SWINBURNE* S TRAGEDIES. 193 



sentiment, a genuine touch of nature, the effect of the 

 whole is unpleasant with the faults of the worst school of 

 modern poetry the physically intense school, as we should 

 be inclined to call it, of which Mrs. Browning s &quot; Aurora 

 Leigh &quot; is the worst example, whose muse is a fast young 

 woman with the lavish ornament and somewhat overpower 

 ing perfume of the demi-monde, and which pushes expres 

 sion to the last gasp of sensuous exhaustion. They forget 

 that convulsion is not energy, and that words, to hold fire, 

 must first catch it from vehement heat of thought, while 

 no artificial fervours of phrase can make the charm work 

 backward to kindle the mind of writer or reader. An over 

 mastering passion no longer entangles the spiritual being of 

 its victim in the burning toils of a retribution fore-doomed 

 in its own nature, purifying us with the terror and pity of 

 a soul in its extremity, as the great masters were wont to 

 set it before us ; no, it must be fleshly, corporeal, must 

 &quot; bite with small white teeth &quot; and draw blood, to satisfy 

 the craving of our modern inquisitors, who torture lan 

 guage instead of wooing it to confess the secret of its witch 

 craft. That books written on this theory should be 

 popular, is one of the worst signs of the times ; that they 

 should be praised by the censors of literature shows how 

 seldom criticism goes back to first principles, or is even 

 aware of them how utterly it has forgotten its most 

 earnest function of demolishing the high places where the 

 unclean rites of Baal and Ashtaroth usurp on the worship 

 of the one only True and Pure. 



&quot; Atalanta in Calydon &quot; is in every respect better than 

 its forerunner. It is a true poem, and seldom breaks from 

 the maidenly reserve which should characterise the higher 

 forms of poetry, even in the keenest energy of expression. 

 If the blank verse be a little mannered and stiff, reminding 

 one of Landor in his attempts to reproduce the antique, 

 the lyrical parts are lyrical in the highest sense, graceful, 

 flowing, and generally simple in sentiment and phrase. 

 There are some touches of nature in the mother s memories 

 of Althea, so sweetly pathetic that they go as right to the 



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