foot, and the other half walking… And so we plough along, as the fly said to the ox. Who knows what may happen? Patience, and shuffle the cards! I am not yet so bald that you can see my brains."

It would not be difficult to select other favourable specimens both of the graver and lighter manner of Mr Longfellow; but we must now proceed to the second name upon our list.

Mr Bryant is a poet who not unfrequently reminds us of Mrs Hemans. Perhaps we could not better, in a few words, convey our impression of his poetical status. His verse is generally pleasing – not often powerful. His good taste rarely deserts him; but he has neither very strong passions, nor those indications of profounder thought which constitute so much of the charm of modern poetry. For he who would take a high rank amongst our lyric poets should, at one time or other, have dwelt and thought with the philosophers. He should be seen as stepping from the Porch; he should have wandered, with his harp concealed beneath his robe, in the gardens of the Academy.

Short as Mr Bryant's poems generally are, they still want concentration of thought – energy – unity. In quoting from him, we should often be disposed to make omissions for the very sake of preserving a connection of ideas. The omission of several verses, even in a short poem, so far from occasioning what the doctors would call a "solution of continuity," would often assist in giving to the piece a greater distinctness, and unity of thought and purpose. This ought not to be.

Mr Bryant's poems, we believe, are by this time familiar to most readers of poetry; we must, therefore, be sparing of our quotations. In the few we make, we shall be anxious to give the most favourable specimens of his genius: the faults we have hinted at will sufficiently betray themselves without seeking for especial illustration of them. Our first extract shall be from some very elegant verses on a subject peculiarly American – "The Prairie." We quote the commencement and the conclusion. The last strikes us as singularly happy. Mr Bryant starts with rather an unfortunate expression; he calls the Prairie "the garden of the desert;" he rather meant "the garden-desert." He may describe the Prairie, if he pleases, as one green and blooming desert; but the garden of the desert implies a desert to which it belongs – would be an oasis, in short: —

THE PRAIRIES

"These are the gardens of the desert, theseThe unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,For which the speech of England has no name —The Prairies. I behold them for the first,And my heart swells while the dilated sightTakes in the encircling vastness. Lo! they stretchIn airy undulations far away,As if the ocean, in his gentlest swell,Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed,And motionless forever. Motionless?No! – they are all unchained again. The cloudsSweep over with the shadows, and beneathThe surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye;Dark hollows seem to glide along, and chaseThe sunny ridges…Still this great solitude is quick with life.Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowersThey flutter over, gentle quadrupeds,And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man,Are here, and sliding reptiles of the groundStartlingly beautiful. The graceful deerBounds to the wood at my approach. The bee,A more adventurous colonist than man,With whom he came across the Eastern deep,Fills the savannas with his murmurings,And hides his sweets, as in the golden age,Within the hollow oak. I listen longTo his domestic hum, and think I hearThe sound of that advancing multitudeWhich soon shall fill these deserts. From the groundComes up the laugh of children, the soft voiceOf maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymnOf Sabbath worshippers. The low of herdsBlends with the rustling of the heavy grainOver the dark brown furrows. All at onceA fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream,And I am in the wilderness alone."

It is a natural sentiment, though somewhat difficult to justify, which poets, and others than poets, entertain when they look about for some calm and beautiful spot, some green and sunny slope, for their final resting-place. Imagination still attributes something of sensation, or of consciousness, to what was once the warm abode of life. Mr Bryant, in a poem called "June," after indulging in this sentiment, gives us one of the best apologies for it we remember to have met with. There is much grace and pathos in the following verses: —

"I know, I know I should not seeThe seasons' glorious show,Nor would its brightness shine for me,Nor its wild music flow;But if around my place of sleep,The friends I love should come to weep,They might not haste to go.Soft airs, and song, and light and bloomShould keep them lingering by my tomb.These to their softened hearts should bearThe thought of what has been,And speak of one who cannot shareThe gladness of the scene;Whose part, in all the pomp that fillsThe circuit of the summer hills,Is – that his grave is green;And deeply would their hearts rejoiceTo hear again his living voice."

"The Lapse of Time" is a piece which might be quoted as a favourable specimen of Mr Bryant's poetry. It might also serve as an instance of its shortcoming– of its want of concentration – of a distinct, firm tone of thought. As it is not long, we will quote the whole of it. Our complaint of a certain weakness – the want of a steady and strong grasp of his subject – could not be less disagreeably illustrated, nor brought to a more rigid test. Our italics here are not complimentary, but simply serve the purpose of drawing attention to the train of thought or sentiment: —

