12 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
There could be no greater contrast to such an art as this than is 
presented by Browning. The author of Sordello turns away from the 
simple and natural to search for the striking and peculiar. Not only 
in his choice of subjects is he fond of oddities, but in his language 
he seems almost to strive to be involved and difficult. But if he is 
thus less attractive, to those who will overlook these things he pre- 
sents a rich harvest to be reaped. In the number and power of his 
character-studies he is second only to Shakspere ; and his writings 
contain many passages of exceeding beauty, not only of thought, but 
of language also. He may aptly be called the Wagner of poetry. 
Mr. Matthew Arnold's writings are full of a most delicate and 
subtle charm, the product of a sensitive and highly-refined mind. 
Except among readers of some culture he will probably never be 
very popular. Though not much accustomed to prophesying, we 
will venture to predict that when the post of Poet Laureate be- 
comes vacant, the laurel crown, which now adorns the brow of 
Alfred Tennyson, will descend to Matthew Arnold. 
Among lesser stars we may mention Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the 
poet-painter, whose death occurred only a short time ago. Little 
as he has written, he will not soon be forgotten, while there are 
readers left who love the weird and mystic, of which we have no 
finer specimens in English than some of his ballads, and his beautiful 
poem Rose Mary. In him and in William Morris we have the 
poetic side of that mediaeval revival which in the art world is 
known under the name of Pre-Raphaelitism. In the latter — " the 
idle singer of an empty day," as he calls himself — we find a love 
and worship of beauty for its own sake ; of beautiful images and 
ideas apart from all question of their moral worth, which form a 
striking contrast to the " obstinate questionings," the probing of the 
inmost recesses of the heart, the unfolding of the secret motives 
of action, which is carried to such a pitch in Browning. 
Nor ought we to pass by in silence Swinburne, whose muse 
(unique in this among living English poets) is of a Radical and 
Republican turn, as we see in his Songs Before Sunrise. He is an 
ardent disciple of Yictor Hugo ; his sympathies are cosmopolitan, 
and he is as eager a watcher for the " dawn " of Republican free- 
dom in Italy and other Continental countries as in our own 
England. He is chiefly noticeable, not so much for his matter, as 
for his peculiar power of expression, the melody and flexibility of 
his language, which enables him in Erechtheus to give us an 
