wanting in music and beauty; but it is beauty without an organic symmetry. As in "Maud," the parts of his poems are over-ornamented, burdened with what is delightful and joyous; but the whole poem has not that unity, and that fit jointure of part to part, and that focusing of all its impressions into one grand and all-commanding effect, which go to make the highest work of art.

The pictures of love in "Maud," and its songs of affection, its variety of metre and its richness of poetic form, its musical harmony and its glow | of feeling, show Tennyson at his best. It introduces a fresh poetic style, full of sensuous beauty guided by a pure moral aim, adding artistic skill to intellectual intent. It is a plea for higher national aims, didactic in purpose to a limited extent, but most poetic and romantic in method.

The satire which Tennyson introduces into "Maud" is not worthy of his genius, though it gives variety and relief to the poem. It is sharp and scathing, but not so expressed as to have an abiding effect on those for whom it is intended. It seems a discordant note in his work; not because we do not wish to see him stirred by hate of wrong, but because it is not relieved by that capacity for laughter which appears in the great

a

est poetry. Tennyson has the gift of pathos and sympathy, but not the gift of humor. His satire does not make the offender laugh at or hate .himself. It is not broad, genial, and corrective. His reproofs are resented, rather than accepted with insight into their truthfulness.

The beauties and the defects of "Maud" reappear in "The Princess." It has the same high artistic perfection, secured by many revisions and a keen ear for melody, joined to a similar ethical and reformatory purpose. "The Princess" has been severely criticised for its looseness of structure, and for its combination of a mediæval setting with a radical aim. Tennyson's skill is not to be seen in his plots, imperfectly worked out, but in his descriptions of nature, his insight and fidelity in the portrayal of character, and his exquisite charm of coloring.

While "The Princess" is a plea in behalf of a higher social life for women, and greater justice for them in all their relations to men, it is far from being revolutionary, or even radical, in its attitude. Its motive is that of harmony and unity in human life, to be obtained by a perfect cooperation and a common aim on the part of man and woman.

Till at the last she set herself to man

Like perfect music unto noble words.

It is the purpose of the poem to teach that

The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink
Together, dwarf'd or godlike, bond or free.

This solution of the problem of woman's destiny, though that of a poet, is the best and most satisfactory yet given us, so far as it goes. It is that of the perfect equality of the sexes, built up and conserved by mutual sympathy and helpfulness. This is the theory of all men and women who are true to the facts of life and the noblest social ideals. "The Princess" presents a lofty and a noble conception of love and domestic life, especially in the brief songs which appear at each turn in the narrative. Tennyson's gift of song has attained its greatest height in this poem, so full is it of tender pathos and the music of noble passion. Here, too, he shows his descriptive powers, his heroic impulse of heart, and his sympathy with what is genuine and generous, in full tide of ample expression.

V.

THE most widely read and loved of Tennyson's poems is "In Memoriam "; and it is the one which brings him into closer sympathy with the thought of his time than any other. Monotonous in subject and structure, it manifests variety and uniqueness in treatment. It seems, at first, to be nothing more than a series of short poems, following each other without order or purpose, and having for their general subject the death of a much-loved friend, and the problem of immortality. As a personal lamentation for a loved associate it is superior to even the similar poems of Milton, Shelley, and Matthew Arnold. It is superior because more genuine and unstudied, and more expressive of real human grief. It stands first in its beauty, its intensity of personal attachment, and in its lofty sense of the worth of friendship. Yet it is not

merely a lament for Hallam or a series of short poems thrown carelessly together; though far too much effort has been made to prove a complete unity of design and thought in the poem. In a fragmentary way the poem does indicate a systematic and continuous purpose; but there is no doubt that the separate poems were written during a period of many years, and that they are the genuine expressions of feeling as it took on new forms from time to time. To think otherwise is to suppose the poet made his grief merely a means of stimulating his muse to action.

The value of "In Memoriam " lies in the fact that it is a natural interpretation of the grief of a thoughtful man, who laments his friend in a genuine manner, and then gives utterance to his thoughts and feelings at each successive stage of his recovery from his first period of sadness and doubt. The criticism, that he has made merchandise of his grief, is amply deserved if the poem has such a unity of structure as some have discovered in it. To have written such a poem as these critics describe, Tennyson must have gained a capacity for plot and harmony of structure not to be found in any other of his poems. The significance of "In Memoriam," however, is not