THE LAPSE OF TIME

"Lament who will, in fruitless tears,The speed with which our moments fly;I sigh not over vanished years,But watch the years that hasten by.Look how they come– a mingled crowdOf bright and dark, but rapid days;Beneath them, like a summer cloud,The wide world changes as I gaze.What! grieve that time has brought so soonThe sober age of manhood on!As idly might I weep, at noon,To see the blush of morning gone.Could I give up the hopes that glowIn prospect like Elysian isles,And let the cheerful future go,With all her promises and smiles?The Future! cruel were the powerWhose doom would tear thee from my heart,Thou sweetener of the present hour!We cannot – no – we will not part.Oh, leave me still the rapid flightThat makes the changing seasons gay —The grateful speed that brings the night,The swift and glad return of day;The months that touch with added graceThis little prattler at my knee,In whose arch eye and speaking faceNew meaning every hour I see.The years that o'er each sister landShall lift the country of my birth,And nurse her strength till she shall standThe pride and pattern of the earth:Till younger commonwealths, for aid,Shall cling about her ample robe,And from her frown shall shrink afraidThe crowned oppressors of the globe.True – time will seam and blanch my brow;Well – I shall sit with aged men,And my good glass shall tell me howA grizzly beard becomes me then.And then should no dishonour lieUpon my head when I am grey,Love yet shall watch my fading eye,And smooth the path of my decay.Then, haste thee, Time – 'tis kindness allThat speeds thy wingèd feet so fast;Thy pleasures stay not till they pall,And all thy pains are quickly past.Thou fliest and bearest away our woes,And, as thy shadowy train depart,The memory of sorrow growsA lighter burden on the heart."

Brief as the poem is, it should have been divided into two; for it is a song of resignation and a song of hope mingled together. It must strike the least reflective reader that no man needs consolation for the lapse of time, who is occupied with hopeful anticipations of the future. It is because Time carries away our hopes with it, and leaves us the very tranquil pleasures of age, that we "sigh over vanished years." Every sentiment which Mr Bryant expresses in this poem is natural and reasonable; but it follows not that they should have been brought together within the compass of a few verses. At one moment we are looking at the past, or we are told not to grieve the next, we are called upon to sympathise in some unexpected rapture, by no means happily expressed, about the future– "The future!" &c., – as if some one had been threatening to cut us off from our golden anticipations. The only result we are left in unquestioned possession of is, that if the present time did not move on, the future could not advance. But it is not such an abstraction or truism as this, we presume, that the poet intended to teach; he intended to portray the natural sentiments which arise as we reflect on human life, whether passing or past, or as seen in the hopeful future; and these he should not have mingled confusedly together. It would be tedious to carry on the analysis any farther; but we may add, that it is hardly wise, in the same short poem, to speak rapturously of the Elysian glories of the future, and mournfully of "Time's shadowy train," which can be no other than these Elysian glories seen from behind.

"That time has brought so soonThe sober age of manhood on!"

Like Mr Longfellow, Mr Bryant is both a German and a Spanish scholar; and he has enriched his own collection of poems with some very pleasing translations. We are tempted to conclude our extracts from this poet by two brief specimens of these translations – the one from the Spanish, the other from the German: —

"Alexis calls me cruel —I would that I could utterMy feelings without shame,And tell him how I love him,Nor wrong my virgin fame.Alas! to seize the momentWhen heart inclines to heart,And press a suit with passion,Is not a woman's part.If man comes not to gatherThe roses where they stand,They fade among their foliage;They cannot seek his hand."

Here the maiden is very maidenly. Our next is far more piquant. We often hear of young ladies angling; they catch, and they are caught; and they are sometimes not a little frightened at their own success in this perilous species of angling. Uhland has put all this before us in a very pictorial manner, and Mr Bryant has very happily translated him —

"There sits a lovely maidenThe ocean murmuring nigh;She throws the hook and watchesThe fishes pass it by.A ring with a ring jewel,Is sparkling on her hand;Upon the hook she binds it,And flings it from the land.Uprises from the waterA hand like ivory fair.What gleams upon its finger?The golden ring is there.Uprises from the bottomA young and handsome knight;In golden scales he rises,That glitter in the light.The maid is pale with terror —'Nay, knight of ocean, nay,It was not thee I wanted;Let go the ring, I pray.''Ah, maiden, not to fishesThe bait of gold is thrown;The ring shall never leave me,And thou must be my own.'"

It cannot be complained of Mr Whittier's poems that they are not sufficiently national; but they are national in a very disagreeable point of view – they introduce us into the controversies of the day. Mr Whittier appears to be one of those who write verses, hymns, or odes, instead of, or perhaps in addition to, sundry speeches at popular assemblies in favour of some popular cause. His rhymes have the same relation to poetry that the harangues delivered at such meetings bear to eloquence. We were at a loss to understand on what wings (certainly not those of his poetic genius) he had flown hither, till we discovered that his intemperate zeal against slavery, as it exists in the southern States of America, had procured for him a welcome amongst a certain class of readers in England. If we insert his name here, it is simply to protest against the adoption by any party, but especially by any English party, of such blind, absurd, ungovernable zeal, upon a question as difficult and intricate as it is momentous. Both Mr Longfellow and Mr Bryant write upon slavery; and both have produced some very touching poems on the subject; but they treat the topic as poets. Mr Whittier treats the subject with the rabid fury of a fierce partisan. No story so preposterous or ridiculous but he can bend it to his purpose. He throws contumely upon the ministers of the gospel in the Southern States, because instead of attempting, every moment of their lives, to overthrow the unfortunate organisation of society that is there established, they endeavour to make the slave contented with his lot, and the master lenient in the exercise of his authority. Sentence of death was passed, it seems, on a man of the name of Brown, for assisting a slave to escape. The sentence was commuted, but this does not prevent Mr Whittier from hanging the man in his own imagination, and then, à propos of this imaginary execution, thus addressing the clergy of South Carolina: —