554 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Idylls and other Poems," "Idylls of the Kiug," actually bear 

 the word " idyll " on then* forefront ; and others, like " Enoch 

 Arden" and " Aylmer's Field," are not less idyllic in tone. 

 Throughout the greater part of his career Tennyson's most im- 

 portant work has been cast in the form of the idyll. What, 

 then, is an idyll, and what is meant by an idyllic poet ? 



The word "idyll" in its origin means "picture," and the 

 idyllic style was discovered by Theocritus in the second 

 century B.C. His " idylls " are little pictures of the joys and 

 sorrows of country life, the life of the shepherd, the hunter, 

 the fisherman. The idyll, then, is essentially pictorial and de- 

 scriptive. It does not confess the deepest secrets of the indi- 

 vidual soul like the lyric ; nor, on the other hand, does it allow 

 the character to depict itself in action — that is the function 

 of the drama. The idyllic style stands outside that which it 

 pourtrays. The idyllic and the dramatic schools in poetry 

 stand in the same relation as the landscape and portrait 

 schools in painting. 



Now, there can be no doubt that in choosing this style 

 Tennyson accurately recognised the limitation of his own 

 powders. It was exactly suited to him in every respect. In 

 thought his master was Wordsworth, in art principally Keats, 

 though at the same time in his art he was eclectic, ranging 

 over all times and all literatures, and selecting with admirable 

 taste that which best suited him. The poetry of passion was 

 for the time exhausted. Tennyson is the poet of repose and 

 restraint, mastering his subject thoroughly and never allowing 

 it to master him. In all his work he shows the perfection of 

 proportion and good taste. With him there is not, as there is, 

 for example, with Byron, any hurried work, any poem begun 

 without any definite idea as to how it is to end. Every piece 

 of work is filed and refiled, polished and repolished, until it 

 stands flawless, smooth to the nail. At the same time this 

 very perfection is a limited perfection. If Tennyson's restraint 

 and repose prevent him from falling below the level, they also 

 prevent him from rising above it. He lacks those glorious 

 spontaneous outbursts which electrify us in Byron. I do not 

 in any way blame Tennyson for not attempting to transcend 

 the limitations imposed on him by temjperament. He shows 

 his intense feeling for art in not attempting what lay beyond 

 him. At the same time a distinction must be made. A carved 

 gem may be a more finished work of art than a noble statue, 

 and yet there will remain no question as to which is the 

 grander. 



Let us now turn to the other side. I have just shown how 

 Tennyson owed his first successes to his mastery of the tech- 

 nique of his art. In Browning we have a man who from the 

 first was a rebel against form. The limitations imposed by 



