Hearts of Controversy
Contents:
Some Thoughts of a Reader of Tennyson
Dickens as a Man of Letters
Swinburne's Lyrical Poetry
Charlotte and Emily Bronte
Charmian
The Century of Moderation
SOME THOUGHTS OF A READER OF TENNYSON
Fifty years after Tennyson's birth he was saluted a great poet by
that unanimous acclamation which includes mere clamour. Fifty
further years, and his centenary was marked by a new detraction. It
is sometimes difficult to distinguish the obscure but not unmajestic
law of change from the sorry custom of reaction. Change hastes not
and rests not, reaction beats to and fro, flickering about the
moving mind of the world. Reaction--the paltry precipitancy of the
multitude--rather than the novelty of change, has brought about a
ferment and corruption of opinion on Tennyson's poetry. It may be
said that opinion is the same now as it was in the middle of the
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